To be mad at Starbucks hosting a musical baby morning

[imnotreally]

My local Starbucks is located on the junction of an A road, just outside of town. People go there to work or to take business meetings. It also happens to be near the towns crematorium so a lot of mourners stop there for a coffee. I go because it’s a grown up coffee, away from the kids, I can have peace and quiet and think or work.

This morning I got there and half the seating was reserved. It turned out that a large portion of the seating area was being turned into a mother and baby/toddler group. Ok, fair enough but not really what you expect from a place where professionals meet. Then came the music. Loud kids music which involved clapping and singing along.

Am I being unreasonable to think they picked a totally inappropriate place and Starbucks are crazy to have arranged it?!

[cantucciniamaretto]

Starbucks is for adults, it's quiet, it's peaceful it's a place to get away from children

It's a coffee shop. It's for anyone.

[restbiterepeat]

Starbucks don't owe you a space to have business meetings for the cost of a coffee.

[Want2bSupermum]

I don't meet people professionally for coffee. It's extremely unprofessional. I also don't understand all these people working from coffee shops, they need to rent a desk in a shared office.

As a working parent Starbucks is a place where I take my DC when I want a coffee or they have earned a big huge 'grown up' treat. I know friends who stay home go there during the day with their young DC.

[weetabix07]

Totally agree OP. There's hardly anywhere you can go for a bit of peace these days other than a library and some pubs (I don't drink) - I'm all for kid friendly places but some of us just want a bit of peace and quiet and there is hardly anywhere to go I find days. Mind you adults in cafes can be ten tones more annoying, particularly when they shout at each other as if they were on a different continent not the same table

[weetabix07]

*times

[KurriKurri]

I can see why you find it irritating, but I also find it irritating when a bunch of business people sit in there for hours with their laptops so no one else can get a seat. So I guess you've either got to ban all long staying groups or none of them.

[imnotreally]

People do take their kids and babies there. Don’t have a problem with that. More that a few kids took up most of the seating and the music being played.

I’ve met people there regarding charity work - it’s safer than having people come to your house plus it’s a fairly central location on this side of town. My sister runs a small business and regularly meets clients there for similar reasons.

It’s not a dead Starbucks. Every time I go I bump into someone I know.

[Nicknacky]

Why would you go to Starbucks or any coffee shop for peace and quiet?! You can't complain there are people there using the facilities and talking.

[letsdolunch321]

So professionals can hold meetings there but mums/babies having an entertaining time are frowned upon.

How bout the loud mouthed twat who is conducting a meeting very loudly on his phone whilst I am teying to gave a relaxing coffee reading my book !!!

End of the day these places are overpriced with vile toilets.

[OuchBollocks]

But public spaces aren't designed for people seeking silence and solitude. They are there for, well, the public.

Also most local libraries host weekly music and rhyme sessions.

[Sirzy]

Perhaps they are trying to put off the “buy one coffee and then hog a table ‘working’ all morning” people?

[weetabix07]

Well p&q was probably the wrong term to use. Obviously I have no problem with folk talking and nicely behaved kids in a cafe. I'm talking about people who are ridiculously loud and have no consideration for anyone else around them.

[LaurieMarlow]

Starbucks is a 'third space', that's the whole point, right?

Lots of people use it for business, whether that's meetings or just a working space. I love working in coffee shops personally.

I have also spent lots of time there on mat leave with my baby, just hanging out or meeting with other mums. That's also a totally legitimate use of the space.

It's up to Starbucks which group of customers to prioritise. I wouldn't be surprised to find that the mums spend more money there.

[IvorBiggun]

Nobody owns Starbucks... except Starbucks who can do what they like. If you don’t like it you can go someone else - there’s plenty of choice in our capitalist society.

I work from home and occasionally go out and work in a coffee shop for a change of scene. I take it as I find it. Sometimes it’s nice and quiet and sometimes it’s not. If I want peace and quiet to have a business meeting I book a meeting room or office space and pay for the privilege. It costs a lot more than a latte though so I avoid it where I can.

Arf at the “it’s not a library” comment. Libraries are full of this sort of grown women doing nursery rhymes with maracas batshittery.

[SapphireSeptember]

I've never been in a coffee shop that I could describe as quiet, most of them have piped music and people talking. If I want to concentrate I listen to my own music to drown everything else out.

Our local library has a children's music session twice a week too, I'm sure that puts people off.

[IvorBiggun]

Somewhere else

[Urubu]

Starbucks does free babyccinos which tends to indicate they welcome small children...
YABU, each café gets to decide the clientele they want to attract, the one near you seem to be focussing on parents and children.

[greendale17]

Since when is a coffee shop a professional business meeting location- it smacks of unprofessionalism having a business meeting in public

^Completely agree

[RhiannonOHara]

I'd be annoyed if it was a place I had previously been able to reply on for peace and quiet, but you can't dictate to them what you want it to be like; you can only vote with your wallet and your feedback. I'd drop them an email or a feedback form, if they have them.

I guess they'll make a business decision based on how this baby group goes. It might make more money than the workers and mourners, or it might not. Hard to say really, as there's presumably going to be a fairly steady stream of both births and cremations for the foreseeable future... I think it will come down to custom and feedback in the end.

[citybzg]

I’ve met people there regarding charity work - it’s safer than having people come to your house plus it’s a fairly central location on this side of town. My sister runs a small business and regularly meets clients there for similar reasons.

No one is saying people can't meet there for business reasons. But it's a fucking coffee shop not a designated business meeting room. You take what you get.

[BluthsFrozenBananas]

If I wanted a quiet coffee I’d be seriously pissed off at a baby music group in the coffee shop, so I can see why you’re annoyed. However Starbucks are a business, they don’t exist for the convenience of people who having meetings or anyone else for that matter. If this branch have found the mum and baby crowd bring in more money than meetings and lone drinkers on weekday mornings, then that’s what they’re going to go with.