While Starbucks has announced plans to start offering delivery, it is unclear whether the Marshall Street Starbucks will implement the service.

Marshall Street Starbucks manager Marty Lynch said the beginning stages of the Starbucks delivery is supposed to happen within the next fiscal year. Lynch said he does not know whether the Marshall Street Starbucks will implement the service, adding that he wonders whether a delivery model is effective at a location like his.

The announcement to start delivering comes with few details other than that Starbucks will begin its service in select locations. The delivery plans for the second half of 2015 were announced by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz last Thursday after discussing the Seattle-based company’s fiscal fourth quarter results. The company did not disclose in which cities coffee and food delivery will be available.

“Especially in this type of store, it’s sometimes a little bit different,” Lynch said, referring to the majority of his customers being college students. “It might be a little different whereas it might fit better in the store down in Armory Square because they’re around more of the businesses.”

Many Syracuse University students were fully supportive of the idea of Starbucks delivering.

“I think a Starbucks delivery service would be awesome because sometimes I want to go get coffee before class but I don’t have time,” said Emily Washburn, a freshman advertising major.

Clara Perez, a sophomore architecture major, said she thinks it would be particularly helpful in the winter.

“Why would you want to walk outside? I would get it delivered,” she said.

Earlier this month, Starbucks announced that it will begin testing its new mobile pre-ordering service in Portland, Oregon, allowing customers to order before arriving at a store.

Thomas Lumpkin, the Chris J. Witting Chair in Entrepreneurship at the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, said he is interested in Starbucks’ business itself.

“I’d be interested in knowing more about their business model,” he said. “It seems that their service offering is so limited because the product prices are low. Starbucks coffee is famously expensive, but three or four dollar coffee does not compare to a whole meal — and the product offering is thin.”

When it comes to society, Lumpkin said he does not believe there is a massive trend toward mobile food ordering, rather that there has been a trend toward delivery in general.

“I don’t think there’s a massive shift,” he said. “There’s been a trend in this direction for delivery in general. FedEx and UPS stocks are doing well because of the increase in delivery. I’m not too surprised Starbucks is getting in.”

While there are plenty of other examples of food delivery services, Starbucks believes it is poised to take control of that sector. Lumpkin is skeptical, though, saying he finds it hard to believe that the company would dominate the delivery market.

Alex McKelvie, chair of the entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises department at Whitman, said he thinks other companies will react to Starbucks’ announcement. If Starbucks starts delivering, other companies will follow that model, he said.

There is a social component to the delivery model as well, Lumpkin added.

“On the one hand, I think there still is an interest in being at home, staying in rather than going out, maybe even cocooning and so I don’t think it’s ineffective,” he said. “I can imagine it would be more environmentally savvy, maybe that uses more energy than a restaurant having a couple people going to their homes.”

“Starbucks is a smart and competitive company,” Lumpkin said, emphasizing that the company would in all likelihood not pursue any avenues without extensive research beforehand.

Published on November 6, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Danny: dmantoot@syr.edu