Starbucks’ Drive-Through Service Attracts the Regulars

Leaning out the window of her SUV, Tami Cornwell orders the same drink she gets almost every day: “Double-tall, four-pump vanilla caramel macchiato.”

A high-tech recruiter, she’s gotten hooked on the drive-through service that Starbucks Corp. is offering at a growing number of its stores.

“On weekends, I like to go into the store,” she said one morning at a Starbucks drive-through north of downtown on her way to work. “On the weekdays, it’s more about convenience and caffeine.”

The world’s largest specialty coffee chain once shunned the drive-through concept, fearing that it might alienate customers who like to come inside and sip their lattes while listening to music in cozy chairs.

In the early 1990s, as independent espresso stands were starting to gain a steady following, Starbucks stuck to its original game plan: giving people a “third place” to escape from the hustle and bustle of home and work.

Eventually, it became hard to ignore coffee lovers’ demand for a quick java fix without leaving the warmth of their cars.

“We have a habit of giving customers what they want, and when a customer has six kids in their car or their favorite pets and it’s raining or snowing, that’s creating an experience for them that will want to make them use a drive-through,” said Jim Donald, Starbucks’ president and chief executive.

Starbucks started testing out the drive-through market in 1994, first offering the service in Southern California. Within a few years, it had dozens of stores offering drive-through service doing brisk business.

By Oct. 2, the end of the 2005 fiscal year, nearly 15% of Starbucks’ 7,300 U.S. stores offered drive-through service.

Drive-through stores will continue to add to Starbucks’ bottom line, making up about half of the new stores the company opens domestically over the next few years, Donald said. Starbucks would not disclose how much the drive-through business has boosted its revenue, although Donald said that in general, drive-through outlets tended to post higher first-year sales, averaging about $1 million, compared to about $715,000 for traditional stores.

Bruce Milletto, president of Bellissimo Coffee InfoGroup in Portland, Ore., said he was surprised it took this long for Starbucks to get into the drive-through business.

His consulting firm has helped thousands of small businesses open coffee shops and drive-throughs over the last 15 years, he said.

He’s gotten used to hearing clients sneer at Starbucks, denouncing the company as a corporate giant that’s bound to try to put them out of business. He tries to convince them that it’s not such a David versus Goliath competition.

“Starbucks is oftentimes, to the small independent coffee entrepreneur, thought of as the devil to the industry. What most people don’t realize is that without Starbucks, the industry wouldn’t have exploded as it has,” Milletto said.

But Mark Weber, owner of Scooter’s Espresso in Seattle’s Pinehurst neighborhood, said Starbucks’ growing drive-through presence was making it harder for independent coffee shops.

“They take away a lot of business” from the small operations, he said. “They were the only game in town for years, so they’ve built up their market share.... They’re masters at marketing, no doubt about it.”

Critics have long derided Starbucks as the McDonald’s of coffee, especially with the drive-through window.

Donald bristles at such a suggestion.

“We are not the McDonald’s of anything,” he said. “The drive-through is another convenience for our customers as we want them to enjoy a great cup of coffee.”