Maddie Brown (@maddievbrown) has a running bit on her TikTok videos: she walks into Starbucks locations, grabs a mobile order off the pickup shelf that doesn’t belong to her, and reviews it from her car.
In a recent installment, she tagged Austin, Texas. There she reportedly made off with a grande s’mores Frappuccino belonging to a customer named Katy C.
Brown rates it a 6.7 out of 10.
The Starbucks caper
Brown opens the clip by re-establishing the premise for anyone new to the feed. “Come with me to take somebody’s mobile order and, like, find a drink that I like,” she says. “Austin, Texas edition.”
She acknowledges the pushback from a previous installment before proceeding. “I did see comments on my last one. People [said I was] cold and heartless, so I waited till the afternoon so I wasn’t pissing anyone off before work,” she says. “I do have a heart.”
Inside, she scans the pickup shelf and lands on her mark. “Slay, we’re back. I did want a coffee, but this… banging,” she says. “We have Katy C. Katy C. got a grande s’mores frappuccino. I didn’t even know they made this s***.”
Are Starbucks mobile orders prone to theft?
The nasty part of why Brown’s series works is that the pickup shelf is functionally unguarded. It’s a vulnerability the restaurant industry has quietly conceded is expensive. Apex Order Pickup Solutions stated that operators lose roughly six to eight orders a day per location, translating to roughly $100 a day in a quick-service format.
Restaurant Business Online framed the same problem more bluntly, arguing that a countertop or a pickup shelf gives shoplifters easy pickings because the handoff step usually has no verification technology attached to it at all.
A review of the s’mores frappuccino
Back in the car, the verdict. “I do love s’mores, so just a great pick me up. I probably would not get this again,” she says. “That tastes like a s’mores. So I’d rate it a 6.7 out of 10.”
The bit lives in a gray zone that seems intentional. Starbucks will typically remake a missing mobile order for the paying customer, meaning only the chain absorbs the cost, not the Katy C’s of the world. This framing lets some viewers read the videos as soft anti-corporate performance rather than straight theft. Others are less charmed.
“Katy C. was not watching her sugar intake today,” joked one person.
One person wrote, “Dude, you’ve saved me so much money since i’ve started using this hack.”
Some people still did not appreciate her timing. “yk afternoon shifts/ night shifts exist right,” one wrote. “In no way is this right.”
It is at least possible that she’s simply ordering in other names for content’s sake.
Neither Maddy nor Starbucks responded to emails requesting comment.
@maddievbrown i don’t know anyone over the age of 14 that would like this #starbucks #austintx #mobileorder #coffee #fyp ♬ original sound – maddie b