A Sad Third Place...Perfect For Staring

Back in the day, Howard Shultz founded Starbucks and created what he called the "the third place". Starbucks was not to be work or home. It was to be the place in between. For a very long time that worked perfectly, although a lot of people made it their work place like salespeople and free-agents. But, yesterday, I would say that Starbucks has returned to the third place, but it's not the place it once was. In the heyday Starbucks hustled and bustled. It was full of vibrant conversations, business meetings, rendezvous, small groups, etc. It was a great place. No one cared that the coffee was too expensive or the smell of roasted beans was replaced and gone. The place was about the place to hang out. A few days ago I was in a Starbucks in downtown San Francisco, in the financial district. I was between meetings and had about 90 minutes to kill so I went into Starbucks, grabbed one of their pre-made lunch assortments and a Berry-Chai and sat down with my laptop and did some work. After a few minutes, I noticed that something was different. First of all, the store was not as crowded as it would have been a year or a few months ago (or any Starbucks would have been). That is to be expected. The price of a cup of coffee is more discretionary now than ever so less people are paying up. Understandable. But that was not the change. The change was in the spirit and feel of the people who were there. Those who were there together were not the usual "up talkers" where you could normally overhear about "this deal" or that "opportunity" or "the next new thing". Instead, conversations seemed muted and softly spoken. But the real difference I saw were the, and I counted them, five "starers" who were there. They were four men and one woman, all who looked to be in their late 40's to late 50's. These five people, all dressed nicely, each had a cup of coffee or drink in their hand, a briefcase or knapsack with them placed on the floor or in the other seat. Nothing was out of the their packs on the tables, only their drinks were on the the table or in their hands. Each was alone not waiting on anyone else. All five of them sat at their table, with their drinks and just stared into space. This had been going on since before I got there and continued for the 90 minutes I was there. For a moment, as I observed this, I thought maybe this was some sort of psychology experiment that was going on, but after a while, it was clear to me that this was not a test, this was the real thing. What I was watching were people who didn't have anything else to do. These were people who didn't have work to do and didn't have any work that they could find to do. As I projected their stories, I saw men and women who had spent their day trying to network into a new job, had done all they could do for the day, didn't want to go home and instead headed back to the place that they could be most comfortable, their third place. We all migrate back to where we think is comfortable when we feel lost. The third place may not be the hustle and bustle of before, but for some, it looks to have become a refuge. It is a sign of our times.