6mo ago

Hanging out at Starbucks will cost you as company reverses its open-door policy

apnews.com /article/starbucks-customers-purchase-restroom-code-conduct-3876b0592418f30fc19a4e56848ed28b

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.

107 comments

Quick reminder that your local library probably does not follow those rules. Go hang out at your local library instead! Depending on location/country they might have a café too.
- And libraries are not just about books. This is a thread I made about the new library branch my wife oversaw the design of opening:
  https://lemmy.world/post/21386043
  The reason conservatives hate libraries is because everything in them is free. Many (like my wife's library system) do not even charge late fees anymore.
  Many modern libraries also offer a ton of digital lending including ebooks, audiobooks and even streaming movies and TV.
  
  My local library also offers a thermal camera rental! I've borrowed one several times, it's very useful!
  
  Just curious, but do they still have due dates if not late fees?
  
  I think they get annoyed when certain libraries get political and have displays featuring gender identity crises related books. I've seen it at my local library, and it's a bit much when I'm in there with my little 1st grader.
- I love going to the library to panhandle and smoke. Librarians don't mind, I always leave them a good tip.
  
  That's a great idea!
- But I can't talk about how cool my macbook is and the bootstrap code I just copy and pasted
  
  You still can but the librarian might shush you.
- Also community college libraries. Theyre usually open where you can kinda just show up
- 💯! This will also improve society as a whole if people went to library more than coffee shops. We take are kids all the time, and they love books and excel in school.
Support Local Coffee Shops
thanks.
- This, also BDS.
- 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.
  
  LOL
  Ten years ago I would have just blocked the MAC address.
- The local shops all close early. I don’t even drink coffee. I just want a place to work with WiFi. I usually buy a snack and drink.
- SLCS?
- my local coffee shops are not only cheaper, but better than the Starbucks, at least the ones downtown
  better vibes and nicer staff too
Targeting the growing homeless population. Don't let it confuse you for anything else.
- Exactly. Fascism was here but all the billionaires are putting out their flags now.
- Why would it possibly be on Starbucks to provide places for homeless people to hang out for hours. This should be a public function.
  
  Yeah! Why should a business within a community do things that help support that community!
- So before this rule homeless people in the US could sit in a starbucks all day everyday without ordering anything?
It's a café though... Isn't this normal for a café?
- 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.
  
  Sure, if you like burned coffee.
  
  A lot of places don’t just have cafés. Starbucks is about the only place in town with WiFi and a place to hang out
  
  It's the consumption of an idea. There's very little in the way of substance at Starbucks. I achieved more than any Starbucks order by grinding my folgers classic roast just now while using an unbleached compostable coffee filter and having cleaned the coffee maker with all natural biodegradeable dish soap. Can't afford good coffee grounds right now, but recently I had 'Punk Goes The Bunny', Billie Joe Armstrong's (from Green Day) coffee brand.
  But here I am wondering if I'm just consuming a bunch of ideas myself. Consuming the idea of Punk Rock for instance, or eco-friendliness, or health. But then I catch myself and say "Those are tangible benefits." Anything more likely to make me listen to The Clash is a positive, anything that's not gonna put bleach in my body, anything that's gonna be clean for making coffee but without such a residue of dangerous chemicals as is typical with cleaners, and anything to add to my compost.
Hanging out in Libraries is free! I've gone in just for the AC.
- AC, read something, have a nice seat for a while.
- Or to pick up LILFs!
"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 🎉
- 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
- Embrace, extend, extinguish all over again
  I do not think that means what you think it means.
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.
- Starbucks reverses its open-door policy, requiring people to make a purchase if they want to stay
  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/starbucks-open-door-policy-reversal-purchase-now-required/
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.
- 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.
  
  Nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
- 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.
- 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.
And so dies another 3rd Space
- meh, this one can die.
- [flat] No, wait, come back.
  Starbucks seems intent on showing itself the door. Hopefully when they're done, better, smaller coffee shops with no shareholder obligations will take their place
- The Starbucks 3rd space idea has been dead since 2015-2018. It was a conscious choice.
Well this gives me a good excuse to never go to Starbucks ever again (even though people shouldn’t be going to Starbucks anyway)
- Most people near a Starbucks are near a better coffee shop or cafe that's independently owned.
Just put a CC reader on the bathroom door.
- Then put a Starbucks in the restroom.
  
  Like russian nesting dolls. Just starbucks all the way down.
  
  No difference in taste.
Good luck enforcing the "can't use the bathroom without purchase" policy in California.
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.
- Yeah starbucks is a coffee shop for soccer moms and affluent suburbanites. There are a dozen better coffee shops that serve actual coffee for less AND you don't have to deal with Starbucks entitled customer base.
So what I'm hearing is people need to start pissing and shitting on the building itself.
- 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.
  
  You can do both. I never go to Starbucks but will gladly make a detour just to piss on the flowerbeds.
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.
- It's been awhile since I went to a library, but are there places for taking remote meetings to avoid disturbing others?
  
  Oftentimes, yes. Mine has a series of little rooms. They are often used by teens working on homework together.
  
  Other than meeting rooms, I've seen some with the little privacy pods too.
  
  My local one has 10 or so small rooms for maybe 3-4 people max, and 2 larger conference rooms that could easily hold 30+ people each. It's not even one of the bigger city libraries either. The ones down town have even more facilities.
  
  To add on to the other replies here, both of the two closest libraries to me have several small rooms for this as well.
I hope they can make their drinks even more expensive.
Had to check if this was an Onion article.

107 comments