Anyone who attends Thompson Rivers University (TRU), whether student, faculty, or even support staff has probably experienced or been a bystander to the Starbucks run by Aramark. For those who have not had the pleasure of witnessing this business and how it operates, it is notorious for being slow. From overhearing of individuals in the line, to classmates in classrooms it is the number one complaint. Some students mention waiting in line for twenty minutes just to secure their warm pick-me-up cup of coffee, which as a result makes these students late for their own classes. Often the joke among peers is ‘better not have a class within the next hour, or you will be late.’ gets passed around. In this article, I am hoping to investigate why the wait times seem to be slower than other locations in the Kamloops area. I plan to talk with the staff at the TRU campus Starbucks to get a better look into the shoes they fill. This will be cross referenced with an employee at another location within the Kamloops vicinity.
When I arrived at campus on Monday morning to get information from the employees at the university’s Starbucks, the line had already filled up to the front doors. It was only 9:20 a.m., and it would appear everyone was either in line for a coffee break between their classes, or getting their first dose of energy for the day. This made being able to talk to the employees a little more difficult than anticipated. Then coming in on Friday, the line immediately starts to pick up when they open at 8:00 a.m. with 10 people waiting and two staff on site.
When I did get to speak with them, they mentioned that their location usually gets busy at three separate points in the day. These are referred to as their peak hours and as the employee would like to call them, “tidal waves”, where they have their morning, lunch, and afternoon rush. When the first rush of the day starts, depending on the day, sometimes there are only two employees on the floor. This is two employees that have to make sure items are stocked up on, making customized drinks, putting food in the oven, bagging pastry items, along with just taking the orders in the first place. On a good day, they will have approximately four to five people working during their peak times.
In contrast, the worker from the downtown location of Starbucks, Li Karpuk, mentioned their peak times being 7:00 am to 10:00 am, in which they have roughly three to five people working during this period. This makes me question whether the lack of employees on the floor is the issue, or perhaps something larger. If TRU Starbucks can have up to four to five staff on the floor and have wait times of 20 minutes, but the downtown location has only three to five and their wait times may reach five minutes to ten minutes then the problem cannot be wait times alone.
As mentioned above, there is a complexity involved at Starbucks that sets them apart in a unique way. This is the freedom to customize drinks to their liking. From the different varieties of milk to over ten different flavour syrups and sauces, cold or hot drinks, and so much more. Each crafted menu drink has a standard in how it is to be prepared, but when drinks are heavily customized this can take baristas a while to figure out the way to make that perfect drink everytime. The options are often limitless, but this limitless option creates delays in the queue. Li Karpuk recounts that the most important aspect of their job however, is speed and knowing the recipes. Complex drinks or not every Starbucks has the option to customize their drinks.
In conclusion, the mystery of TRU Starbucks wait times has yet to be solved. If it were about the drink orders with soy milk and two splenda, or if it were about there not being enough staff, then that would mean wait times at the downtown location would have suffered in the same way. Perhaps, it’s management, or perhaps it’s training.
