What Happens To Starbucks Mobile Orders That Are Never Picked Up?

For savvy Starbucks mobile app users, the process is a familiar one: you select and customize your handcrafted drink on your phone, wait a few minutes, and then cruise into your local store to pick up your treat from the counter or drive-thru. Generally, your quaff will be placed with other mobile orders for grab-and-go convenience that doesn't require the attention of a barista. Everyone knows a Starbucks drink is at its best when it's fresh — it will be hottest or coldest, and any toppings won't have had a chance to melt or wilt — but what happens to mobile orders that don't get picked up? According to alleged Starbucks employees on social media site Reddit, those typically get binned.

Keeping in mind that Reddit is not an official mouthpiece for Starbucks and claims can't be substantiated, it's telling that multiple commenters all have the same answer regarding abandoned drinks. "It may depend on the store, but as for my store, we toss the items after a few hours," alleges one comment. "[I]f it isn't picked up within the hour it is going in the trash," another Redditor flatly stated. 

A third thread agreed with the accounts claiming the drinks were dumped but added an anecdote about forgotten food: "They usually get trashed, but sometimes with food we eat them lmfao. Forgotten food can be a luxury when u dont wanna spend ur food credits on cake pops." In other words, that room-temp medicine ball tea (which you can easily make at home) might go down the drain, but the baristas may or may not scarf down an unclaimed brownie ... depending on location and managerial oversight, of course.

There are any number of reasons why a Starbucks mobile order might go unclaimed. Folks ordering coffee on the way to work or an appointment might get waylaid by traffic and run out of time to get to the store, for instance, or customers might simply forget that they placed an order ... no matter how tempting the unhealthiest Starbucks drinks happen to be. If you have the delayed realization that you placed a Starbucks order and didn't pick it up in time, Reddit baristas advise that there is usually a lot of grace for (polite) customers.

If you can get to the store within the same day, you might be able to convince understanding staff to remake your drink for you. There is anecdotal evidence that especially nice baristas might save the stickers of disposed mobile orders for this very reason. If you can't make it to the store at all and paid through the app, you could also call Starbucks's customer service number and plead your case for a refund. This might be more effective than hitting up your local Starbucks to get your money back, according to Reddit, because not all locations can issue a refund over the phone. 

Whatever circumstance(s) led to you not picking up your Starbucks order, know that a good attitude and a modicum of humility can get you far when asking for a drink to be replaced. It makes sense that unclaimed mobile orders are tossed, because nobody wants to slurp an hours-old drink, but asking nicely will likely get you a fresh treat to make matters right.