Safeway Removing Starbucks Kiosks

[Alpha8472]

Safeway will probably only remove a small number of Starbucks kiosks in stores that don't have space. Perhaps there will be more room for the "About 15 Items" self checkout now that the kiosk is gone.

[reymann]

The larger kiosks are being required as part of the remodel program for Albertsons. They want to start phasing out the remaining lifestyle decor stores in the coming years.

[babs]

The larger kiosks are being required as part of the remodel program for Albertsons. They want to start phasing out the remaining lifestyle decor stores in the coming years.

You are probably right. All of the newer Starbucks kiosks are substantially larger and much more open. Some of the old ones were really cramped and looked chaotic.

[ClownLoach]

Safeway will probably only remove a small number of Starbucks kiosks in stores that don't have space. Perhaps there will be more room for the "About 15 Items" self checkout now that the kiosk is gone.

That picture says it all. Front wall with lots of glass. They probably have very limited space up front for delivery and drive up and go orders. Repurposing the prep and storage room would probably be a huge help, and there isn't enough room there for the modern kiosk without removing additional registers. Problem solved.

Is the site allowing upload of pictures again? I just don't want to set up a separate photo service. Pictures help decipher so many of these questions.

[ClownLoach]

The larger kiosks are being required as part of the remodel program for Albertsons. They want to start phasing out the remaining lifestyle decor stores in the coming years.

It's a Starbucks program not an Albertsons program. They're doing the same kiosk swap outs in Kroger stores. And I'm about 90% sure they did this swap at the Long Beach Diagonal Vons (ex Pavilions) when they repainted the existing Lifestyle. Albertsons has a lot of older and less desirable stuff out there to fix before Lifestyle which can be easily tuned up. The handful of PFH and LLC decor stores still out there are really long in the tooth. And they don't seem to be making any progress on that new Modern Jewel decor either.

[storewanderer]

They should terminate a lot of these grocery store licenses. Not just Safeway. Across the board. I frequently see these kiosks not staffed (across the board) and/or closing early and due to so few trained employees they have no back up. Some of them charge higher prices than a freestanding Starbucks nearby (Safeway). Not all of them accept mobile ordering (Safeway...).

Any kiosk that does so little volume that it can only have one employee on duty probably needs to be terminated. It isn't worth it, isn't run properly, and probably doesn't make the store any money either.

The higher volume kiosks (Safeway and Target have some of these) that often run with 3-4 employees are fine and those aren't the issue.

Back when Starbucks had that deal to get a kiosk into every Safeway during the Lifestyle program, Starbucks would actually close freestanding stores to "help Safeway" nearby out. They did this in Sparks, Mammoth Lakes, North Lake Tahoe, Fallon, and who knows where else across their network. That was a mistake. They should have terminated the Safeway kiosks and kept the corporate stores open.

[ClownLoach]

They should terminate a lot of these grocery store licenses. Not just Safeway. Across the board. I frequently see these kiosks not staffed (across the board) and/or closing early and due to so few trained employees they have no back up. Some of them charge higher prices than a freestanding Starbucks nearby (Safeway). Not all of them accept mobile ordering (Safeway...).

Any kiosk that does so little volume that it can only have one employee on duty probably needs to be terminated. It isn't worth it, isn't run properly, and probably doesn't make the store any money either.

The higher volume kiosks (Safeway and Target have some of these) that often run with 3-4 employees are fine and those aren't the issue.

Back when Starbucks had that deal to get a kiosk into every Safeway during the Lifestyle program, Starbucks would actually close freestanding stores to "help Safeway" nearby out. They did this in Sparks, Mammoth Lakes, North Lake Tahoe, Fallon, and who knows where else across their network. That was a mistake. They should have terminated the Safeway kiosks and kept the corporate stores open.

Starbucks is aggressively hiring District Managers who will be their own corporate employees but will oversee and enforce their standards on all of the licensed stores in a market. They are very much aware of the problems with the licensed stores, but if they follow process and procedure they should not be as problematic as they currently are. I also expect Starbucks to stop allowing the one employee staffing. They're adding staffing back into the corporate stores for the new programs, so I would expect they're going to demand it of licensed operations. The old kiosks were built for single person operation, the new ones have enough separation to need a cashier and a barista. But for Starbucks with all the labor issues these are a godsend. Union votes apparently are accelerating again with a sudden and drastic jump to surpassing 500 unionized stores and pretty much 5 to 10 more votes each week.

[storewanderer]

Starbucks is aggressively hiring District Managers who will be their own corporate employees but will oversee and enforce their standards on all of the licensed stores in a market. They are very much aware of the problems with the licensed stores, but if they follow process and procedure they should not be as problematic as they currently are. I also expect Starbucks to stop allowing the one employee staffing. They're adding staffing back into the corporate stores for the new programs, so I would expect they're going to demand it of licensed operations. The old kiosks were built for single person operation, the new ones have enough separation to need a cashier and a barista. But for Starbucks with all the labor issues these are a godsend. Union votes apparently are accelerating again with a sudden and drastic jump to surpassing 500 unionized stores and pretty much 5 to 10 more votes each week.

They had those District Managers who oversaw licensed units in the past. Did they eliminate them? I have had multiple complaints over casino Starbucks over the years and have always been put in touch with a Starbucks District Manager who is a corporate employee regarding the complaints. Haven't had one of these complaints now in 4-5 years... so maybe something changed.

We will see how the flow of those union votes continues going forward. Did they align with Teamsters or some other established effective union yet?

[ClownLoach]

Starbucks is aggressively hiring District Managers who will be their own corporate employees but will oversee and enforce their standards on all of the licensed stores in a market. They are very much aware of the problems with the licensed stores, but if they follow process and procedure they should not be as problematic as they currently are. I also expect Starbucks to stop allowing the one employee staffing. They're adding staffing back into the corporate stores for the new programs, so I would expect they're going to demand it of licensed operations. The old kiosks were built for single person operation, the new ones have enough separation to need a cashier and a barista. But for Starbucks with all the labor issues these are a godsend. Union votes apparently are accelerating again with a sudden and drastic jump to surpassing 500 unionized stores and pretty much 5 to 10 more votes each week.

They had those District Managers who oversaw licensed units in the past. Did they eliminate them? I have had multiple complaints over casino Starbucks over the years and have always been put in touch with a Starbucks District Manager who is a corporate employee regarding the complaints. Haven't had one of these complaints now in 4-5 years... so maybe something changed.

We will see how the flow of those union votes continues going forward. Did they align with Teamsters or some other established effective union yet?

Starbucks had people observing these stores but they had a large territory so supervision was minimal and stores would seldom be visited. The impression I got from the job ads more recently was that they were increasing headcount and reducing store count for better supervision. The chains have their own protocols for supervising these too but obviously it's inadequate.

Don't even get me started on the casino Starbucks locations in Las Vegas. Obviously the license fee and share is too expensive so the price to the customer is absurdly high, averaging over $8 for basic Grande size drinks and pushing $10 or more for a Trenta. Last time I wanted a Refresher so I walked to the Fashion Show mall which is a company store and it was half the price plus service was superb and they happily gave me free Trenta ice water to refill my water bottle. It feels like these casino locations are sitting closed for most of the days hours and they're a waste of space. I think the big casino companies thought they'd make a fortune selling cold Frappuccino drinks in the heat of the day and it proved wrong. I expect to see a lot of these close over time as I just don't see the productivity of the spaces. You know how fast casinos close restaurants that aren't pulling their weight, and that is what makes the Starbucks thing baffling. If that space was anything else it would have closed a long, long time ago in 9 out of 10 locations.

The Union has splintered and now it is multiple start up ones, there is Starbucks Workers United but there is some different one now with a variation on that name that represents some stores too. I figure once they hit a thousand stores the larger unions like Teamsters might become more interested in affiliating. It is odd because the unions fell out of the news once that Laxman CEO came in, but the truth is they have unionized more stores during his short tenure than before. So it seemed like they were settling down but not the case at all. Ironically I think from the warnings and withdrawal of guidance given by the new CEO he understands they cut labor so much that they are losing customers, then they raised prices through the roof to try to cover up the losses each quarter and it blew up. But it sounds like he wants to give them what they want anyway, more staffing and fixing the mind-numbingly stupid way their mobile order system works. So then the question will become do they still need the union, or do the employees flock to the union even more because they perceive the union as having fixed the situation when it was really untenable for everyone involved?

If you've seen a next generation Dunkin Donuts store, their mobile order system is absolutely amazing. They don't make the order till you arrive. But there is some kind of engineering in the app, Bluetooth antennas, GPS etc. so when you pull into the drive thru lane it detects your presence so if it's a large order they start working ahead. For normal orders once you get to the speaker/menu board screen, the entire screen changes and greets you by name as it connects with the app, for example "Welcome Back ClownLoach, we've got your order! Please Pull Forward." By the time you get to the window they're usually just finishing your drink, it's just as fast or faster than if you had ordered via the speaker. No chaos for the restaurant of drinks being prepared in the order the tickets print, etc. which greatly lowers the stress for everyone. It makes Starbucks label printing system and mass prep process look completely antiquated. It also solves the heart of the problem: people don't like waiting, but they don't like a bad/low quality drink either like a hot drink that is cold and vice versa. If they can make the drinks fast with the automated equipment at Dunkin, which is pretty much what Starbucks is installing in new and remodeled stores going forward, then they can stop pre-making the mobile order drinks and produce them to order thus addressing the quality issue. I imagine they're going to need to do something different with top volume stores, but many of those with drive thrus already have 3 or 4 espresso machines and multiple stations for everything anyway but Starbucks doesn't give them adequate staffing so they just jump all over the place as they have to produce the drink tickets in the order they print. Fix that so one counter is in store orders, one is in store mobile pickup, and the big one is drive thru with staffing for each and the problem is solved, which is how Chipotle fixed their issues (separate prep lines).

[ClownLoach]

This story about a just remodeled Albertsons in Shreveport shows the "new" format Starbucks kiosk if you click thru the pictures. This one is a silver kiosk. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with the store shown since it supposedly was just fully remodeled and has LLC decor, but it supposedly took 9 months to redo?

https://www.shreveportbossieradvocate.c ... b691e.html