How the Microsoft Outage Affected What Is Starbucks Coffee Service

A Microsoft 365 service outage caused Windows devices worldwide to show the blue screen of death, disrupting aviation, finance and education. At Starbucks, point-of-sale systems failed in many stores across the United States and Canada, mobile ordering and payment were suspended, and some locations closed or handed out free drinks.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company was affected by a widespread third-party systems outage that temporarily interrupted mobile ordering and payment. Some stores in China also lost computer access, so staff returned to handwritten cups, marking orders placed through Feikuai by hand. Microsoft later said the root cause was fixed, though residual effects continued.

A global digital incident triggered by a Microsoft 365 service outage caused Windows-based devices worldwide to collectively display the "blue screen of death," paralyzing multiple industries including aviation, finance, and education. Starbucks, as a well-known brand affected by the disruption, saw point-of-sale systems fail at a large number of stores across the United States and Canada, forcing mobile ordering and payment functions to be suspended, with some stores even closing outright or giving customers free drinks. Some Starbucks stores in China were similarly affected, with computer failures forcing staff to return to the "handwritten cup era," manually labeling requests after orders were placed through Feikuai. Microsoft subsequently announced that the root cause had been fixed, but residual effects continued. This article reviews the specific impact of this incident on Starbucks and how stores responded.

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Yesterday afternoon, a digital earthquake swept across the globe. Microsoft's Microsoft 365 suite of services experienced access disruptions, causing many Windows-based computers worldwide to display "blue screens," freeze, and become unusable.

For a time, the world was thrown into chaos by Microsoft's system failure, with airlines, banks, exchanges, schools, enterprises, and individual users all affected. Many workers were unable to do their jobs due to the system crash, getting an unexpected "early holiday."

Globally renowned brand Starbucks was also severely affected by this "digital earthquake," with point-of-sale systems failing at most stores in the United States, Canada, and other regions.

According to NBC News, a Starbucks spokesperson said in a statement emailed to NBC that "Starbucks is one of the companies affected by a widespread third-party systems outage, which temporarily interrupted our mobile ordering and payment functions." A large number of users reported that their apps showed mobile ordering was unavailable.

Posts about the Starbucks system failure appeared one after another on social platforms. Many people shared photos of notices they saw on glass doors, which stated that due to the system failure, stores could not process any transactions and therefore had to suspend operations. Some said several stores near them were closed, forcing them to travel to a farther location to buy coffee.

Some customers said they could still place orders on their phones but could not pick them up normally upon arrival, with staff needing to look at the order details on their phones to make the drinks. Some users cleverly discovered that drink-thru (drive-thru ordering service) still worked for placing orders, though getting their drinks required waiting quite a while.

Some netizens also noticed that at certain Starbucks stores unable to process orders and produce drinks normally, employees, after receiving approval from managers, simply gave customers free drinks, with various flavors even laid out on the counter for customers to help themselves.

Some Starbucks stores in China could not escape this global chaos either.

Yesterday afternoon, employees discovered fault warnings appearing on store computer screens, with cash registers, label printers, and other equipment closely linked to the computer system all unable to function normally. Staff could neither look up customers' order details via computer nor get a label sticker with the requirements printed on it.

To continue producing drinks normally, many affected stores reverted overnight to the "handwritten cup era." Employees said they guided customers to place orders through Feikuai, then wrote the order requirements directly on the cups or attached handwritten sticky notes to the cups so that colleagues could make the drinks according to customer requests.

Yesterday evening, Microsoft said the root cause had been resolved. The official account Microsoft 365 Status posted on X (formerly Twitter): "The root cause has been fixed, but residual impact continues to affect some Microsoft 365 apps and services. We are taking additional mitigation measures to help."

Currently, most Starbucks stores in China have returned to normal, but some stores worldwide may still have systems in a down state.

Image source: Internet

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