Starbucks making changes to mobile ordering putting an end to some drink orders
Starbucks is implementing yet another change in 2025 — this time to its mobile ordering system.In an attempt to speed up service, the coffee company is decreasing the number of maximum number of items customers can order online from 15 to 12, Starbucks confirmed to TODAY.Users on the Starbucks app and website will also no longer be able to make certain modifications.Adding a splash of milk or lemonade to a classic Refresher is not an option anymore, and the option to order caffè americano without water has also been nixed, Bloomberg first reported.According to the outlet, this is because these modifications are included in beverages that already exist on the menu.Starbucks noted that about three-quarters of customized beverages have fewer than three modifications — and this doesn’t mean customization is gone for good.Customers can still personalize their drinks by adding cold foam and syrups for an Americano, for example, as well as other options, the app shows.The coffee giant is reportedly implementing these changes to reduce wait times, make a better ordering experience for customers and soften the workload for baristas.Baristas and patrons alike have been complaining about the mobile ordering system for years, saying that it’s had a negative impact on the Starbucks experience.“As a customer, I hate what mobile ordering has done to the cafe experience,” one person wrote on the Starbucks sub-Reddit page two years ago.“It really seems like the mobile ordering changed the dynamic in the cafe.
No longer are there people actually sitting in the cafe, it’s just people hugging the wall while staring down the baristas, and impatiently waiting,” they continued.“The customers are baristas both seem miserable.”An employee confessed on Reddit in May 2024 that they “should not be feeling like I walked into a burning building every time I start my shift.”“I should not be asked to stay well over what I was originally scheduled for almost every day...