A barista uses a portable blender to make cold foam at a Starbucks location in New York.
Photographer: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg40 Minutes for Starbucks Coffee? Customers and Workers Fume Over Fewer Staff
Understaffing has contributed to skyrocketing wait times, unfinished orders and lost sales, some employees say.
Starbucks baristas say they are confronting an alarming issue: Drink orders are coming in fast, but there are fewer people to prepare them.
In some stores where there used to be, say, five people making iced macchiatos and double-shot espressos just a year ago, now there are three or four, according to workers and managers who asked not to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak publicly.