Unfortunately, Starbucks is opening “kiosk only” locations with no seating that, obviously, fail to function as a third place. My partner finished up a medical appointment and was waiting for me to arrive, and decided to stop in Starbucks. Oops, just a kiosk. The options left for a “third place” was a petrol station that had seating and a grocery store.
Somehow I don’t think petrol station seating areas will promoting a huge amount of neighbourhood entrepreneurship. I would probably look at more independent, locally-owned kind of establishments—particularly that do have seating.
I can think of a lot of critical meetings that happened in these sort of coffee shops, including a first interview for the person who is now our staff software architect, the first meeting I had with my now-business partner where we went over her product idea (admittedly that was a Starbucks), getting together to hash out ideas to solve difficult problems, and best of all, a random chance encounter because we were in a third place. This is in places as diverse as small heartland American towns, NYC, Tel Aviv, or Pennsylvania’s rust belt.
Fewer of these places means fewer of these good things happening. I don’t need a kiosk; I have an espresso machine I can operate at home or in the office.
Somehow I don’t think petrol station seating areas will promoting a huge amount of neighbourhood entrepreneurship. I would probably look at more independent, locally-owned kind of establishments—particularly that do have seating.
I can think of a lot of critical meetings that happened in these sort of coffee shops, including a first interview for the person who is now our staff software architect, the first meeting I had with my now-business partner where we went over her product idea (admittedly that was a Starbucks), getting together to hash out ideas to solve difficult problems, and best of all, a random chance encounter because we were in a third place. This is in places as diverse as small heartland American towns, NYC, Tel Aviv, or Pennsylvania’s rust belt.
Fewer of these places means fewer of these good things happening. I don’t need a kiosk; I have an espresso machine I can operate at home or in the office.