Starbucks expands delivery to 2,000 stores via UberEats

There’s good news for people who can’t be bothered to leave their apartments for their morning coffee, and terrible news for baristas everywhere. Starbucks announced today that it’s expanding its delivery partnership with Uber Eats to 2,000 more US stores, which makes up about a quarter of all Starbucks locations in the country. The service, called Starbucks Delivers, has been operating as a pilot program since September in Miami, Tokyo, and a handful of cities in China. Starbucks says it will be expanding the service to seven more metropolitan areas in the US starting next year.

Starbucks has offered deliveries through Postmates since 2015, but the company says its new initiative leverages more learnings from its Starbucks Delivers experience in China. Since launching the program with Alibaba’s Ele.me (China’s leading food delivery platform) three months ago, the company says it’s brought delivery capabilities to 2,000 stores across 30 cities.

The Starbucks Delivers experience in China was customized with spill-proof lids for hot and cold drinks, tamper-proof packaging seals, containers that keep drinks hot, and dedicated Ele.me delivery riders. The ordering system also delivers from the nearest Starbucks location to speed up the delivery process. Hopefully, the success of the Starbucks’ Alibaba partnership in China will transfer over to its Uber Eats partnership in the US.