Business

Hate Lines? Starbucks Wants To Bring Its Coffee To You

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Grace Carr Reporter
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Starbucks is preparing to offer a delivery service in 2019 so customers don’t have to wait in line — or even leave the house.

Starbucks is partnering with UberEats food delivery service to bring customers anything from iced dolce cinnamon lattes to blonde caffe Americanos to breakfast sandwiches and cake pops. The delivery services are expected to start at a quarter of its U.S. stores, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

UberEats is an app that partners with restaurants to deliver food, and serves customers in select locations across North and South America, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and Africa.

The move comes after Starbucks began test runs in Miami with UberEats in September, TheWSJ reported. The company hopes coffee delivery will expand its U.S. market and increase sales.

The service is also widely available in China.

Starbucks’ delivery operations include using containers that help control temperature and splashing, TheWSJ reported. (RELATED: Starbucks Bathrooms Are Now Open To All Following Recent Scandal)

Starbucks has not publicly stated how much it will charge for delivery and if that fee will be a flat rate or accord with the size of the order. UberEats, however, usually charges a delivery fee.

Starbucks’ shares fell 4 percent Friday, according to TheWSJ, and the coffee company plans to lay off roughly 5 percent of its global corporate workforce in an effort to streamline operations.

“We’re simplifying the business to accelerate the velocity of innovation,” Starbucks Chief Executive Kevin Johnson told TheWSJ.

A waitress prepares a beverage at a branch of Starbucks coffee in Tokyo, Japan August 13, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Starbucks already offers a mobile app that allows customers to pre-order and avoid lines when they arrive at the store for pickup. A grande — that’s Starbucks lingo for medium — iced coffee goes for about $3.25.

Postmates is another delivery app through which consumers can order Starbucks. The app advises users that “price may vary by location.” For a grande iced coffee, it would cost $3.45 plus a $1.99 “small cart fee.” Add on a $5.99 delivery fee and 97-cent tax, and the total is $12.40. The delivery time for a Starbucks 150 feet away was 20 to 30 minutes at press time.

Starbucks did not immediately respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

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