How long will you wait for your Starbucks?

In a cafe, how long are you willing to wait to be served? Do you have a maximum duration that you are willing to wait until you will wait no more and leave the cafe and probably feeling annoyed? Last week I visited some friends in Newbury (Berkshire). Since we had no idea on what to do on Sunday, we drove to the Newbury Retail Park to have a bit of wondering around and kill some time. One of my friends, Ian, suggested to check out the new Starbucks at the Retail Park. Ian is a big fan of Starbucks. He thinks Starbucks is a fantastic cafe. Sadly, I do not share his passion for Starbucks.

This Starbucks at the Retail Park is not the first one. There used to be a Starbucks on the second floor of the Borders bookstore. But, the bookstore closed down in June this year so did the Starbucks. I presume this new Starbucks is the one from the Borders bookstore and it has made a geographical transition from a bookstore to a fashion retail store. This new Starbucks is located on the second floor of the New Look store. The collaboration between Starbucks and New Look is pretty novel, at least to me. I have not seen many Starbucks built inside the New Look stores, not in London, Oxford, Reading, and Guildford. When we arrived at this new Starbucks, it was not that busy. There was a queue next to the counter and a few people were waiting to be served. There were two female staff, also known as coffee barrister, serving behind the counter. Looking at the ratio between the number of waiting customers and staff members, our impression was that it would not take long to get served and to acquire our coffee. Sadly, our impression was wrong. Instead, we waited for around 20 minutes to get served. After placing our order, we waited for another 10 to 15 minutes for our coffee. More shockingly, the staff member had forgotten one of our order. It was my order actually.

After we had got our coffee, the queue extended from a few people to, at least, 10 or 12 people. I was surprised to see that these people were willing to wait for their Starbucks. This incident raises a question in my mind, namely, how long are customers willing to wait to be served? Is there a maximum duration that customers are willing to wait before they leave a retail premise before acquiring anything? I compared this incident with the incident of people queueing for hours to purchase an iPhone 4. I can understand why people are willing to wait for hours at the Apple store in either Covent Garden or Regent Street to buy iPhone 4. This is because the Apple store in Covent Garden and Regent Street are the few places you can buy a contract-free iPhone 4. Otherwise, you will have to sign a contract with a telecommunication service provider like O2, Vodafone or Orange if you wish to have a iPhone 4. The contract generally lasts between 18 and 24 months.

I do not understand why people are willing to wait for, at least half an hour, to have coffee at Starbucks. Unlike the iPhone 4, the types of coffee offered by Starbucks, I think, are not unique or innovative. You can acquire similar types of coffee, let it be cafe latte or iced coffee, at Costa or Cafe Nero. Going back to the incident at the new Starbucks I mentioned earlier, I noticed that people were queueing for a long time to have their Starbucks. No one, I mean no one, retreated from the queue. People did not seem bothered with the queue at all. I cannot help wonder why. Was it because it was a Sunday and people were not in a hurry and/or they had nothing else to do? Or was it because they loved Starbucks so much and thus they were willing to wait for the coffee? Was it because they perceived the coffee or experience at Starbucks was so unique and they could not get it somewhere else? Neither at Costa nor Cafe Nero. Maybe, I will find the answers for my questions from my friend, Ian. After all, he is a die-hard fan of Starbucks. Ian, can you tell me why people will wait for their Starbucks? How long will people wait to be served at Starbucks before heading to the exit?