Do You Have a Mobile Order for Andrew?

A small Tuesday afternoon thing that has stayed with me.

Last month I placed a mobile order on my phone and drove to Starbucks one Tuesday afternoon for a coffee. I pulled up to the order station in the drive-thru. Before I said anything, a voice came through the speaker: “Do you have a mobile order for Andrew?”

I smiled. I did.

The order station has a camera. The staff inside saw me before I saw them. I had been in a season of ordering the same drink around the same time of day, often enough that someone inside had put a face to a name and a name to a drink before I had a chance to speak.