The Revival Of The American Third Place?

Starbucks pivoted away from the in-person experience during COVID - but is pivoting back

Back during the pandemic, I wrote about Starbucks’s pivot away from making the stores nice places to sit and lounge, and towards pickup and drive-thru business. (I liked my headline, “Third Place at the Drive-Thru,” too.)

I quoted this bit from a company exec from a 2020 article, which is absurd (and yes, a Starbuck’s exec’s last name was Brewer! That’s …