The online ordering system at Starbucks went down on Friday as the coffee chain joined the ranks of companies affected by a global Microsoft outage that caused turmoil across multiple industries, from airlines to healthcare.
The Microsoft outage was sparked by a software update that global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike sent to the tech giant. While the two companies worked to fix the issue, businesses and services grappled throughout Friday with the fallout, which disabled many computers running Windows apps.
The tech failure took down Starbucks’ popular mobile app, which customers use to place orders and pick them up in stores, which can minimize wait times. The glitch also prevented some stores from opening, interrupting regular customers’ …