Starbucks reopens after grande computer crash
SEATTLE — Starbucks was back in business Saturday after a computer failure forced thousands of its stores to close early the night before.
The company said the problem was resolved Friday night after several hours. The glitch affected registers at 7,400 company-operated stores in the U.S. and 1,000 in Canada, and prompted some stores to give away drinks.
“All Starbucks stores in the U.S. and Canada are expected to open for business as usual on Saturday,” the company said late Friday. “We apologize to our customers for this inconvenience.”
Starbucks said the outage was caused by “a failure during a daily system refresh.” Jim Ol- son, a company spokesman, stressed it was an internal issue and that no external breach was involved.
The problem began in the evening Friday on the East Coast, with workers posting hand-written “Cash Only” signs on windows and giving away free drinks and food because they were unable to ring up orders on registers. Starbucks initially said stores would remain open during the outage, then changed course and said it decided to close stores early.
At a Starbucks in Seattle, customers were told workers couldn’t process orders and were offered coffee at no charge.
“I’m not going to complain about a free cup of coffee,” said Suveer Sharma, who stopped in be- fore heading on a trip to Idaho.
Starbucks stores are typically busiest in the mornings when people are on their way to work, meaning the impact of the outage on sales could have been far worse. But the company has been trying to attract more customers in the late afternoons and evenings with an expanded menu of food and drinks.
The company said the outage also affected four Evolution Fresh stores and six Teavana Tea Bar stores. Those stores were also to reopen Saturday, Starbucks said.
Starbucks said the outage did not affect the more than 4,800 licensed Starbucks stores in the U.S., which are in airports, supermarkets and other places.