41–50 of 164 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let’s segment this market! “Starbucks Deluxe” for the golfers and yacht owners. “Starbucks Influencer,” with pink cups and led rings at every table. “Starbucks Classic” for the retired and confused. And of course, “Starbucks Homeless” to capture the downtown vibe.
I think they are doing this already, I was in NYC a few months ago and saw a “Starbucks Reserve”
There’s a nice coffee shop near me but they have somewhat hostile policies toward people wanting to sit on their laptops and work for hours, which makes it hard to be a decent third place. On weekends, laptops are banned entirely.
The definition of a third place is fully incompatible with it being just a remote work location: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_place
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Let’s segment this market! “Starbucks Deluxe” for the golfers and yacht owners. “Starbucks Influencer,” with pink cups and led rings at every table. “Starbucks Classic” for the retired and confused. And of course, “Starbucks Homeless” to capture the downtown vibe.
I think they are doing this already, I was in NYC a few months ago and saw a “Starbucks Reserve”
This is an aside, but my how far has Starbucks fallen at the hands of profit optimization. A Starbucks used to be a great place to spend time. Today the interior of almost every Starbucks is cold, beat up, and (intentionally?) uncomfortable. (In the stores where they even still have seating, which another commenter pointed out.) The quality of the product is barely a step above a gas station. On the other hand, my ar…
It seems like everyone's experience is highly localised. Even within 3km of my place I have 4 starbucks. 1 is amazing, 2 are not great, and 1 is the takeaway variant. Which one is the true measure of "Starbucks"? It's the same for local cafes too. Also what's with the "they just want to make a profit" argument going round here? Why wouldn't they? They literally have a legal duty to do so. Should we instead incentivis…
This is an aside, but my how far has Starbucks fallen at the hands of profit optimization. A Starbucks used to be a great place to spend time. Today the interior of almost every Starbucks is cold, beat up, and (intentionally?) uncomfortable. (In the stores where they even still have seating, which another commenter pointed out.) The quality of the product is barely a step above a gas station. On the other hand, my ar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I don’t need a kiosk; I have an espresso machine I can operate at home or in the office. You would probably enjoy the experience of a small, locally owned coffee shop then. Starbucks is optimizing for their profit. In my suburban city, Starbucks has closed most or all locations that were a few miles from the freeway. They built new locations with drive throughs and very little to no seating within a few blocks of e…
In LA, every small locally owned coffee shop has become totally overrun with folks buying one latte and proceeding to take a whole table to themselves and their laptops for the next 5 hours.
That's what a third place is and what people are lamenting the lack of now.
This is an aside, but my how far has Starbucks fallen at the hands of profit optimization. A Starbucks used to be a great place to spend time. Today the interior of almost every Starbucks is cold, beat up, and (intentionally?) uncomfortable. (In the stores where they even still have seating, which another commenter pointed out.) The quality of the product is barely a step above a gas station. On the other hand, my ar…
What seems weird is that with the massive number of Starbucks closures I've seen smaller indies and local chains open up in the exact same locations and somehow make a go of it- how does that work?
What I don't see in these conversations is how much increasing property prices contribute to killing third places. People get excited because they bought a house for $200k and it's notionally worth $800k now. In reality they haven't gained anything because every house is $800k and you still need somewhere to live so you still only own one housing unit of wealth. Worse, people actively lobby for policies that increase…
That $200k purchaser is sitting on $760k in equity and paying 1/4th in housing that their peers are, which is its own form of wealth.
This is an aside, but my how far has Starbucks fallen at the hands of profit optimization. A Starbucks used to be a great place to spend time. Today the interior of almost every Starbucks is cold, beat up, and (intentionally?) uncomfortable. (In the stores where they even still have seating, which another commenter pointed out.) The quality of the product is barely a step above a gas station. On the other hand, my ar…
It seems like everyone's experience is highly localised. Even within 3km of my place I have 4 starbucks. 1 is amazing, 2 are not great, and 1 is the takeaway variant. Which one is the true measure of "Starbucks"? It's the same for local cafes too. Also what's with the "they just want to make a profit" argument going round here? Why wouldn't they? They literally have a legal duty to do so. Should we instead incentivis…
Their only legal duty is to conduct lawful business.