Lugging ice is a lot of work. Over the course of a day, Starbucks workers would have to tote a 25-pound bucket of ice from the back of the coffee shop to the ice bin at the counter about 75 times a day. Do the math and that’s a lot of time and weight. So the company created an ice machine that fits above the counter. Workers simply have it dispense the proper amount of nugget ice based on drink size.