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Starbucks, the chain that made espresso ubiquitous in America, now faces daily crises in dispensing it. ⁠ ⁠ U.S. stores designed a decade ago struggle to meet today’s consumer demand. Cafes that once averaged 1,200 orders a day are now trying to make 1,500. Executives recently visited one East Coast cafe that averaged $1 million in annual sales a decade ago. Now, it is ringing up nearly $3 million in sales in the same 1,500-square-foot space.⁠ ⁠ Many U.S. locations need to be overhauled, said Katie Young, who as senior vice president of global growth and development is in charge of figuring out what new cafes should look like. Having so much demand is a privilege for Starbucks, but also a problem, she said.⁠ ⁠ Workers have cited problems with store designs, equipment and kitchen resources. Their frustrations played into a unionization effort that began last year. Jon Hudson, a union barista at a Starbucks in Anderson, S.C., said workers want to make drinks and food for customers as quickly as possible, but the store’s layout and equipment often get in the way.⁠ ⁠ “We love our regulars. We have their orders memorized,” said Hudson, who has worked for Starbucks for more than four years. “We know it’s annoying to wait for that food or when our equipment is down.”⁠ ⁠ Since late 2018, Starbucks has used a 20,000-square-foot technology lab at its Seattle headquarters to develop new beverages, equipment and cafe procedures. It began pairing baristas, beverage developers and engineers to figure out how to carve seconds off the time it takes to prepare coffee drinks, particularly complex cold ones.⁠ ⁠ Read more at the link in our bio.⁠ ⁠ 📷: @meron_photo for @wsjphotos