StarBucks

Big Retail coffee Franchise

I'd expect they'd be fanatical about the overall quality of experience, yet

• the bathrooms are often a horror, if not closed down completely (at least in NYC, which is the worst place to have to maintain a bathroom)

• I often find milk pitchers with broken spouts

Can they offer a Third Place?

• some say no, because they "focus on turnover/throughput"

• but most locations I've been in complement that flow with complete tolerance of people being there for hours with books or laptops, or chatting in groups, etc.

a gossip blog by Jim Romenesko http://starbucksgossip.typepad.com