I travel a lot. And one of the unsung features of the Starbucks app, is that the density of stores and the app means I'm never more than 15 minutes away from a consistent coffee experience.
I also did exactly what you were doing back in 2012ish. We even had an app. I thought preordering was going to be the next awesome thing.
It turns out that not waiting 5 minutes for your order kinda leaves out the whole experience of talking to the barista, getting that smile at 6am when you're not feeling it yourself, and the personal experience of the hand crafted beverage. My barista knows my name and my order.
And you know how often I use the mobile ordering feature of the Starbucks app? Like 3 times, and only when the line was really long.
Now if you wanted to create a niche market of curated handcrafted delicious coffee from friendly independent baristas, that's an app I might be more inclined to use.
I also like your example about the hand crafted experience, and I agree - in a lot of ways that's desired from the customers that seek out local shops.
That said, we've interviewed hundreds of people (customers, random strangers, etc.), and it's clear that they'd go to their local shop more often if this were an option. It doesn't mean that they'll use Cloosiv for every visit, but if we can be there when they don't have a lot of time, that's a win for the coffee shop and the customer.
https://foodtruckempire.com/coffee/fail-rates/
These are the #1 and #2 reasons given in the survey that coffee shops fail out of a survey of 232 former coffee shop owners:
Unprepared for business ownership – 128 responses
No Distinct Brand / Experience – 94 responses
With GrubHub, your customer has no personal experience anymore with your store, employees, or brand. Instead, you get a GrubHub employee (hopefully not too grubby) and trust that your customer experience / brand is handled by the delivery person -- something which is completely out of your control.
So one way to think of this is that the independent coffee shop market is a scourge to investment opportunities and you should pivot off coffee shops ASAP.
Another way to think of this is that the independent coffee market is the right market, but the ordering ahead app is not the solution they need. They need strong branding.
I'm pretty sure you're in minority wanting this though. I absolutely dread getting too personal with my barista, to the point that I start going to another place if they recognize me. If I could choose I would not exchange a single word with them. Even saying what I want is too much.
Here in Italy, you normally drink coffe at home before leaving for work.
Then, later in the morning you want to go to a bar to get a coffee (even if every office/shop has a coffee machine of this or that kind) usually with one or two colleagues, essentially because it is a way to make a short pause, have a quick stroll, talk with the colleagues about non-work arguments, have some interaction with the barista and/or the cashier.
Exceptionally, i.e. - as an example if there is a meeting - someone calls the bar (of which the phone number is known of course) and orders the needed coffees (and pastry/whatever) and either someone from the office goes and gets them or a barista brings them up (this depends a lot on the city/village).
Apart the above exception here having a coffee is more a ritual for having a pause mid-work, making it more "efficient" wouldn't probably work.