A chain that has historically built its business in being a cool place to hang out, now quadrupling down on being the lamest, most obnoxious place on earth…
We’ll see how that goes
I’m reminded of when Dunkin Donuts in my old state, one of the locations had a sign on the bathroom door. They wouldn’t allow anyone to use it, unless they made a purchase of a $1 or more.
I wish I was kidding, their reason was to combat the people who only parked in their parking lot to just lounge but never go in or order something.
Poor way of handling that.
Sounds like Paris.
Plenty of times I’ve seen that. I got IBS, so I used to map out toilets on my way to work. Lots of public ones, but there were stops where you had to go to a cafee. Tons of signs. So now stand in line to buy a coke or something to be let into the toilet, it was infuriating. Also imagine my terror when they closed down a bridge and the tram went right to add like 30 mins of travel time across “unmapped” terrain. Shit(literally) sucks
I love that comfortable, coffe house vibe of ‘get the fuck out’, really helps me relax while reading a book or sketching or brainstorming, or waiting to meet up with a friend.
… I get the idea that basically no one in this thread has ever been to an old school, independent coffee shop that basically operates like a pub, ya’ll act like everything is a fast food restaurant.
Go watch Friends, or something, and see if you notice how coffee houses used to be places you could just hang out and chill in basically all day untill close if you wanted to.
Its not just a contrivance to make the show work.
That kind of environment used to actually exist.
I used to go to one that just had an entire two and a half floors lined with books on all sorts of topics you could just pop open and read for 3 hrs, no purchase necessary, other people used to do school projects their, bring their laptop and do a days worth of remote work…
This was the original vibe of Starbucks, the original idea, like company mission statement, was to bring that chill, relaxed hangout atmosphere from Seattle and export it.
… But, over 20 years or so, it did just become another fast food restaurant, and now this is apparently so hypernormalized that I feel like the last living hipster or something, telling ancient stories of yore like a hippe explaining woodstock…
We need more buildings that are like public parks. A big open and inviting space with tables and benches and power outlets free for anyone to use.
Libraries are nice for studying but you can’t eat and drink in there or chat with friends and family. I can’t think of any public spaces that really reflect what a coffee shop could provide.
It’s the problem of rapidly diminishing third places.
I’m not sure how this is dystopian, to be honest. Pretty much any business expects you to actually buy something if you’re using the facilities.
having nowhere to be where im not expected to pay up sounds pretty dystopian to me.
It does, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect a private company to provide that to you. Public spaces should be the responsibility of local government.
this is the problem i’m alluding to. private companies have bought everything to the point theres not much left for us anymore.
I mean there are actual public spaces like parks and libraries.
But “hanging out in a coffee shop” while buying little, and honestly even more specifically “going to starbucks to write” are such common activities that they have been the subject of show plots and memes for decades. There’s probably a reasonable argument that this cultural perception of coffee shops drives a certain percentage of business.
I personally don’t find it troublesome to need to buy a coffee if I’m going to hang out at a coffee shop (and I’m not one to do so anyhow), but I’m also skeptical it’s such a widespread problem that they had any reason to do this beyond real-world enshittification.
I agree that people going to a cafe to write is a cliche, but aren’t they typically shown to be buying something while they’re there?
Yeah. Nobody expects to be able to walk into McDonald’s and sit at a table all day using wifi without buying anything. Same goes for any restaurant or cafe to be honest, except maybe ones in public libraries or on college campuses.
But, and this may be an important difference, McDonald’s and restaurants aren’t a coffee house that built its rep on the backside of an homage to Viennese coffee houses - see the decor similarities and learn about “suspended coffees” - in the hopes of filling the shop with literati and being just so damned hip that they were their own advertisement. And that worked a treat for it.
And now it’s tearing up its Austrian passport. And now it will be as American as McDonald’s, which has a 20-minute target for table turning.
This is the first time I’ve ever heard the Vienna connection. I thought Starbucks was based on Italian coffee (espresso, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, etc).
But now their coffee has more in common with Dairy Queen than what Italians drink.
Starbucks is the dominoes of coffee. I have never been to a local coffee shop that had worse coffee than a starbucks, and it’s usually cheaper.
I like dominos tho 😅
Do you live in the midwest or some other pizza desert that doesn’t have local, cheap, quality pizza places?
Living in NYC … dominos is the only place you can get a deep dish pizza .
Plus because of the competition it was pretty good too
Deep dish isn’t pizza. It’s a trash can lid filled with sauce and cheese :o
And that’s why we like it.
Oh. And fluffy bready crust. It’s focaccia with toppings.
I’ll give it a few months or so before this is reverted.
Damage will be done. Starbucks can only recover so much goodwill on $6 milkshakes.
Not surprising from a store that infamously doesn’t let you use their bathrooms unless you buy something.
In Manhattan there’s a Starbucks on every block but you can’t find one god damn public restroom anywhere. That and someplace to sit.
Visiting Manhattan is a fucking challenge because of this.
Pee on their window to show them what a lack of publicly accessiblie toilets leads to.
(Just to make sure this is clear: this is a joke. In reallity it would just be a low level employee wjo has to clean up your piss)
I pulled into a gas station recently to piss and they told me I needed to make a purchase so I walked outside and pissed on the side of the building 🤷♂️
I used to get off work at almost 3am. Pulled into a gas station and they refused to let me use the restroom. I did the exact same thing. Fuck any place that doesn’t recognize the need for someone to relieve themselves of a normal bodily function.
I think people are already doing it. It smelled like piss in many places.
I left a whole ago once a COFFEE was $5…ain’t no way in hell their shit is worth that.
What makes this dystopian?
Yet another place where you have to consooom only. No social spaces left in society
Bruh it’s a place of business. Not a hang out spot.
Either order something or get lost. Go to the park if you just want to hang out.
Yes obviously it is a place of business. The point is that everything becomes a place of business, and society already is severely lacking in social spaces where people can just exist and encounter each other without the expectation of making someone money. Do you not think that is a dystopian development?
Do you not think that is a dystopian development?
No because I don’t think what a private company does with their private property is a concern to me. If they don’t want people in their establishment that have no business to conduct there that seems like a perfectly acceptable request.
Do you go to McDonald’s to just hang out without the intention of buying anything?
Do you go to your local car dealership and just hang out? It makes no sense man.
There are plenty of acceptable places to go if you just want to hang out. A private business isn’t one of them.
If this was an article about shutting down public parks then I’d have a different feeling about it. Instead it’s a private business.
I’d hardly classify needing to buy a single coffee to sit inside the shop as consooming
They probably didn’t let you nurse a single coffee all day before either, but as i understand this it now is “buy shit, consume it, and get the fuck out or buy more”.
Good
