[sfmz]

Your link is broken. I do know that Mr. Schultz has given lip-service to the fact that Starbucks is no longer a third place, but in the other column I present the fact that there are no longer any comfortable chairs at my nearest Starbucks and the next one by distance is Drive-Thru only.

[shigawire]

For what it's worth, they are working on a bunch of store redesigns to incentivize people to stay in stores. It probably hasn't hit your area yet.

All that said, I do think it is a sorry state when Starbucks is the only/best third place option.

[satvikpendem]

Updated my comment with the original source. What kinds of chairs are those? Maybe it's me but I found my Starbucks pretty bustling, people gathering, the chairs fairly comfortable for even long periods of time working on a laptop for example. Hell, we even have several single seater couches and that's been fairly standard since I can remember.

[sfmz]

Welp, I should have probably told you I'm in a suburb. I'm guessing you are in a cool city. /jealous

[satvikpendem]

When I was in a suburb we still had that sort of seating, and I recently went back and I see those couches still. Maybe they don't put them in new stores, I'm not sure, but I don't think they remove them if they're already there. These are the kinds I'm talking about and seeing [0].

Another source on couches returning [1], maybe in the suburbs too.

[0] https://www.reddit.com/r/malelivingspace/comments/42gl0s/whe...

[1] https://fortune.com/2025/07/06/starbucks-coffeehouse-of-the-...