Recently, Starbucks locations near us have been changing their hours of business frequently. These changes have resulted in many unhappy students who feel uninformed as to when they are able to grab their favorite drink. Due to COVID and labor shortages, the Starbucks hours have been fluctuating from 5am-5pm to 6am-2pm to not even being open at all. Along with this, the mobile order feature has been taken away from many stores, causing inside lines to be extremely long.

Sophomore Kendall Hollyfield said, “It’s really annoying because I never know when it’s open or not.”

Freshman Maggie Mandell agreed with Hollyfield and said, “I don’t like how they change the hours. I think that they change the hours to less popular times, for example, in the middle of the school day. I think they would get more business if they were open early in the morning, and also later in the afternoon.”

Students miss being able to hang out at Starbucks with their favorite drinks and friends due to the labor shortages. “I understand it’s hard to stick to a schedule based on labor shortages, but I do selfishly wish Starbucks would stick to a schedule because it makes it easier for me and a lot of my friends,” said Hollyfield.

Junior Sophia Awad agreed: “It’s inconvenient because sometimes I want to have a Starbucks after school, but recently it’s been closed at that time.”

These frequent shifts in hours have affected students who rely on Starbucks after school. Mandell said, “I think it prevents students from being able to go out after school to get a drink with their friends and hang out before they have to go home.”

Hollyfield added, “I think Starbucks isn’t always just coffee, it also gives students a place to study and a place to relax in a good environment. Starbucks can give a student a place to go if the library at school is closed, or if they don’t want to go home or something. I feel like Starbucks is a good place to go, but when [students] don’t know if it’s open or not, it becomes difficult to rely on it.”

This topic begs the question, what are students’ ideal Starbucks business hours? For most, the best hours are from around 6am-6pm, giving students a place to hang out after school and providing caffeine for adults looking for a morning pick-me-up. Hollyfield said, “I like what [hours Starbucks] used to have, which was early in the morning till 7 or 8. That was really nice because you can go there after school or after practices. It was always there and you can always get your drinks.”