Employees who brewed and served Starbucks coffee, whom Starbucks called baristas, handwrote customers’ names on their drink orders. But Starbucks’ business has transformed, and it has struggled to maintain its identity as that third place along the way. In some stores, customers complained online that Starbucks pulled out comfortable chairs and replaced them with hard wooden stools. Mobile ordering was another major step in Starbucks’ road to becoming primarily a take-away business. Starbucks also is opening 2,000 new stores, including traditional Starbucks locations, pick-up stores, delivery-only stores and drive thru-only locations.

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Persons: Howard Schultz, ” Schultz, “, Stephen Brashear, Michelle Eisen, ”, ” Eisen, Laxman Narasimhan, — it’s, Schultz, Tim Boyle, Wall, Tom Cook, Casey, “ It’s, Cook, ” ‘, Michael Casey, Alex Wong, Joe Pine, Eisen Organizations: New, New York CNN, Starbucks ., Starbucks, Employees, Getty, Starbucks Workers, LinkedIn, Mobile, Horizons, Harvard Business Locations: New York, America, Buffalo , New York, United States, North America, U.S, Newsmakers, Buffalo