Friday, May 25, 2007: Starbucks India

If you thought Starbucks' employees were abundant, hyperactive and unnaturally friendly just wait until you visit a Coffee Day in India. They just opened up a satellite store here at ISB. Its a pretty small place - half the size of Starbucks, an eighth the cost of Starbucks but packs four times the amount of service, four times as many "servers" but ironically somehow order coffee still takes about ten minutes. Behind the counter, there is only one espresso / coffee machine and only one cash register that is operated by eight Indians. I guess when labor is so cheap, why not? Coffee day has discovered a way to turn a one or two person job into a dysfunctional assembly line that results in the least efficient process of delivering coffee to their customers. In India, that is called: Success! You begin by giving your order to the first guy behind the cash register. He asked me to take a seat. I said I wanted it to go. He responded with the Indian Head Bob, "Please take a seat." I sat. Then realized why. He whispers the order to the waiter next to him who turns immediately to his left and tells the next guy who then grabs the proper cup for that specific order and gives it to the "Barista." The Barista is flanked by two or three "assistants" whose job it is to stand there, watch, and get in the way. Ocassionally the barista may choose to delegate out different responsibilities such as adding milk or sugar to the drink. Once the coffee is made, it is carried by one of the assistants back to the cash register where it is placed in another cup (there is a mug to mug transfer - not sure why?). Then, it is placed on a saucer - changing hands several times until ultimately you have a mug of coffee on a saucer with a napkin, straw, assortment of sugar and a lemon slice. This is then passed to the another server who brings it out to you along with a check. However, to pay the check I had to get back up and go to the register. In the end, the coffee was pretty good so I didn't complain.