The mobile order and pay feature of Starbucks’ popular smartphone app, a major source of business for the chain, was knocked offline for much of Friday morning by a massive, global technology outage affecting systems running Microsoft software.
Mobile order customers in numerous markets in the U.S. were greeted with a notification that the system was down, affecting a key area of sales for the Seattle-based coffee shop chain.
Users of DownDector.com, a website that tracks tech shutdowns, indicated that they were unable to call up Starbucks' online app via their desktop computers. About 82% of the reports about Starbucks noted that the app was down. Multiple social media posts also indicate that some stores have closed because of the problems.
"Starbucks is among those companies experiencing impacts due to a widespread third-party systems outage, resulting in a temporary outage of our mobile-order ahead and pay features," the company said in a statement. "We continue to welcome and serve customers in the vast majority of our stores and drive-thrus and are doing everything we can to bring all systems online as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience."
A screenshot of Starbucks' mobile app on Friday morning.
The widespread tech outage hit early Friday morning and grounded flights, wreaked havoc with financial institutions, hampered hospitals and more. People were stranded at airports worldwide and emergency systems were disrupted.
Thousands of web servers were affected by the technology glitch, which occurred about 4:30 a.m. EST. The disruption prompted Delta and American Airlines to cancel all domestic flights this morning. The issue was blamed on the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, which performed a software update that apparently caused Microsoft software to crash.
"We understand the gravity of the situation and are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption," CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz said in a Twitter post. "We are working with all impacted customers to ensure that systems are back up and they can deliver the services their customers are counting on."
Some 30% of McDonald's Japan locations were closed early Friday following a systems glitch there, but there were no reports of any issues at McDonald's locations domestically, or at other chains.
CrowdStrike said on its website that the problem has been identified and a "fix deployed." But it was uncertain when systems would ultimately come back online.
Government services were also affected. The U.S. Social Security Administration alerted the public that it was shutting offices because it was unable to process the distribution of checks and other matters as usual.
Mobile order and pay is a key sales channel for Starbucks. Nearly a third of the chain's transactions come through that channel. The outage comes at a sensitive time for the company, however, as it works to rebuild sales lost in recent months. The company plans to open mobile order and pay to customers who are not part of its Starbucks Rewards loyalty program this month.
UPDATE: This story has been changed multiple times from its original version to add details and comments from Starbucks.
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