Reply #75: Sounds Like

[RobinA]

a lot of overdetermined blah, blah, blah to me. Starbucks did not create the need for a non-bar place to go hang. The "third space" need as always been there, and has been filled in many ways. Bars, for one, but they frown on people who drop by and only spend 2 bucks and they don't like you there if you aren't consuming. Diners for another, and there are damn few of them left. The malt shop, which I never lived during, and countless others. Too many other "third space" places discourage lingering. Starbucks does not, with its stuffed chairs and music. What's the damn problem? No one goes to Starbucks because of the free trade coffee!