Starbucks customers can now use own cups for drive-thru, mobile orders. How it works
Starbucks is inviting customers to bring their own cups to its stores, no matter how they order.
Starting Jan. 3, customers can use “any clean, personal cup” for drive-thru and mobile orders at participating Starbucks stores across the U.S, the coffee giant announced. The chain also launched its anticipated new winter menu.
The personal cup option was previously available in-store only, allowing coffee lovers to order any standard size beverage — hot, iced or blended — in a reusable cup.
Customers who bring their own cup get 10 cents off their drink order, and reward members receive 25 bonus stars to redeem on future purchases, according to the coffee chain.
Starbucks said the move is part of its effort to cut its plastic waste in half by 2030.
“Offering customers more options to use a personal cup when they visit Starbucks marks tangible progress towards the future,” Michael Kobori, chief sustainability officer at Starbucks, said in a statement.
“We know our customers are passionate about the planet, and now, they can join us in our efforts to give more than we take, no matter how they order.”
How will it work?
When ordering in-store, customers can tell baristas they brought their own cup and hand it to them at the counter, according to Starbucks’ website.
Those who prefer the drive-thru will order like normal, making sure to inform baristas they brought their personal cup.
“At the pickup window, baristas will collect customers’ personal cup without the lid using a contactless vessel to ensure hygiene and safety,” Starbucks said, adding that the cup will be returned the same way.
Starbucks customers who order on the app will hit the “Customization” button and select the “personal cup” option before continuing their order, according to the coffee chain’s website.
After arriving at the store, customers should go to the pick-up area with their clean cup ready to hand to a barista. The barista will fill the order and return the cup in a contactless vessel, the chain said.
‘Not sustainable for partners’
Starbucks said it’s the first coffeehouse to give customers the option to use their personal cup on mobile orders. Last spring, the chain tested the option at 200 Starbucks drive-thrus in Colorado and other markets, according to its website.
The change isn’t expected to impact customer wait times “as long as we are following all our procedures and steps,” Brook, a barista at one of the Colorado stores that participated in the tests, said in a Starbucks news release.
Some union employees are worried about the strain the new reusable cup policy could put on baristas, however.
As is, the policy “is not sustainable for partners, especially considering we currently have no way of making multiple drinks at a time with this method,” Cadence Castro, a member of Starbucks Workers United who works at a store in Manchester, Connecticut, told McClatchy News in a statement.
Fellow union member Jet, a four-year employee at a Starbucks in Vernon, Connecticut, lauded Starbucks’ efforts to reduce single-use plastics but pointed to ongoing staffing issues at stores nationwide.
“Implementing this at a time in which we are understaffed, underpaid, and overworked is going to be rough on us partners with needing to learn a new process and keep up with it on top of our flow and usual work,” Jet said.
This story was originally published January 3, 2024 at 1:02 PM with the headline "Starbucks customers can now use own cups for drive-thru, mobile orders. How it works."