Close Encounters of the Third Place

You spend time at home. You spend time at work. For years, Starbucks’ goal was to create a third place where you’d feel comfortable spending a lot of time (and buying coffee). But times change and so do corporate goals. These days, Starbucks is more interested in getting you in and out of the drive-thru or delivering coffee to your front door. These changes seem bigger than coffee (and I don’t say that about much). Starbucks wanted to be the ‘third place.’ Now it’s speeding you out the door.