Business

NY Times - For 32 years, Greg Tutunjian, 73, has picked up his coffee at Starbucks. He’s partial to its dark-roast Red Eye, but starting to question his loyalty to the chain that serves it up.While waiting for his order, Mr. Tutunjian watches impatiently as baristas whip up Iced Brown Sugar Oatmilk Shaken Espressos or other foamy, iced, caramel-topped drinks for drive-through or mobile-app orders. Minutes tick by before he is finally handed his coffee (dark-roast coffee with a shot of espresso).

Even more annoying for Mr. Tutunjian is when Starbucks’s mobile app tells him that a bag of his favorite coffee beans — Komodo Dragon — is in stock when it isn’t.

“I will go to four or five Starbucks in my local area and have the same experience. I check the app right before I go inside and it says it’s there, but when I arrive, the people working there say, ‘Oh, we don’t use or look at the app,’” said Mr. Tutunjian, a software consultant from Newton, Mass. “I walk out empty-handed.”