Starbucks Declares War On Its Regulars
Have you noticed? Starbucks has declared war on its regular customers.
Their store remodels of late are stripping out the hospitality that used to make an extended visit to Starbucks irresistibly attractive.
In an short-sighted attempt to increase turnover, they have decided there shall be no space for the self-employed, the writers, the consultants and other independent operators who have enjoyed the tables and power outlets which invited us to stay for an hour or two.
Granted it’s their property and their decision for what sort of clientele they design. While their efforts to chase away those of us who might overstay our welcome will certainly succeed, I question whether our absence will result in an increase in walk-through customers they seem to prefer.
Losing some of their most enthusiastic evangelists, they change the alternative facing their remaining prospects. If the choice for good coffee is between getting in and out at Starbucks or in and out of McDonalds, McDonalds is the “in and out” winner.
It was wonderful while it lasted. Thank you for the delightful place to work for so many years. But I get the message. I won’t bring my clients to Starbucks anymore. We’ll leave what spartan space remains to all those new customers who need a place to sit while waiting for their drinks to be prepared.
If they show up.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:10 am
I haven’t been into a SBucks recently, it was always my choice place to read during grad school’s weekly classes. I have though contributed the corrective nature of $4+ dollar cups of coffee in favor of my new happy $2+ dollar of massively proportioned McDonald’s iced coffee. In and out is definitely McDonald’s niche…
November 26th, 2008 at 10:07 am
John,
Is the question, what makes a $2 cup of coffee worth $4? Having a nice place to camp out and get some work done used to make the difference for me. It’ll be interesting to watch how all this falls out.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This last week I needed a nice quiet place to do my work, and decided to try the local public library. It’s quiet, has great big tables, and they even supply power ports for laptops. Incredibly, all Los Angeles County public libraries have free wifi. Why don’t more people take advantage of this great service? Leave your coffee at the door though.
November 26th, 2008 at 10:53 am
Talk about opening my eyes to the obvious! Thanks Jorge.
Let’s start a stampede to the library.
Will I be able to concentrate without the grinders and blenders as my ambient background noise?
November 26th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
And I thought I was the only one that noticed…that and they CHARGE for the internet…while places like Panera not only have the comfy seating and FREE internet, you can actually get REAL food!
November 28th, 2008 at 11:01 am
Alison, I’ll look forward to running into to you at Panera! I didn’t know they had such potential for gathering and working.