Spotted Cow Cream & Bean is a coffee shop, roastery, and ice cream parlor; it has become one of my being spaces, a third place, an office, a home away from home. Here, I’m friendly with the owner, know the names of many of the baristas, and I’m mayor according to foursquare.
Some of the joys and blessings of being alive out to be as easily achieved as a stroll down to the place on the corner—but there does have to be a place on the corner! — Ray Oldenburg, The Great Good Place
There are a few coffee shops in my neighborhood, but Spotted Cow is one of the closest; here are a few photos from my Caffeinated Travels website taken last Friday.
Building upon Reiner Evans definition of being spaces as a “living room like setting in the the public space,” Melinda Blau, author of Consequential Strangers, takes it a step further, “defining the term more broadly as any physical environment—commercial, residential, or public—where a stranger can become a consequential stranger.”
A closely related term, third place, was originally coined by Ray Oldenburg, and is often referred to by CEO Howard Schultz of Starbucks. Third place refers to social surroundings that separate the usual two of home and workplace; they are welcoming and comfortable anchors of community life, accessible conversation friendly places where friends meet and new ones are made. In response to The Wall Street Journal article that some New York Coffee shops were pulling the plug, Starbucks replied with the following:
We strive to create a welcoming environment for all of our customers. We do not have any time limits for being in our stores, and continue to focus on making the Third Place experience for every Starbucks customer.
Regardless of who or how the term is used, many coffee shops and the like are not just serving the needs of coffee drinkers, conversationalists, and book readers. Nowadays, WiFi enabled places are providing a resource that allows its customers to live in two worlds at the same time; the physical and virtual one. Likewise, coffee shops may be one of the few places where employed, unemployed, and underemployed coexist.
As I sat lounging on a couch at Spotted Cow, two men across from me had their headphones plugged in, wireless mouses sliding up and down their armrest, closed off to others. In my estimation, they were what Keith Hampton calls true mobiles, people who have no intention of making acquaintances. For them, place is irrelevant; getting work done was their exclusive goal.
In contrast, place makers, also coined by Keith Hampton, are people who are open to meeting others and use their laptop as a mere prop. When I’m at the coffee shop, I’m always looking around, observing the doings of others, ready to join a conversation. When plugged in, I’m usually replying to emails, sending tweets, and so forth; it’s hard for me to concentrate on work for long periods of time because my eyes wander.
After almost every page I read at Spotted Cow on Friday, I looked out into the coffee shop: two women talked on the couch, two well dressed men talked business, two other women watched their children in the play area, a man studied for a test, and another joined a communal table. All were doing something a little different.
Coffee shops like Spotted Cow are more than just being spaces and/or third places; they serve the needs of many and have become a home away from home, an office away from the office, a place to plugin and disconnect from others, a place to plugin and connect with others, and a place to initiate conversations with friends and strangers.
What have places like this become for you?
2 Comments
I like very much the idea of a public space. It makes a community seem more human. But I have wondered if coffee shops find it a problem when people stay too long.
We have breakfast every Saturday morning at our neighborhood Starbucks and lately we’ve been noticing a group of four or five folks who come in, commandeer three, or more, tables (they use one just for their coats), set up their laptops and all sorts of paperwork, and use the place as a workspace.
They aren’t even talking to each other. They’re just working away.
Several times we’ve had to go get our breakfast elsewhere because there was nowhere to sit, and I imagine this happens to a lot of people. Starbucks is losing business. I realize their policy is to let people just stay and work. But they pay a price (and so do we!)
In Europe they let you sit in cafés as long as you want but I haven’t seen this phenomenon of people using the place as an office.
@Working Girl Some coffee shops are pulling the plug on WiFi or at least regulating it. actual cafe recently stopped offering WiFi on the weekends, and the owner has written about this transition on his blog. The SFGate wrote about it as well, and the article received 331 comments.
Clearly, people have strong opinions on the subject. I think every coffee shop, third place, etc. has the right to shape their culture / atmosphere how they’d like. If customers don’t approve, they can move along. However, while I believe that nothing can replace face to face, the same can also be said of online conversation. Many online conversations move offline and vice versa. Regardless, it’s not cool for customers to simply use a table for their coats etc.
Also, coffee shops have become places where employed, unemployed, and underemployed coexist. Some of WiFi’s recent excessive may be in part because of the recession, as coffee shops have become places to job hunt etc.