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?!

I don't think Starbucks should prioritise business meetings when considering how they do business.

But I don't think too many customers would be pleased to find a large area taken over by singing mothers and babies and loud music. That's not fair to any other customers, whether they're there for business reasons or not.

My number 1 business rule is never have any involvement with an organisation that meets in coffee shops, motorway services, hotels etc. Totally unprofessional- I have heard too many shocking conversations over the years.

Fuck I hate singing baby groups - it is mass 'performance parenting' at it's worst (and I bet all the show off performance parents just LOVE an audience!).

However Starbucks are tax dodging & over-priced with bloody awful coffee and ethics to match so YABU for going there. I'd walk out as soon as I saw the baby group too, but as PP's say they have as much right to be there as you. Definitely warn on tripadvisor - you might save some poor soul the agony of having to sit and listen to that shit & encourage visiting a better coffee shop too.

If you need a meeting space with guaranteed quiet then you hire meeting rooms.

PS. I cant see what professionals would never meet in a public place. it is usually sales people, marketing etc etc. Never heard a doctor or lawyer holding their business meetings in starbucks

Call 101 and log it.

The same people who won't give a cup of hot water for health and safety reasons? Let's hope they're insured to host events.

Businesses can do what they want with their premises, and their motive is making money so if mums and babies are a money spinner they'll go with that. Other clients can vote with their feet.

YABU to go to Starbucks, the coffee is disgusting (misses point!)

You are unreasonable to be buying from a tax dodging coffee shop.

DID Starbucks organise it though? Or did the mums just turn up?

If the former ask for a refund
If the latter ask them to keep the noise down

I think both sides are BU! I don't expect organised sing-alongs in Starbucks (other coffee shops are available) - same as I wouldn't expect a karaoke session, a drumming workshop, or any other loud group activity. I would however expect to run the risk of a loud group who just happened to be meeting there: so there's no guarantees of a quiet working space. As others have said, Starbucks will decide with their wallets/customer feedback - I'd leave and (nicely) let them know why I was leaving - purely because they are likely to get lots of positive feedback from the parents group meeting there, whereas lots of people who aren't enjoying it will just slope off quietly without complaining.

NB I am meeting a client for a coffee/catchup on Friday. But not in Starbucks.

YABU to go to Starbucks, the coffee is disgusting

Amen to this!

If this makes money, fair enough.
Do feel sorry for any mourners though.

I suppose a good way of doing it would be for SB to advertise a weekly/monthly baby event or such like so regulars would know when to avoid the singalong stuff.

There used to be a place in Edinburgh called bean scene and they would do music nights which I couldn't stand but it was always advertised when they were on so you'd just avoid the place that particular day.

I bet they’re thoroughly fed up with the table hoggers doing “business”.

This is one of the few funny bits from Motherland. I couldn’t find a clip sadly:

Kevin: Do you mind if we take this table? There's a smaller table free over there, and there's a lot of us.

Liz: and only one of you.

Laptop man: It's just, this table's right next to the socket.

Liz: What, a plug? There's a plug down there? I should have brought my ironing, really make the most of that fucking plug. Come on, mate, move it.

Starbucks are a great place for whatever you want to do in there, business meetings or others. Some coffee shops only exist thanks to the "business meetings" in there.

If the manager was happy to arrange a musical baby morning, then fair enough and YABU. If the mums decide to add music to their own gathering, then they are BU.

We had a beanscene in Ayr. I liked it.

Also confidential business meetings in coffee shops are not okay, which is why lawyers and Drs don't meet there. I have met though to have discussions about work. Stuff that is totally not confidential, such as the timetable for a volunteers training programme.

I wonder how much money they will actually make from this. Most mums in a toddler group can make one coffee last 3 hours.

In which case they won't do it again.

Crunchy - I have been sat in a Costa in a hospital and on the table next to me a dr has been doing some sort of handover to his team - I learnt lots about the patients.

I went straight down to the PALs room when I left costa... they weren’t impressed!

Hahaha! The horror!
I’d have made a swift exit, but of course they are free to make the commercial decisions they make as long as they don’t impinge upon the rights of a protected characteristic group or individual.

Every half term and school holiday I recoil on entering my favourite coffee shop, I never remember from the last time. I don’t blame the mothers for wanting to escape their four walls and breath the air of pre/post baby liberty, but I don’t want to share an uncarpeted echoey space with their babies either.