[itslennysfault]

This was a core part of Starbuck's strategy. They wanted to be the defacto 3rd place, and were making great progress. Before Starbucks most coffee in the US was diners or togo drip in a styro cup.

https://www.fastcompany.com/887990/starbucks-third-place-and...

Unfortunately, Kevin Johnson pushed hard to maximize profits and cut costs to the direct detriment of the original "3rd place" vision. His focus was on pushing toward smaller to go / drive thru locations. The logic is pretty obvious. Smaller places that sell more units are more profitable. Large comfy coffee shops where people sit sipping 1 coffee for hours aren't.

Laxman Narasimhan took over this year and it is unclear how that will impact things, but I doubt "being the 3rd place" is even a goal of Starbucks anymore.

[jrmg]

The Starbucks near me, pre-pandemic, always had a few people sitting in it with laptops or books or sitting with a friend.

During the pandemic it was refurbished. All the tables were removed, and the floor size of the shop was halved (I guess they have a big stockroom area or something now?! I can’t imagine what it’s used for.)

So there are now no tables, and only a small public area at the front, which I’d say is mostly taken up by people who’ve ordered online silently coming in and standing until their drinks arrive on the counter to pick up.

Not only can’t I sit there (which if I’m honest I hardly ever did), but it’s a much more unpleasant place to be in now.

[at_a_remove]

This is a little embarrassing to admit, but my favored Starbucks was very much a third place. It had a fireplace with shelves to either side. I got some old books and made a little library out of it. Even got some Starbucks-green metal bookends. Books for the kiddies. It looked cozy and nice. The manager loved it.

Then COVID hit and everyone was bafflingly weird about transmission via surfaces (that was the WHO's stubborn take on it then) and whoosh, all of it gone.

[OfSanguineFire]

Starbucks and similar chains tend to have flat walls without any sound dampening, making them extremely loud, and also their furniture is intentionally designed to merely look comfy, while becoming painful to stay in for long. Even if they don't have a policy (like many independent cafes in Europe now do) of sending a waitress around to politely nudge you to order more or get out, they are not satisfying places to meet up with friends for hours like the traditional Central European cafe of yore.

[vladvasiliu]

A different thing I've seen around Paris is that "traditional cafés" still do exist, with comfy seating and everything, but many explicitly have a "no laptops" policy (complete with signs and everything). Most of them aren't even particularly busy during the day.

Actually, the "cafés" with the most people on laptops around me are Starbucks.

[almatabata]

Do you know why they put up that no laptop rule? Is it to avoid people working or studying there for too long?

[flemhans]

Yes exactly that. Many also used to boast about how they did not have WiFi, although people's own cellphone connections are putting an end to that trend.

[vladvasiliu]

I've always seen the big "NO WIFI" signs as a "polite" way of saying "you're not welcome to work from here".

[vladvasiliu]

I have no idea, I've never actually been in any of those places, just noticed the signs walking by.

I know that establishments like this sometimes don't like people hanging around for too long without buying stuff, so it could be the reason that people would just get a coffee and stay all day. But this is just speculation on my part.

[rchaud]

Starbucks locations post-pandemic are effectively a fulfillment center for UberEats and Doordash. Every single employee appears to be working on a never-ending queue of drive-in orders. It usually takes me 5 minutes as a walk-in customer to get any service.

[KptMarchewa]

This is something really wild to me. I've never seen "delivery coffee" in Poland, it's just not a thing.

[wink]

I would not have expected that!

I think I've been to two (urban) Starbucks in my life that were both big enough to even have the space to sit there not directly in front of the counter and also not in main train station with dozens of people in it. (And the 2nd ones urban-ness can be debated, it was in Mexico).

At least to me, in Europe, Starbucks is the epitome of McDonalds-but-for-coffee. Not great, but reliable, for a quick stop and not to linger.

[itslennysfault]

In the US Starbucks popularized lingering at a coffee shop. There a lot of HUGE Starbucks that have fire places and couches and are really built to be comfortable places to relax and/or work. However, the trend in the past 5-ish years has been to remodel them to be geared toward pickup / drive thru which is a shame. The exception is the "Starbucks Reserve Roastery" which are massive multi-story stores mostly in touristy areas. The one in Chicago is 4 stories and has every comfort you could imagine, but it is pretty much always packed with tourists (still not a great place to hang out of work).

[Eddy_Viscosity2]

My local starbucks recently underwent a complete renovation. The result is a changed layout with probably 40% of the seating and that seating is more awkward. The goal appears to get 'em in and then out.