• @[email protected]
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    443 minutes ago

    A chain that has historically built its business in being a cool place to hang out, now quadrupling down on being the lamest, most obnoxious place on earth…

    We’ll see how that goes

  • @wabafee
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    14 hours ago

    I’ll give it a few months or so before this is reverted.

  • sp3ctr4l
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    8 hours ago

    I love that comfortable, coffe house vibe of ‘get the fuck out’, really helps me relax while reading a book or sketching or brainstorming, or waiting to meet up with a friend.

    … I get the idea that basically no one in this thread has ever been to an old school, independent coffee shop that basically operates like a pub, ya’ll act like everything is a fast food restaurant.

    Go watch Friends, or something, and see if you notice how coffee houses used to be places you could just hang out and chill in basically all day untill close if you wanted to.

    Its not just a contrivance to make the show work.

    That kind of environment used to actually exist.

    I used to go to one that just had an entire two and a half floors lined with books on all sorts of topics you could just pop open and read for 3 hrs, no purchase necessary, other people used to do school projects their, bring their laptop and do a days worth of remote work…

    This was the original vibe of Starbucks, the original idea, like company mission statement, was to bring that chill, relaxed hangout atmosphere from Seattle and export it.

    … But, over 20 years or so, it did just become another fast food restaurant, and now this is apparently so hypernormalized that I feel like the last living hipster or something, telling ancient stories of yore like a hippe explaining woodstock…

  • FiveMacs
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    510 hours ago

    I left a whole ago once a COFFEE was $5…ain’t no way in hell their shit is worth that.

  • @[email protected]
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    2514 hours ago

    Starbucks is the dominoes of coffee. I have never been to a local coffee shop that had worse coffee than a starbucks, and it’s usually cheaper.

  • @[email protected]
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    3515 hours ago

    I’m not sure how this is dystopian, to be honest. Pretty much any business expects you to actually buy something if you’re using the facilities.

    • @[email protected]
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      15 hours ago

      But “hanging out in a coffee shop” while buying little, and honestly even more specifically “going to starbucks to write” are such common activities that they have been the subject of show plots and memes for decades. There’s probably a reasonable argument that this cultural perception of coffee shops drives a certain percentage of business.

      I personally don’t find it troublesome to need to buy a coffee if I’m going to hang out at a coffee shop (and I’m not one to do so anyhow), but I’m also skeptical it’s such a widespread problem that they had any reason to do this beyond real-world enshittification.

      • @[email protected]
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        511 hours ago

        I agree that people going to a cafe to write is a cliche, but aren’t they typically shown to be buying something while they’re there?

    • @chonglibloodsport
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      715 hours ago

      Yeah. Nobody expects to be able to walk into McDonald’s and sit at a table all day using wifi without buying anything. Same goes for any restaurant or cafe to be honest, except maybe ones in public libraries or on college campuses.

  • @[email protected]
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    2716 hours ago

    Not surprising from a store that infamously doesn’t let you use their bathrooms unless you buy something.

    • Cyborganism
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      2315 hours ago

      In Manhattan there’s a Starbucks on every block but you can’t find one god damn public restroom anywhere. That and someplace to sit.

      Visiting Manhattan is a fucking challenge because of this.

      • @[email protected]
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        312 hours ago

        Pee on their window to show them what a lack of publicly accessiblie toilets leads to.

        (Just to make sure this is clear: this is a joke. In reallity it would just be a low level employee wjo has to clean up your piss)

        • @[email protected]
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          128 minutes ago

          I pulled into a gas station recently to piss and they told me I needed to make a purchase so I walked outside and pissed on the side of the building 🤷‍♂️

        • Cyborganism
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          111 hours ago

          I think people are already doing it. It smelled like piss in many places.

  • @Coreidan
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    -110 hours ago

    What makes this dystopian?

        • @[email protected]
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          11 hour ago

          They probably didn’t let you nurse a single coffee all day before either, but as i understand this it now is “buy shit, consume it, and get the fuck out or buy more”.