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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Thursday, February 18, 2021

Climate Change Means Trouble for Power Grids (NYT) Huge winter storms plunged large parts of the central and southern United States into an energy crisis this week, with frigid blasts of Arctic weather crippling electric grids and leaving millions of Americans without power amid dangerously cold temperatures. The grid failures were most severe in Texas, where more than four million people woke up Tuesday morning to rolling blackouts. Separate regional grids in the Southwest and Midwest also faced serious strain. As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 23 people nationwide had died in the storm or its aftermath. Analysts have begun to identify key factors behind the grid failures in Texas. Record-breaking cold weather spurred residents to crank up their electric heaters and pushed power demand beyond the worst-case scenarios that grid operators had planned for. At the same time, a large fraction of the state’s gas-fired power plants were knocked offline amid icy conditions, with some plants suffering fuel shortages as natural gas demand spiked. Many of Texas’ wind turbines also froze and stopped working. The crisis sounded an alarm for power systems throughout the country. Electric grids can be engineered to handle a wide range of severe conditions—as long as grid operators can reliably predict the dangers ahead. But as climate change accelerates, many electric grids will face extreme weather events that go far beyond the historical conditions those systems were designed for, putting them at risk of catastrophic failure.

‘A complete bungle’: Texas’ energy pride goes out with cold (AP) Anger over Texas’ power grid failing in the face of a record winter freeze mounted Tuesday as millions of residents in the energy capital of the U.S. remained shivering with no assurances that their electricity and heat—out for 36 hours or longer in many homes—would return soon or stay on once it finally does. “I know people are angry and frustrated,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who woke up to more than 1 million people still without power in his city. “So am I.” In all, between 2 and 3 million customers in Texas still had no power nearly two full days after historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures created a surge in demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows, buckling the state’s power grid and causing widespread blackouts. More bad weather, including freezing rain, began arriving Tuesday night. Making matters worse, expectations that the outages would be a shared sacrifice by the state’s 30 million residents quickly gave way to a cold reality, as pockets in some of America’s largest cities, including San Antonio, Dallas and Austin, were left to shoulder the lasting brunt of a catastrophic power failure, and in subfreezing conditions that Texas’ grid operators had known was coming.

Military recruitment (Foreign Policy) A meager job market has given military recruitment a boost around the world, the Wall Street Journal reports. In Canada, applications to join the armed services surged 37 percent over the last nine months of 2020 compared to the previous year. Australia reported a 9.9 percent annual increase in applications. The United Kingdom met its military recruitment targets for the first time in seven years and in the United States, 92 percent of eligible personnel re-enlisted, compared to just 83 percent the previous year.

Volunteer paramedics patrol streets of Venezuela’s capital (AP) Venezuela’s deepening crisis has gutted emergency ambulance services, so a group of volunteer paramedics has stepped into the void to offer life-saving help on the tough streets of Caracas. Calling themselves Angels of the Road, the volunteer corps relies on donated medical supplies and funding from international organizations. Despite receiving no paychecks, its roughly 40 paramedics are ready at a moment’s notice to jump onto motorcycles and fire up their single ambulance and race into the streets. Jonathan Quantip, 44, said he and co-founder Zuly Rodiz launched the project two years ago after watching their native Venezuela precipitously decline over years of political and social crisis. “We Venezuelans have to solve our own country’s problems,” Quantip said. “We have to use the skills we’re each good at.” The group works on a shoestring budget with nothing left over for wages, so each paramedic relies on another source of income. Some donate their off-time after working in hospitals and firehouses. Others flip burgers in fast-food restaurants.

‘We are like captives’: life in Britain’s quarantine hotels (Reuters) Mohamed Noor faces 10 days in COVID-19 quarantine in a hotel room near London’s Heathrow Airport after falling foul of new border controls because of a flight delay. “I don’t have a book. I don’t have a Koran. I don’t have nothing here,” Noor, a 55-year-old Muslim, said by phone after his arrival on Monday, a day later than planned, landed him with a 1,750-pound ($2,400) bill. In another hotel nearby, 61-year-old Sole, who declined to give her surname, said she realised too late that the new rules would kick in before she returned from visiting friends in Chile. “We are like captives in these rooms,” she said. Britain says the measures, effective since Monday, are needed to protect its COVID-19 vaccination programme and guard against new coronavirus variants. People returning from any of 33 “high-risk” countries where travel to Britain is banned must pay 1,750 pounds for a 10-day quarantine hotel package. After being taken by bus to government-contracted hotels, they must spend most of the time in their rooms and have meals delivered to their door.

Toothless travel restrictions (Foreign Policy) Irish holidaymakers have suddenly shown a keen interest in dental hygiene as they attempt to shirk strict lockdown measures to escape the bleak North Atlantic winter. Traveling for “essential medical, health or dental services” is allowed under Ireland’s coronavirus restrictions, leading to a surge in dental surgery appointments in Spain’s Canary Islands. Roberta Beccaris, a receptionist at a dental surgeon’s office on the island of Tenerife, reported taking multiple calls from prospective Irish clients, who have demanded e-mail confirmations of the bookings. Police can issue fines to rule-breaking travelers of roughly $600, although they are powerless to stop those with proof of a medical appointment. “Obviously as they are not turning up, we now understand it is just an excuse for a holiday,” she told RTÉ radio.

Spain betting on vaccine passports to revive summer tourism (Reuters) Spain hopes the introduction of vaccination passports combined with pre-travel COVID-19 testing will allow British tourists to return to Spanish destinations this summer, a tourism ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday. The government has no plans to introduce quarantines on foreign visitors, and was also counting on a wider agreement to be hammered out between Europe and Britain to remove restrictions on non-essential travel, the official added. Over 2020, as global travel was dramatically curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic, foreign tourism to Spain—one of the world’s most visited countries—fell 80% to just 19 million visitors, a level not seen since 1969.

China steps up online controls with new rule for bloggers (AP) Ma Xiaolin frequently wrote about current affairs on one of China’s leading microblogging sites, where he has 2 million followers. But recently, he said in a post, the Weibo site called and asked him not to post original content on topics ranging from politics to economic and military issues. “As an international affairs researcher and a columnist, it looks like I can only go the route of entertainment, food and beverage now,” the international relations professor wrote on Jan. 31. Ma, who often posted on developments in the Mideast, is one of many popular influencers working within the constraints of China’s heavily censored web who is finding that their space to speak is shrinking even further with the latest policy changes and a clean-up campaign run by the country’s powerful censors. Beginning next week, the Cyberspace Administration of China will require bloggers and influencers to have a government-approved credential before they can publish on a wide range of subjects. Some fear that only state media and official propaganda accounts will get permission. The latest move is in line with ever more restrictive regulations under President Xi Jinping that constrict an already narrow space for discourse. The Chinese leader has made “digital sovereignty” a central concept of his rule, under which authorities have set limits and increased control of the digital realm.

Japan’s ruling party wants more women at meetings—unless they talk (Reuters) After a sexism row sparked by Tokyo Olympics chief’s saying women talked too much at meetings, Japan’s ruling party wants women at key meetings—but only if they don’t talk. The ruling Liberal Democratic Party has proposed a new plan that allows five female lawmakers to join the party’s key meetings as observers. Toshihiro Nikai, the party’s 82-year-old secretary general, said on Tuesday that he heard criticism that the party’s board is male-dominated, but added that the board members are elected. But it is important for the party’s female members to “look” at the party’s decision-making process, he said. Those female observers can’t speak during the meetings, but can submit opinions separately to the secretariat office, the daily newspaper Nikkei reported. Requiring female observers at meetings to remain quiet has drawn criticism that the party is out of touch.

Big protests across Myanmar as UN expert fears violence (AP) Demonstrators in Myanmar gathered Wednesday in their largest numbers so far to protest the military’s seizure of power, as a U.N. human rights expert warned that troops being brought to Yangon and elsewhere could signal the prospect for major violence. U.N. rapporteur Tom Andrews said he was alarmed by reports of soldiers being transported into Yangon, the biggest city. “In the past, such troop movements preceded killings, disappearances, and detentions on a mass scale,” he said in a statement issued late Tuesday by the U.N. Human Rights office in Geneva. “I am terrified that given the confluence of these two developments—planned mass protests and troops converging��we could be on the precipice of the military committing even greater crimes against the people of Myanmar.” Wednesday’s turnout in Yangon appeared to be one of the biggest so far in the city. Protesters have adopted a tactic of blocking off streets from security forces by parking vehicles in groups with their hoods up and the excuse of having engine trouble.

Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Myanmar (Foreign Policy) Widespread protests against the Feb. 1 military coup in Myanmar have taken on an increasingly anti-Chinese tone, with rallies held outside the Chinese Embassy in Yangon, Myanmar and calls growing for boycotts of Chinese goods and services. Misinformation is spreading, including rumors that Chinese soldiers have infiltrated Myanmar and that Chinese software will be used to set up a Great Firewall. On balance, it seems unlikely that China supported the coup, especially given its relatively good relationship with the National League for Democracy. Anti-Chinese sentiment has a long history in Myanmar, both on the national level and at the local level, due to conflicts among ethnic Chinese communities and others. Chinese investment projects have been major flash points, especially the Myitsone Dam, which was suspended in 2011 following the move toward democracy. Locals have decried the environmental impacts and forced relocations associated with such projects, while Beijing has been keen to get them restarted. There is also growing anti-Chinese feeling across Southeast Asia. Many young people see parallels between the 2019 Hong Kong protests and their own resistance against local authoritarianism. China’s tactless authoritarianism and resentment toward outsiders contributes to that solidarity, but the main driver is the willingness of local autocrats and the uber-rich to suck up to China for their own ends. That can mean, as in Myanmar’s case, that China is blamed even when it hasn’t actually done much.

Sidelining MBS (Foreign Policy) The United States will downgrade its engagement with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as part of the Biden administration’s drive to “recalibrate” relations with the kingdom, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday. President Joe Biden will instead conduct diplomacy through Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz, dealing a blow to the crown prince’s standing in Washington.

Gunmen kidnap at least 20 boys from Nigerian boarding school (Washington Post) Gunmen stormed a north-central Nigerian boarding school early Wednesday, kidnapping at least 20 teenage boys, the local governor said—the second mass abduction of children to shake the country in three months. The attackers raided the Government Science Secondary School in the town of Kagara before sunrise and dragged the classmates into the dense woods. Three teachers and 12 family members also vanished into the night, Abubakar Sani Bello, the governor of Niger state, said on television. Schools in the region have been shuttered. Helicopters hovered over the treetops as security forces continued their search and, by midmorning, authorities were still counting the missing.

#headlines #news

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freenewstoday · 4 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2021/02/08/a-massacre-in-a-forest-becomes-a-test-of-polands-pushback-on-wartime-blame/

A Massacre in a Forest Becomes a Test of Poland’s Pushback on Wartime Blame

MALINOWO, Poland — From a forest on the edge of this tiny village in eastern Poland, a distant and mostly forgotten local horror is reverberating widely. It has cast a pall over the 30 villagers who live nearby, reached into a courtroom in Warsaw, and is now radiating distress around the world over the rewriting of Holocaust history.

The case has its roots in the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II, when terrified Jews took shelter in the forest and, according to a survivor cited in a recent Polish study of the Holocaust, were murdered there after the wartime mayor of Malinowo, a Pole, told the Nazis of their hiding place.

That horror, however, has now resurfaced, revived by a libel suit against two scholars who edited the study and who stand accused of besmirching the honor of the long-dead mayor and the Polish nation. A verdict in the case, which was brought by the elderly niece of the mayor with support from bodies funded in part by Poland’s government, is expected Tuesday.

The targets of the libel action are Jan Grabowski, a Polish-Canadian history professor at the University of Ottawa, and Barbara Engelking, a historian with the Polish Center for Holocaust Research. Together they edited “Night Without End,” a 1,700-page 2018 study on the role played by individual Poles in aiding Nazi murder.

“In a normal world this case would have been dismissed long ago,” Professor Grabowski said in an interview. “But Poland can no longer be considered a normal democracy,” he added, accusing the governing Law and Justice Party of starting a “reconquest of history” by focusing on Poland’s own suffering during the war and downplaying its complicity in Nazi crimes against Jews.

The Polish government denies any involvement in the libel case. But it helped make it possible by amending the law in 2020 to waive court costs for all cases connected with “the struggle of the Polish Nation against Nazism and Communism.”

In a sign that the libel suit is not an isolated incident, the police in eastern Poland recently summoned the editor of an online site about Jewish life to ask why she had “insulted the Polish nation” by writing that “Polish participation in the Shoah is a historical fact.”

Before it was invaded in 1939 by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Poland had Europe��s largest Jewish population. As the war expanded and Hitler turned on his erstwhile Soviet ally, conquered Polish lands became the focus of the Nazis’ Final Solution, with around three million Jews — half the total number killed across Europe — murdered in Poland, mostly in death camps like Auschwitz and Treblinka.

But Poland never installed a collaborationist government and is proud of its record of fierce resistance to the Nazis.

This pride, however, has taken on an aggressive, intolerant edge since the Law and Justice Party took power in 2015. It has sought to criminalize any questioning of Polish wartime heroism and poured money into research groups and museum projects that present Poland as Europe’s perpetual and entirely blameless victim, a “Christ of Nations” repeatedly crucified by foreign powers.

Walentyna Golaszewska, a 64-year-old resident of Malinowo, said she grew up hearing stories about how her grandparents had taken food to Jews hiding in the forest. She was shocked to learn that the then-mayor, Edward Malinowski, has now been accused of aiding their murder.

“I thought this whole thing would have gone away with my grandfather’s generation. It all happened over 70 years ago and everyone is now dead. None of us can really know the truth,” she said.

She recently ordered a copy of the study coedited by Professor Grabowski because she wanted to learn more about events obscured for so many years by family legend and village gossip.

“It is very hard to explain why one person helps and another person kills,” she said.

Also hard to explain, she added, is why the wartime mayor’s niece, Filomena Leszczynska, had decided to sue Professor Grabowski and Ms. Engelking for libel and damages of around $27,000.

The niece, who is nearly blind and lives on the edge of the village next to her family’s farm, declined to be interviewed. A young relative said she was too sick to talk.

Professor Grabowski and his supporters believe the case originated with nationalist groups close to the government, like the Polish League Against Defamation, which receives funding from the state.

In a telephone interview, Maciej Swirski, the head of the League Against Defamation, denied acting on behalf of the state or the Law and Justice Party. But he acknowledged that he had helped initiate the libel case. He said he had traveled to Malinowo and told Ms. Leszczynska that he had found errors in the book, proving that her uncle was maligned.

Mr. Swirski said his organization had raised money from private donors to pay Ms. Leszczynska’s lawyers and finance her suit.

The libel complaint alleges that the scholars maliciously smeared the wartime mayor as a murderer, when he had “hid Jews and did this absolutely selflessly.” His niece, the complaint says, was “very hurt” and wanted to keep “the memory of her heroic uncle alive.”

Critics of the action see it as a fight to silence independent historical scholarship. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and research center, denounced it as “a serious attack on free and open research,” saying it was “unacceptable” to set limits on academic study “though judicial or political pressure.”

Professor Grabowski acknowledged that the study erred by conflating the histories of two former Malinowo mayors who shared the same name, Edward Malinowski. But, he said, this error put Ms. Leszczynska’s uncle in a better light because it ascribed to him acts of kindness toward Jews by his younger namesake.

In 2012, shortly before his death, the younger Edward Malinowski was invited by Jewish groups to attend a ceremony in the Malinowo forest unveiling a stone memorial decorated with a Star of David.

“The war ended 75 years ago, but it still lives on in our bones. It will last forever,” Mr. Malinowski’s son, Zygmunt, recalled on Saturday during a visit to the memorial.

Poland, he said, should recognize that it was not only Nazis who killed Jews. But in eastern Poland, “Poles suffered no less than the Jews,” he said.

The libel case has received extensive favorable coverage from media outlets controlled by the Law and Justice party and the book at the center of the case has been denounced by the Institute of National Remembrance, a state body that has spearheaded efforts to keep history on a narrow, patriotic path. The institute has prosecutorial powers to enforce what since 2018 has been an official mission that includes “protecting the reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation.”

That Poles suffered horrendously under Nazi occupation and sometimes helped Jews is established fact, said David Silberklang, senior historian at Yad Vashem in Israel.

“No scholar with any credentials would say Poland was evil, that Poland was completely indifferent to the fate of Jews,” Mr. Silberklang said in a telephone interview. “It was a clearly a very complex situation.”

Of 27,712 people classified by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations — non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust — more than 7,000 are Polish, far more than from any other country.

Polish heroism, however, coexisted with sometimes monstrous acts of violence, a fact that the Law and Justice Party and nationalist outfits have struggled to obscure. In one episode in July 1941, villagers in Jedwabne, northeast of Warsaw, locked more than 300 Jews, neighbors with whom they had previously lived peacefully, in a barn and set it on fire, killing all of them.

The government caused international outrage in 2018 when it introduced legislation that would have made it a criminal offense to accuse the Polish nation of complicity in the Holocaust. The law was amended to replace criminal penalties with less severe civil sanctions.

The libel case against Professor Grabowski and Ms. Engelking, however, has stirred worries that instead of backing away from trying to impose a wart-free, patriotic version of history the government and its allies are now going on the offensive.

“There is a coordinated campaign underway to change history in a way that is comfortable to the government,” said Mr. Silberklang, the Yad Vashem historian.

The current mayor of Malinowo, Grzegorz Zaremba, a dairy farmer, said he first learned of the furor over the killings last month.

“Suddenly, everyone was talking about our little village,” Mr. Zaremba said, “But nobody really knows the truth about what happened here. Those who do are all dead.”

Anatol Magdziarz contributed reporting from Warsaw.

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socomtacticalairsoft · 5 years ago

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National Airsoft Festival UK - AUGUST 28TH - 30TH, 2020

This year’s National Airsoft Festival will take place on August 28th-30th August bringing players from all over the UK and Europe together for a weekend of all things Airsoft.

History of the event and what to expect

It is one of the longest surviving Airsoft events across the world, having started in 2007 and has grown in popularity year on year to over 40,000 Facebook fans.

Its success is due to the fact that the festival continues to evolve, adding more events, activities and in-depth game features with each festival.

Ticket prices cover the whole weekend’s activities while there are optional extras such as private toilets and gun hire.

The whole weekend has something for everybody with bars, stalls, live music and a prize draw.

The event prides itself on being a social gathering for Airsoft players from far and wide to come together to play and share their Airsoft experiences.

The main attraction, however, is Ground Zero, the largest ever Airsoft game to take place. Anyone over the age of 14 can play and there are no restrictions on what you wear although there are limits on the following weapons:

Full Auto (AEG/Gas, Pistol & Rifle) 350FPS

Semi Mode Only (AEG/Gas Rifles) 425FPS with 4 seconds between shots to simulate cocking and to stop people spamming their trigger

Bolt Action Sniper Rifle (Spring Rifle Only) 500FPS

The two day game sees three teams; Bravo, Delta and Others compete against each other over 175 acres of land.

Whether you are going to the event on your own or as part of your own team, there is a space on Ground Zero for everybody.

The terrain is varied throughout with open roads, tunnel networks and bunkers among other things so everyone who takes part has a good chance of finding their best way to play.

While there is no limit on the number of people who can buy a ticket for the event, it is advised to book as soon as possible to ensure the festival organisers can provide the right amount of food and facilities for the weekend.

Booking for the event is not yet open but if you are interested, you should check the National Airsoft Festival Facebook page for updates.

History of the local area

The county of Hampshire has played a big part in Britain’s military history, particularly Portsmouth and Southampton’s rich naval history.

Ringwood, Hampshire, the area where this festival takes place, is on the edge of the border of The New Forest which also has a rich military heritage, making it an appropriate choice for a huge gathering for Airsoft players.

During World War 2, twelve airfields were hastily built as well as an experimental bombing range while thousands of Allied troops made their home in tented areas nearby.

The New Forest’s distance to the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth made them a potential prime target for invasion especially once Germany invaded and took control of France.

Defences were set up throughout The New Forest during the war and some defences were even put up before the start of the war such as anti-aircraft and searchlight sites.

Even church bells were silenced throughout The New Forest and would only ring as a ‘call to arms’ if action needed to be taken.

Training with small firearms all the way up to tank exercises took place there before many moved onto overseas battles either from the airfields or from the ports of Southampton and Portsmouth.

There is also a former RAF base, RAF Ibsley, two miles north of Ringwood, which was used for US pilots based in the UK.

(AEG/Gas Rifles) 425FPS with 4 seconds between shots to simulate – Plagiarised… from https://www.airsoftfestival.com/faq.php

National Airsoft Festival UK – AUGUST 28TH – 30TH, 2020 was originally published on Socom Tactical Airsoft Shop Blog

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cliftonsteen · 4 years ago

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The Growth Of Drive-Thru Coffee

The words “drive-thru” make most people think of fast food. The concept was born in the 1930s, as a way of ordering and receiving cooked food, groceries, or other products from the comfort of your car. And as fast food grew throughout the 20th century, so did the drive-thru market. McDonald’s opened their first US drive-thru in 1975, and operates tens of thousands of them across the world today.

But what about drive-thru coffee?

Well, alongside McDonald’s, some of the world’s biggest coffee chains – including Starbucks, Tim Hortons, and Peet’s – all have a number of stores that either have “drive-thru capabilities” or are exclusively geared towards the drive-thru experience. Drive-thru has been a part of the wider coffee sector for decades. And thanks in part to recent events, many believe it’s only just getting started.

So where and why did drive-thru coffee start? Why is it so popular? And where does its future lie? I spoke with experts from across the world to find out.

You may also like Five Practical Ways To Introduce Customers To Specialty Coffee

History & Major Players

While there are no formal records, one of the first drive-thru coffee shops ever opened was Motor Moka, founded in Portland, Oregon in 1990.

Founder Jim Roberts says that, at that time, Starbucks (his main competitor) was “against” drive-thru coffee, because they didn’t see how they people could have a true “coffeehouse experience” in their car. Today, Starbucks operates more than 8,500 US stores, of which 58% have drive-thru capabilities. Dunkin’ Donuts operate a similar amount of US stores (“over 8,500”, according to their website) and 64% offer drive-thru.

And while McDonald’s don’t offer public figures on how many of their stores are drive-thru, they operate more than 36,000 around the world, across 100 different countries. Even if only 10 or 20% of those are equipped to serve drive-thru customers, that’s still thousands of stores. Furthermore, in 2017, McCafé in the USA made US $167 million in the sales of single cups of coffee alone. This shows just how important McDonald’s is in the drive-thru coffee market.

Finally, coffee chain Costa Coffee (owned by Coca-Cola) has started opening drive-thru shops in recent years. By mid-2019, it operated more than 40 drive-thru outlets in the UK. However, thanks to Covid-19, that number has skyrocketed in recent months, with more than 300 outlets across the country open for “drive-thru or takeaway”.

Despite the fact that the US is the leading market for drive-thru coffee – by some distance – there has been a lot of recent global expansion. Drive-thru coffee is already widely available across Europe. And in July 2020 alone, Starbucks opened its first Indian drive-thru location in Zirakpur, as well as its largest ever drive-thru in South Korea.

Why Would You Open A Drive-Thru Coffee Shop?

The main advantage that a drive-thru coffee shop offers is simple: it provides a speedy, convenient option in a high-traffic area where a regular dine-in café might not succeed.

Patrick Drew is the owner of Xcite Coffee, a drive-thru coffee shop based in Perth, Western Australia. He explains how the two kinds of shops differ.

“The major difference is the lack of seating,” Patrick explains. “Most drive-thrus will still have a walk-up window, but they’ll offer minimal seating. The vast majority of orders they take will be takeaway from drive-thru customers.

“The branding and marketing strategy will also need to be different; you may want to focus on convenience and fast execution.”

Despite this focus on convenience, however, drive-thru doesn’t necessarily have to focus on efficiency at the expense of customer service. In the last 30 years, drive-thru chain Dutch Bros. has grown from a single pushcart to operate more than 350 stores in the US.

And while this success could be down to efficiency, a big part of Dutch Bros.’ branding focuses on their commitment to “outstanding customer service”, rather than speed and convenience.

To learn more about the importance of the customer experience in drive-thru coffee, I spoke to Ellie Anderson-Smith. Ellie is the Green Coffee Buyer & Quality Manager at The Roasterie, a roaster and café chain based in Kansas City, Missouri. The Roasterie has nine cafés in the Kansas City metropolitan area, of which two are fully drive-thru.

“By creating a fast, efficient, and overall friendly drive-thru experience, coffee shops can gain revenue and retain customers,” Ellie explains. “Speed and convenience makes [drive-thrus] attractive, appealing, and accessible to more coffee drinkers that might not be able to patronise a dine-in cafe.”

Tony Asmar is the owner of Rise & Grind Coffee, based in Victoria, Australia. Tony says that the “contactless environment, convenience, and easy access” provided by drive-thru coffee have contributed to its growth.

Creating A Drive-Thru Coffee “Experience”

For some people, the concept of drive-thru service might not align with what they want from specialty coffee. A lot of specialty coffee drinkers want their coffee to be an experience, and are happy to wait. Many independent coffee shops take a lot of pride in their craft, and customers often recognise that good coffee takes time. How can this line of thought possibly work in a drive-thru setting, where the priority is speed and efficiency?

“I think there’s a stigma around drive-thru,” Ellie says. “It has a reputation for prioritising speed at the expense of quality. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment.

“I think you can absolutely deliver an exceptional product in a drive-thru setting and facilitate that customer engagement. But I do think those associations may prevent specialty shops and roasters from seriously considering drive-thru as an option. The dine-in experience is a big reason why people go into specialty coffee.”

This shows that drive-thru cafés don’t have to compromise on quality. It proves that drive-thru doesn’t have to just deliver convenience – it can still deliver a customer experience. “At The Roasterie, we don’t want to sacrifice service, quality, or choice for the consumer,” Ellie says. “We don’t want to take away choice or freedom. That’s always been at the heart of our business model.” She says that offering customers drive-thru coffee is simply a “different way of crafting community”.

Further Growth On The Horizon?

Covid-19 is undoubtedly something that’s forcing people to reconsider the dine-in experience. With so many restrictions in place – including social distancing and capacity limits – many coffee shops have been forced to look at other ways to get beverages to their customers.

Across the world, major chains – including Dunkin’ Donuts, Costa, and Starbucks – have restricted the dine-in experience in their cafés, instead prioritising delivery, carry-out, and drive-thru services.

“Drive-thrus have far fewer shared touchpoints and less opportunities for contamination,” Ellie explains. “People want safety and peace of mind to be a part of their coffee experience. Covid-19 is definitely a part of this rise in popularity. It’s upending the associations and assumptions [about drive-thru].”

Whether Covid-19 is to blame or not, there also seems to be a big push to make drive-thru coffee a global trend. We’ve seen this in recent announcements from Starbucks’ drive-thru growth in Asia. For example, in South Korea alone, Starbucks has opened more than 200 drive-thrus (across new and existing stores) in just eight years.

To enjoy further success throughout difficult and more restricted times, it does seem like even specialty coffee shops will have to be flexible. “In a world like today, some shops might find themselves more open to drive-thru,” Ellie says. “However, I think there’s some rebranding that has to be done with drive-thru to make it a bigger movement within specialty coffee.”

Patrick says that he thinks drive-thru “will continue to be popular and grow, with a stronger emphasis on quality coffee in the future”.

“I would expect that we will see the large fast food and takeaway corporations continue to try and grow their presence in the global drive-thru coffee market, as well as independent shops,” he says. Tony agrees, but also thinks that the future is “keeping service easy and convenient”.

And while drive-thru looks set to grow among the major chains, is it a viable option for independent, third wave coffee shops? Only time will tell – but Covid-19 certainly seems to be pushing everyone in that direction, independent or otherwise.

There seems to be no doubt that the drive-thru coffee market is growing. This might be due to Covid-19, but there were also signs of growth long before the pandemic hit.

Organisations like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, and Starbucks are all set to expand their drive-thru offering, and many are converting their dine-in stores to offer some kind of drive-thru or “walk-up” service. Whether or not drive-thru coffee will have the same kind of success among independents remains to be seen.

Enjoyed this? Then read How To Meet The Needs of Today’s Coffee Shop Customer

Photo credits: The Roasterie, Xcite Coffee, Rise & Grind Drive-Thru, Brendan Purdy, Achim Zepp, BetterBizIdeas, Austin Pena

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