I love going to coffee shops to write my book, respond to fellow substack authors, or leave reddit comments. There's definitely an element of getting out of my house, and without the constant rush (and degradation) of going to work. I like to visit the local coffee shops in Albuquerque, but also Starbucks is still a guilty, exploitative pleasure of mine. I went yesterday, I kind of forgot about the whole union/strike happenings. I will do my best to be more conscious in the future and boycott all things robotic in the coffee shop sphere.
I feel like the idea of a coffee shop being a third place has been massively overblown in recent years. In my experience, most people buy a coffee then leave, or worse sit on their laptop for 3 hours glued to a screen. Maybe this wasn’t the case 20 years ago, but consumer behavior has changed and coffee is a capitalistic product mainly seen as a way to get more energy to.. do more work, and less about enjoyment unfortunately. I agree with your post, I don’t want robobaristas, but I’m not sure that having them will change much of a trend that’s been continuing for the better part of two decades. New spaces are needed to facility the type of true face to face interactions you’re talking about, and honestly they may be more likely to happen at a sauna then a coffee shop these days.
Love this article. Last week chatted specifically to my barista about them being the new bartender. A safe comfortable place (especially for women) to go and enjoy meaningful (or not) chat. I WFH and enjoy the interactions of both the barista and other drinkers.
You've nailed what capitalists just don't get: businesses will always rely on humans in one way or another. Building a business that tries to eliminate the human element may succeed in the short-term, but it's not a long-term solution. Efficiency on its own isn't enough to generate new capital.
You might be interested in a book I just finished reading: The City Authentic by David A. Banks. It's about how the attention economy shapes (read: gentrifies) cities. Banks names the cycle that cities trading on "authenticity" attract interest, which attracts investment, which raises the price of everything and bleeds out any real character from the place. It's a gentrification cycle, but updated for the attention economy.
I love going to coffee shops to write my book, respond to fellow substack authors, or leave reddit comments. There's definitely an element of getting out of my house, and without the constant rush (and degradation) of going to work. I like to visit the local coffee shops in Albuquerque, but also Starbucks is still a guilty, exploitative pleasure of mine. I went yesterday, I kind of forgot about the whole union/strike happenings. I will do my best to be more conscious in the future and boycott all things robotic in the coffee shop sphere.
I feel like the idea of a coffee shop being a third place has been massively overblown in recent years. In my experience, most people buy a coffee then leave, or worse sit on their laptop for 3 hours glued to a screen. Maybe this wasn’t the case 20 years ago, but consumer behavior has changed and coffee is a capitalistic product mainly seen as a way to get more energy to.. do more work, and less about enjoyment unfortunately. I agree with your post, I don’t want robobaristas, but I’m not sure that having them will change much of a trend that’s been continuing for the better part of two decades. New spaces are needed to facility the type of true face to face interactions you’re talking about, and honestly they may be more likely to happen at a sauna then a coffee shop these days.
Love this article. Last week chatted specifically to my barista about them being the new bartender. A safe comfortable place (especially for women) to go and enjoy meaningful (or not) chat. I WFH and enjoy the interactions of both the barista and other drinkers.
You've nailed what capitalists just don't get: businesses will always rely on humans in one way or another. Building a business that tries to eliminate the human element may succeed in the short-term, but it's not a long-term solution. Efficiency on its own isn't enough to generate new capital.
You might be interested in a book I just finished reading: The City Authentic by David A. Banks. It's about how the attention economy shapes (read: gentrifies) cities. Banks names the cycle that cities trading on "authenticity" attract interest, which attracts investment, which raises the price of everything and bleeds out any real character from the place. It's a gentrification cycle, but updated for the attention economy.