Order a Coffee & Wait in Line. It Will Help Your Community.
In the middle of 2022, quite a bit of news was made when it was announced by Starbucks that 16 stores in five different states were going to be closing due to various safety concerns. 16 closures were just the start with the Starbucks CEO noting that these stores are “…just the beginning. There are going to be many more."
While the shuttering of these Starbucks locations made national news over the past few months, another important and unreported change has been afoot for Starbucks — the new Starbucks Pickup spot. These shops have already begun to appear in New York City and have rolled out in 17 states nationwide. For this new concept, customers order their food and beverages on their apps before arriving at their location and pop in to grab their orders; there are no delays or lines, no chats with the baristas, and no amusing questions about name spelling. As Starbucks notes “order ahead and pay. Now there’s nothing standing between you and your coffee.”
I have tried this new concept on a few occasions; the spaces are beautifully designed and my order is always ready. Unlike the Starbucks café locations which closed and served as third spaces — that is, a place to spend time away from home and work — for many, these new shops are intended to minimize the time in the space itself and, by extension, anyone else. While I said thank you to the server, there is almost no opportunity to interact with other customers let alone overhear others or see patrons reading, engaged in discussion, or anything else for that matter. There are no lines, minimal opportunity for mingling with others, spaces for connection and discussion are gone, and many customers are lost in the digital devices as they grab their respective beverages. While one can certainly enjoy the beverages away from the stores, the new format is designed to minimize chance encounters, the ability to connect with others, and discourages loitering.
This approach to coffee selling is no accident. In describing this new concept, Starbucks notes that these stores are “exclusively designed for a grab-and-go experience and picking up mobile or online orders, the store has a smaller footprint and does not contain customer bathrooms or seating.” Given the recent troubles in some locations, this move is understandable but poses a real danger to the varied communities nationwide. While Starbucks may be a global chain, many of its cafes still hire local employees and are situated in local communities; they serve as real third spaces and they may disappear.
Volumes of research have powerfully demonstrated that having a third place in one’s life increases feelings of connectedness and neighborly trust. Moreover, third places significantly improve the likelihood of having a “conversation with someone you do not know well,” or making a connection, and they do so without real barriers to entry. Coffee shops are open to all and generally attract huge varieties of Americans; thus, it is likely customers will run into an array of people of diverse backgrounds and this could help increase tolerance and even sway social and political views in a time when Americans are often cocooned and have limited interaction with difference.
Moreover, market research has shown that traditional coffee shops are attractive spaces for promoting social life and serve as hubs for community gatherings. Walk into a shop around the nation and you are likely to see local artwork and community events featured along with the spaces hosting local concerts, speaker events, and even political rallies. While it is no surprise that there are politically leaning coffee shops from Blue State Coffee in New England to Black Rifle Coffee in Utah, most coffee shops pull in a wide array of patrons and are social hubs. Even numerous television shows feature their characters and storylines around such places.
It is worth noting that coffee shops encourage regular attendance and many become part of a coffee drinker’s routine. As my AEI colleague Daniel Cox has noted, “Precise figures on the frequency with which Americans visit coffee shops may be hard to determine, but many of us go often enough that baristas learn our names, or at least our drinks.” It is these regular and habitual interactions that tend to foster connections that have been shown to actually improve mental health and well-being. Even if a patron wants to ignore the world when ordering coffee, coffee houses traditionally offer open and welcoming social spaces to meet and spend time with others or just offer a setting to pause and reflect.
The new Starbucks model puts these communal benefits all at risk. Eliminating more traditionally organized coffee shops can not only weaken communities but also attenuate feelings of connectedness to others. Grab-and-go coffee spots are not third places or local anchors. Although it is totally understandable that Starbucks needed to and will continue to close some shops due to security concerns, I hope that Starbucks limits the numbers and that many other shops do not follow suit. Certainly, grab and go is efficient and easy, but community suffers. So, take five minutes, wait in line even if you order ahead, and see what other patrons are up to, you may end up feeling happier, learn something new or gain a new viewpoint, and still walk out with your coffee.
Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
