Staffing issues at Starbucks lead to long waits

Starbucks is often a staple for morning coffees or a quick work break, and many expect to get their drinks and treats quickly. However, workers are complaining that they can’t be as speedy as customers expect.

Daniela Sirtori, a reporter for Bloomberg , explained that these workers said wait times are up to 40 minutes due to a new algorithm throwing a wrench into the works. She joined KCBS Radio this week to dive into the issue.

“The workers that we talked to said that they are noticing that, you know, compared to perhaps even a year ago, they have fewer people… making beverages,” Sirtori said. “A lot of them pointed to the afternoon times.
It is true that this doesn’t sound like an unfamiliar, you know, story across the restaurant industry.

In the company’s last earnings call, it even noted that customers have been complaining about wait times. Starbucks also reported a sales decline for the first time since 2020, though that could also be attributed to inflationary conditions .

“So you can see how an issue that maybe is playing out across the industry does have particular urgency for Starbucks,” said Sirtori.

However, the company seems to be dedicated to relying on the algorithm employees think is causing stores to be understaffed, thus leading to wait issues.

“Starbucks said that… it’s not understaffed and that they have a, you know, sophisticated model or sophisticated algorithm that they use to figure out how many people they need in the stores,” Sirtori told KCBS Radio. She said the company is well aware of its capacity issue and that they are looking into ways to fix it – including changing the order in which they make drinks.

For example, baristas could start brewing espresso – one of the most time-consuming tasks they tackle – at the start of orders, Sirtori said.
Still, the Starbucks workforce has shrunk by 29,000 in recent years, in part because the company now requires workers to put in at least 12 hours per week.

“That was one of the contributors,” Sirtori said. “Just to zoom out a little bit, of course, during the pandemic, a lot of companies, not just Starbucks, were hiring a ton of people just because the virus was so unpredictable.”

Another issue impacting the Starbucks workforce in recent years is unionization. Audacy has been following efforts to unionize at Starbucks , including a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) administrative ruling that the company violated federal labor laws in wrongly firing 10 employees who were involved with unionization efforts.

“They talk about this,” said Sirtori. “Both scheduling, which is how many hours you work, and staffing, which is how many people you have on the floor working with you, are tough issues for them.”