Five Reasons Why I Love Starbucks Mobile Order

I think that the new Starbucks Mobile Order feature is the best thing to hit my iPhone this year.

Now out of beta testing and available nationwide, this handy features resolves most of my #firstworldproblems when it comes to Starbucks for five reasons.

1. No lines – I may have just gotten back an entire day of my time when I consider that my average Starbucks stop used to be about 6 minutes (from the time in line through the wait) and I hit Starbucks, on average, 5-6 days a week.  (6*5.5*52 =1,716 – 28.6 hours of my life)  I’m excited to think about what I can do with that extra time.  I now find the nearest Starbucks on my phone a few minutes before I want my drink.  Order/pay then walk in and pick it up from the barista.  Its amazing.  I used it in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, ordering as I walked out of my hotel and down the hill to my office.  I picked it up on my way and only lost about 30 seconds on the detour.  That’s magic.
2. No messed up drinks – I’m one of those difficult customers where nothing is as simple as “tall drip”.  No, mine is the “venti pumpkin spice chai with no water and light foam” or something equally complex.  And it never tasted quite the same even when an order taker/cup writer managed to get the instructions right.  Now I can customize my drink down to the number of pumps of syrup or finishing instructions.  No weird looks from other customers.  No worrying about interpretation.  It’s the same drink every time.
3. No disappointments – One of the frustrations I get with specialty drinks is that individual locations occasionally run out of ingredients or get them late (as was the case with my beloved eggnog last red cup season).  The mobile system knows what each individual Starbucks has and won’t let you order if they are out of a drink ingredient.  I tend to get flustered if I have to change my order on the spot so this saves me the embarrassment in line.
4. Bonus stars – If you participate in Starbucks loyalty program (My Starbucks Rewards) – and why wouldn’t you?! – they have been offering bonus star promotions this fall with mobile ordering.  I’ve picked up at least three free drinks courtesy of the extra stars.
5. Easy use – Seriously.  No lines?  Check.  No cash needed?  Check.  Remembers all your drink combinations?  Check.  Finds the nearest Starbucks and tells you how long the wait for a drink will be?  Check.  Its even easy to pick up a drink for your difficult colleague or friend (like me) because you can enter their order in advance and not worry about getting it right.

My favorite part every morning is breezing right past the long line of patrons and walking straight up to the barista and grabbing my drink.  Starbucks Mobile Order has further streamlined my morning routine.

Now if they could just make finding a parking space that easy!