• Wait times at Starbucks have gotten long, with some customers waiting nearly 30 minutes.
  • It’s a challenge for the coffee chain as CEO Brian Niccol gets settled in his new role.
  • I visited three Washington, DC-area Starbucks stores to see how bad the waits were.

A lot of people are tired of hanging around for their orders at Starbucks.

Wait times at the coffee chains’ stores have gotten close to half an hour, Business Insider previously reported.

Starbucks store employees have pointed to some of the reasons. Some venues are understaffed. Others are also dealing with a flood of orders customers have placed online and through Starbucks’ mobile app.

It’s a problem that Brian Niccol, who joined Starbucks as CEO earlier this month, will have to deal with. Niccol oversaw the creation of an online ordering system at Chipotle over the last several years, and some analysts expect that Starbucks will be able to find a solution to its operational challenges under his leadership.

To get a feel for how bad the problem is, I headed out to a few Starbucks locations in the Washington, DC, area.

At each, I ordered a tall Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino. I also wanted to try different ways of ordering: Multiple Starbucks employees — or “partners,” as the chain calls them — have told me that drive-thru wait times are one of the most important metrics their managers track.

Would going through the drive-thru get me my drink faster than ordering through the Starbucks app? Here’s what I found.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at abitter@businessinsider.com.