News

Starbucks expanding US, global delivery service

January 22, 2019

Starbucks is expanding delivery service to an additional six cities across the United States and will test it in London. The expansion, in partnership with Uber Eats, began Monday in San Francisco, the first of six new markets to offer the service to customers, according to a company press release. 

"We know we have untapped customer demand for Starbucks Delivers in the U.S. and starting today, we're expanding our best-in-class experience to our customers both in and out of our stores," Roz Brewer, group president and chief operating officer for Starbucks, said in the release. "We're building on key learnings from past delivery pilots and by integrating our ordering technology directly with Uber Eats, we've unlocked the ability to bring Starbucks to customers for those times when they're not able to come to us."

Following an initial test last year in Miami, the company is on track to bring Starbucks Delivers to nearly one-quarter of U.S. company-operated stores, with planned expansion to select stores in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks. In total, Starbucks Delivers will be available in seven U.S. cities this spring, according to the release.

The chain is soon launching a limited pilot in London, which will be the first of its kind for Starbucks in Europe and will affect a small number of company-operated stores. Additional global markets with delivery initiatives include India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Mexico, Colombia and Chile, according to the release.

Through a partnership with Alibaba and on-demand food delivery service Ele.me, Starbucks chose China as the first country to test Starbucks Delivers. It launched in August 2018, and by the end of the year was available from 2,000 Chinese stores as well as from select units is Tokyo and Miami.