U.S. News

2609 readers

28 users here now

News about and pertaining to the United States and its people.

Please read what's functionally the mission statement before posting for the first time. We have a narrower definition of news than you might be accustomed to.

Guidelines for submissions:

Post the original source of information as the link.
If there is any Nazi imagery in the linked story, mark your post NSFW.
Advocating violence is not allowed on Beehaw in general.
If there is a paywall, provide an archive link in the body.
Post using the original headline; edits for clarity (as in providing crucial info a clickbait hed omits) are fine.
Social media is not a news source.

For World News, see the News community.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

rs5th@beehaw.org

Powderhorn@beehaw.org

Starbucks bets on robots to brew a turnaround and win customers (www.bbc.com)

submitted 1 week ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/usnews@beehaw.org

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Americans pulling into a Starbucks drive‑thru may be greeted by a friendly staff member. But at some locations, it is actually an AI robot entering the orders.

Behind the counter inside the store, baristas can lean on a virtual personal assistant to recall recipes or manage schedules.

In the back of the shop, a scanning tool has taken on the painstaking process of counting the inventory, relieving staff of one of retail's most tedious chores, in a bid to fix the out-of-stock gaps that have frustrated the firm.

The new technology is part of the hundreds of millions of dollars the 55-year-old coffee giant has been investing as it tries to win back customers after several years of struggling sales.

And there are signs that the effort is working.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Quexotic@beehaw.org 1 points 6 days ago

Sounds like the typical enshittification. Driven by beating last quarter's numbers, they push to drive more and more sales until they've optimized the employees and customers to death at which point they cease to be viable and hopefully are bought and sold for parts by private equity, making room for actual good coffee shops with cushions.