Starbucks Debuts New Delivery Service

People have to be enrolled in the Starbucks loyalty program to place orders online for the delivery service.

“In dense, urban environments like office buildings, we believe we’ve cracked the code on another way to bring Starbucks to our customers, and that’s to have baristas on hand to provide an exclusive service within an office building – this will be great in places like New York City”, Starbucks chief digital officer Adam Brotman told shareholders earlier this year, when the company announced it would test Green Apron Delivery. Orders are made with the customer’s reward account and are delivered within 30 minutes.

If the pilot project goes well, a broader roll-out of Green Aprons Delivery is expected.

Will Starbucks make the new service available in the United States?

The new service at the Empire State Building is named Green Apron Delivery, and offers building tenants the chance to order from a menu of fresh-brewed coffee, espresso beverages, breakfast sandwiches and lunch choices using a dedicated Starbucks-branded web site.

The new store isn’t your typical Starbucks, though, mainly because you can’t walk inside.

“They could, but right now we’re asking our partners to politely decline (tips)”, said Haley Drage, a Starbucks spokeswoman. Through October, the delivery option is free, and it will cost $2 per coffee run starting next month.

The requests will be placed through the Starbucks mobile application, relayed to the stores, and delivered by Postmates.

The packages will be transported by Starbucks runners to specific locations, such as the common area or the reception desk of the customer’s office. Drage said that the company is waving the delivery fee for the rest of October. That includes the company’s recent national rollout of mobile ordering, which lets people place orders ahead of time so their food and drinks are waiting for them when they arrive at their designated store.

With the new delivery service, the moment of connection between customer and barista has been moved from our home to their office but everything else remains the same.