Marketers refer to Starbucks and other coffee shops as the "third place"

The "third place" is a locale that's neither school nor home, but offers a comforting sense of familiarity. ONE COLLEGE STUDENT'S ATTITUDE: "Usually one cup of coffee buys you unlimited time. But if I come to a coffee shop (to study), I really don't feel like I need to buy anything." (Baton Rouge Advocate)
> Starbucks manager: "The way we do business it makes the customer feel so at home that they want to hang out here"

Comments

[Saffron]

How about Starbucks in other parts of the globe....

[G-vegas Barista]

See I think it is great that people can have Starbucks as a third place, but some people wont go home when its closing time. We are obviously closing, yet they stay on their laptop or continue talking. This is after they have asked what time it is, and we tell them. It gets really annoying if your trying to close the store.

[JoeCuppa]

Does this count as a "third place" situation? What do you guys think of this: There's a starbucks in Chicago where a sort of rough (not violent-rough, just kinda gross and smelly) individual who hangs out all day, every single day, from morning to evening. This person goes back and forth from their seat to the counter, giving the baristas "advice" about what the store "needs." This has gone on for months and the baristas are always patient and kind to this person, but I wonder when enough is enough? Do any of you current and former baristas reading this have any thoughts? Have any of you had a similar experience? What did you do?

[SeanTC]

I called Partner & Asset Protection and told them the guy was stalking a female barista. He seemed to find somewhere else to show up after that.

[Sean]

Foamy to the rescue....

http://www.illwillpress.com/sml.html

[Boo]

Well duh -- Starbucks uses the term '3rd place' when it trains all baristas from Day 1.

This is news?

[Yolanda]

Today my sister and I went to Starbucks in Santa Barbara on State Street and De La Guerra. After ordering we could not believe how filthy the place was. The counters were dirty, the floors looked like they had not been sweept in months,there were 2 open containers of milk on the counter, dust and dirt papers were everywhere. It was not that busy and 2 of the 3 workers were gossiping and drinking drinks they had made. The same person that took our money also made the drinks for us. Some thing was wrong with that place. I felt like asking for my money back. I won't be back

Seems to me if you have the time to seek out a third party site to write that, you could contact Starbucks to let them know of the problem.