It’s very much outside the box for a coffee shop business like Starbucks to talk about delivering the drinks to your door but that’s what’s happening this weekend. Starbucks has announced plans for coffee and food delivery services. It would not seem to pay Starbucks to mount such a service but this may be the catch: the delivery will be available to Starbucks loyalty program members as part of a mobile order and pay app. What this means is that the coffee and food will be paid for in advance, maybe quite a lot in advance, with money loaded onto a card. The scheme will launch nationwide next year. Will it do better than “lunch is ready?” Starbucks is good when it comes to coffee but many people would rather pay them to take the food away. CEO Howard Schultz called the service “e-commerce on steroids.”
