Getting Your Coffee Fix - a Starbucks Drive Through Study

With a new Drive Through Starbucks opening up every few blocks in many cities, it makes me wonder what kind of people need this level of convenience. As a result, I did a quick little observation study on a couple of occasions near my local drive through Starbucks. The results were quite amazing to me... as follows:

My test "environment" if you will was on three occasions during the week between 8am and 8:30am. I was parked behind my local Starbucks (southern California) where the drive through line was forming (yes, around the back of the building), at this 8am, the line was 8 to 10 cars deep.

My non-scientific results (actually, just simple observations):

• The forming line started with about 8 cars and grew to 15-16 cars during the 30 minutes.
• There were 2 or 3 incidents of fighting (honking, gestures, etc) for position in line, as the line would form from several directions during each 30 minute period
  
• The most amazing result... 100% WOMEN, of which 9 out of 10 were the classic soccer mom in large SUVs. I must admit that there were a couple of ambiguous looking characters that I decided were most likely women.
  
• Most of these women seemed to be content in their cars waiting for their turn to order their custom cup of joe. Most of them (at least 70%) were talking on their cell phones or putting on makeup or both.

So, what do large SUV driving soccer moms do after dropping the kids off at school? Go to Starbucks drive through, put their face on, make those hair and nail appointments on the cell phone, call their SUV driving friends (whom are probably in the car in front of them!) about their expresso drink choice of the day.

I am sure that there are some men out there somewhere that would rather sit in the drive through line, but I just have not found one yet. Hey, maybe this could be the new hot pick up spot for the middle aged divorced male looking for a hot soccer mom.

This was a relatively entertaining study/observation. I think I'll try it again a couple of times to see if the statistics stand up.