PublicRadar.Com

The Starbucks Community

April 10th, 2008 Justin Posted in Business, Opinion |

There is nothing better than a friendly coffee shop where people from all classes of society can interact and talk about any issue. Until now, I have never seen a coffee shop like this. In most cases, when I go to Starbucks to study, I find a table and bury my nose in my book. Today things were a little different. I had my laptop out, and my biology PowerPoint slides up and running.

As I was sitting down studying, a gentleman came up and sat next to me. Since I had my computer open, he assumed I was connected to the internet. We had a little discussion about Starbucks wi-fi internet connections, and how they are going to be giving customers ‘free hours’ on wi-fi internet access. Our discussion then moved onto wi-fi security and anti-virus protection.

I thought that this was an odd occurrence. Two complete strangers having a discussion about computer security in a coffee shop! I was completely amazed and shocked at the same time. After our conversation, I started my studying again. Minutes later, to my surprise another random occurrence happened; but this time amongst different customers.

There was a gentleman sitting across from me studying the bible and taking some notes. An older man came up to him and asked him if he could sit down and join him, as all of the tables were full. The reader agreed and moved his stuff to clear room on the table. The two started to have a conversation about religion.

I think occurrences like these are great for society. There are so many situations where people always put themselves first - I call it the ‘me first’ mentality. However, twice in one day I witnessed complete strangers come together and converse about random topics. Never in my life did I think that this would occur in a Starbucks Coffee shop. Being the big chain, people usually come to Starbucks for a quick coffee fix and head out. Now, it seems that Starbucks is working on the community aspect.

Justin