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submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

If you want to hang out or use the restroom at Starbucks, you’re going to have to buy something.

Starbucks on Monday said it was reversing a policy that invited everyone into its stores. A new code of conduct – which will be posted in all company-owned North American stores – also bans discrimination or harassment, consumption of outside alcohol, smoking, vaping, drug use and panhandling.

Starbucks spokesperson Jaci Anderson said the new rules are designed to help prioritize paying customers. Anderson said most other retailers already have similar rules.

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[-] [email protected] 92 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)
Support
Local
Coffee
Shops

thanks.

[-] [email protected] 15 points 6 months ago

This, also BDS.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

I did a support call for a local coffee shop about a decade ago.

They had a separate WiFi router for guests. When they got a squatter they unplugged the guest WiFi if when they wanted him out.

They were in a very high traffic area and had minimal seating.

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[-] [email protected] 58 points 6 months ago

Targeting the growing homeless population. Don't let it confuse you for anything else.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

Exactly. Fascism was here but all the billionaires are putting out their flags now.

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago

Why would it possibly be on Starbucks to provide places for homeless people to hang out for hours. This should be a public function.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Yeah! Why should a business within a community do things that help support that community!

[-] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

I know you're just circlejerking here so discussion is probably pointless, but there are many ways to serve the community and providing a quiet, nicely ambient place (aspirational goals, only met sometimes in reality) to sit or work for a few hours, for the price of a $3 coffee is one. I live in New York and for just over the price of a subway ride I can get wifi, a desk to work, outlets and a decently comfortable chair, and a restroom, and I can hang out there a while.

Serving the homeless in public places is notoriously difficult to get right, as most state and local governments experience demonstrates. Why we'd expect a cafe company to do a good job as well as meet its other goals is confusing.

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[-] [email protected] 53 points 6 months ago

It's a café though... Isn't this normal for a café?

[-] [email protected] 38 points 6 months ago

Yeah. But now they don't have any advantages over other cafés. Except the fact that their coffees basically double as a rich snack I guess.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Sure, if you like burned coffee.

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Just put ten parts milk in there with some sugar and you'll never know.

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[-] [email protected] 47 points 6 months ago

Hanging out in Libraries is free! I've gone in just for the AC.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

AC, read something, have a nice seat for a while.

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[-] [email protected] 44 points 6 months ago

"Hey, look at us--we're the new public hangout, everyone's invited"

Expands into an empire dotting the entire country

"Sorry poors--paying customers only, please."

Embrace, extend, extinguish all over again 🎉

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

If I remember correctly, this policy was introduced after they got flack because some employee called the cops on a black person who was just hanging out inside the store.

Turns out money is more important to them than the appearance of inclusion surprised pikachu face

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

Embrace, extend, extinguish all over again

I do not think that means what you think it means.

[-] [email protected] 36 points 6 months ago

The best thing I've seen in a coffee shop was a "Please no laptops" sign.

Its ridiculous how everyone just goes and works in coffee shops all day.

I understand buying a coffee, and working while you enjoy it. But once you're done, and your work is saved gtfo.

We need more third spaces.

[-] [email protected] 17 points 6 months ago

People are also desperately lonely and isolated. They hang out in coffee shops just to have other living humans around them- even if they're not actively interacting.

We are all alone, together.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives

[-] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Grind the rich into coffee?

[-] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

I troubleshoot a VPN connection for a man who does his work from a Dunkin at least once a week. He doesn't even drink coffee or eat donuts. He just hangs out there and works until his VPN breaks.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

Starbucks coffee isn't even good anyway. But without more coworking spaces or some other alternative people like me will occasionally be forced to work from one for one reason or another. In the towns around military bases especially you frequently see spouses of those who work on base in Starbucks doing their remote work since it's the only possible place they can work from if they were staying in a hotel the night before.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 6 months ago

Past: Person goes to Starbucks to hang out, ends up ordering coffee.

Present: Person isn't allowed to hang out in Starbucks, goes somewhere else.

Future: Starbucks backpedals in desperate attempt to win back customers.

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[-] [email protected] 22 points 6 months ago

Well this gives me a good excuse to never go to Starbucks ever again (even though people shouldn’t be going to Starbucks anyway)

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

Most people near a Starbucks are near a better coffee shop or cafe that's independently owned.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

Just put a CC reader on the bathroom door.

[-] [email protected] 20 points 6 months ago

Then put a Starbucks in the restroom.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

Like russian nesting dolls. Just starbucks all the way down.

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[-] [email protected] 13 points 6 months ago

So what I'm hearing is people need to start pissing and shitting on the building itself.

[-] [email protected] 16 points 6 months ago

I can piss and shit on Starbucks management by not going there - all doing it for real does is force some underpaid barista to have to go clean shit up, and management learns nothing.

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[-] [email protected] 12 points 6 months ago

Meh, the last time I've been in one was 2011. Too expensive for what it is, and plenty of other options in my city.

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[-] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago

My fiancee got a Starbucks gift card from work, so we stopped by the one nearest us. The drive-through wrapped all the way around the building, so we went inside. Inside, there was only one huge table, with only one spot with an electrical outlet, and the music and cafe atmosphere were so loud... I can't imagine anybody trying to bring a laptop and "work" there.

But if I did, I guess I'd buy a coffee? That seems fair. I definitely prefer my local library for remote working outside of the house, though.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago

It's been awhile since I went to a library, but are there places for taking remote meetings to avoid disturbing others?

[-] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago

Oftentimes, yes. Mine has a series of little rooms. They are often used by teens working on homework together.

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this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2025
270 points (100.0% liked)

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