This girl's Starbucks drive-thru experience is capturing hearts around the world - and for good reason. The company has started installing video chat capability at some of their locations for customers going through the drive-thru. As we see in this video, though, for many people it's about so much more than just being able to see your barista while you order.
Rebecca King, a 28-year-old deaf woman, posted this interaction she had with her barista at a Starbucks in St. Augustine, Florida and it has already been viewed over 7 million times. "Starbucks! This is what I'm talking about <3. Share it away! We can change the world!" and sharing is exactly what more than 205,000 people have already done!
Starbucks! This is what I'm talking about! ❤️Share it away! We can change the world! :)For Licensing/Usage Please contact licensing@viralhog.com
Posted by Rebecca King on Tuesday, November 3, 2015
The barista was one of those people who shared the video, writing, "So for those who know I use sign language, know how much I love the language and how excited I was when I got to use the evolution screen at work. If you haven't gotten to use it yet it's kind of like Starbucks FaceTime. Well, today (not for the first time) I got to use it with a Deaf customer and they were thrilled! This video is going viral and I wanted to share it with y'all. So proud that my company can do this."
St. Augustine has a large deaf community as The Florida School for the Deaf and Blind is located in there. The store's assistant manager told BuzzFeed that they have four baristas at that location who know ASL (American Sign Language) and that screen makes it much easier for them to communicate. "People who are Deaf feel comfortable here and that's our goal for all of our customers," she explained.
No word yet on exactly how many Starbucks restaurants will be installing the video chat technology, but after seeing what a difference it can make for people who can't easily just shout their order into the speaker, we hope to see them popping up everywhere!