Starbucks proves it was never really a ‘third place’

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For a brand that has long posed as something akin to a community space, issuing a “code of conduct”—for customers—sounds a little off key. But Starbucks’s recent decision to lay down some new rules, including a requirement to buy something if you want to hang out, is really just a de facto admission of what its brand is really about: The coffee giant is not really in the community space business at all. It’s a luxury brand, and it has been all along.

“Starbucks spaces are for use by our partners and customers,” the new “code” reads, “this includes our cafés, patios, and restrooms.” (“Partners” refers to employees and store managers.) The new code of conduct is to be posted in stores “to remind customers of the role they play in creating a community coffeehouse that is inviting and welcoming,” a company statement explains. The new code also includes rules against violence, abusive language, smoking, and the like.

But it’s the bit about this being a space for customers, not just anybody looking for a bathroom or a place to sit around, that has sparked the buy-something-or-leave headlines. The policy, which kicks in on January 27, is hardly unusual. But it reverses a 2018 decree that “any customer is welcome to use Starbucks spaces, including our restrooms, cafés, and patios, regardless of whether they make a purchase.” This stemmed from an incident in which two Black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks after they were asked to leave for declining to make a purchase while waiting to meet someone. The arrests were caught on video and went viral, embarrassing the brand and sparking boycott calls—thus the open policy.

That policy did seem in line with Starbucks’s longstanding positioning of its stores as a “third place,” filching sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s term for spaces outside the home and work where community members can gather and connect. Parks, libraries, churches, and, yes, cafés are common examples. Starbucks has explicitly cited creating a “third place environment” as a key attribute of its mission.

But it’s always tricky for a business to behave as a true public space, and it’s even tougher for a corporate chain with thousands of locations, charging premium prices. These days, as much as 75% of Starbucks’s transactions come by way of its drive-through, mobile app, or delivery. Even a decade ago, when mobile was a fledgling category, drive-through had become a major sales driver prioritizing the convenience of skipping the in-store experience altogether. So for many customers, the point isn’t to linger in a community setting, but to grab a high-quality beverage and go.

But that doesn’t mean the store experience doesn’t matter: To the contrary, delayed orders and lines for the bathroom set a bad tone, both inefficient and uncomfortable. Employees and customers have reportedly complained about disruptive in-store behavior from noncustomers, and in 2022 the chain raised the possibility of dropping the open-bathroom policy and actually shut down 16 locations that were particularly troubled.

CEO Brian Niccol, the Taco Bell and Chipotle veteran who took over last year, outlined changes meant to bring Starbucks back to a more consistently pleasurable vibe, and to a focus on its reputation for selling “highest quality” coffee drinks. For in-store and to-go customers alike, the experience should be, like its (often pricey) product, “a treat,” as Fast Company’s Mark Wilson put it in assessing Niccol’s challenge. Charging premium prices for coffee products includes selling them in a premium setting, which isn’t how Starbucks has felt lately.

Firming up the rules that govern these proprietary “third places” seems in line with that. “We know from customers that access to comfortable seating and a clean, safe environment is critical to the Starbucks experience they love,” president of Starbucks North America Sara Trilling wrote in a letter announcing the code of customer conduct to managers. “We’ve also heard from you, our partners, that there is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them.”

Much will depend on how the new policy is executed: Some baristas worry about having to serve as bouncers at Club Starbucks. And there’s a risk that admonishing people to spend or get out might alienate potential customers. But resetting those expectations means making these erstwhile third places, and the brand, feel a little less like public space, and a little more . . . exclusive.