Will Starbucks' new delivery partner help with the restaurant's wait time issues?

Starbucks and Grubhub announced a partnership on Thursday that would allow customers to order Starbucks delivery via the Grubhub app for the first time ever. The delivery partnership will roll out to select markets in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and Illinois in June, and expand to the rest of Grubhub’s markets across the 50 states by August. 

According to Grubhub, Starbucks is the most searched merchant on its app that is not yet available. Overall, Starbucks has been slower to partner with third-party delivery companies than many other top chains in the foodservice industry. While the company began offering third-party delivery through Uber Eats in select markets in 2018, Uber Eats delivery was not available nationally until 2020. Starbucks did not begin offering delivery with DoorDash until last January, and the partnership was not expanded nationally until March 2023. 

Grubhub is the final delivery company of the “big three” that Starbucks is now partnering with, though the company has the smallest delivery market share at 8% (as compared with DoorDash’s 67% and Uber Eats’ 23%), according to Bloomberg Second Measure.