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?!

[Sirzy]

I am always amazed that people can concentrate in a coffee shop though, especially costa and Starbucks types because I find them really noisy with lots of different sounds “buzzing” around so would never be able to focus on a meeting!

[BerkInBag]

I'm not disagreeing with that at all Aspatria - my post makes that exact point!

[IvorBiggun]

I had someone do their online interview from a coffee shop. Couldn’t hear a word he said and that was without baby rhyme time going on in the background.

I think some people have forgotten what’s acceptable for public spaces. Not surprising really with the rise of social media where every vacuous twit is invited to post their every vacuous thought for mass consumption.* Boundaries and manners are disappearing rapidly.

*The irony of my posting my own vacuous thoughts is not lost on me.

[southkenmom]

Defs not the best place. There are so many exciting events for kids happening in London this year - absolutely preposterous to take them to a Starbucks!!!

www.culturewhisper.com/r/kids/kids_london_2018_events/10748

[MayFayner]

Loud mouthed people on the phone are at least entertaining. The one this morning gave out her sons date of birth, school, her full address and phone number. School are having problems managing his special needs apparently and she was told to wait til Christmas for it to settle down

You were "entertained" by that? Well aren't you a little treat.

Yabu btw, you can't control who goes into a coffee place.

[ZoopDragon]

I take my (rather noisy) toddler to Starbucks. There are always a few babies and small children in our local one. A place with highchairs and babychinos is more child friendly than business friendly. Sounds like Starbucks is trying to attract more groups of mums, which is understandable since many of us are sleep deprived and keen to binge on mochas and muffins!

[Want2bSupermum]

lost Im with you. If anyone asks to meet over a coffee I'm out. We meet with customers and suppliers over lunch. Normally we pay when meeting with suppliers so as to not be beholden to them. Meeting in Starbucks is what friends do.

[Aspatria]

sorry BerkInBag my post wasn't addressed to you, I agree with you too!

I like coffee shops meeting, takes me out of the office!

[Thishatisnotmine]

The Starbucks near dd's nursery has a table to hire out. Her group at nursery hired it so it was occupied by 2-3 year olds for an hour. And they got free hot drinks and biscuits. It's a space to hire so people will. You would be unreasonable if it had been in a bar.

[Tringley]

Dollars to doughnuts the parents at the music group spent a fucktonne more money than the regular business meeting customers. Any time I've met or seen other mothers in a cafe, they each buy several drinks and savoury food followed by some sort of cake, then they have another drink or two. It's a group having a fun, social time so they eat and drink far, far more than someone having a quiet hour with coffee and a book or small groups having a meeting.

And that's the one and only end game of Starbucks. They are not there to provide a quiet space for meetings. They aren't there to provide a community space for children's groups. They aren't there to provide comfort and respite to mourners. They are there to make as much money as possible. That's it. If they manage to provide any or all of the above that handy for those who want it But Starbucks end game is maximum profit. And the odds are, the toddler group resulted in maximum profit.

[BerkInBag]

Aspatria

I met a client for a coffee in a shonky hotel of the M62 recently (at their behest) to discuss an aspect of a large (£££) infrastructure project. Nobody cared about the venue we just cared about doing whatever it took to sort out the issue, get the job done well and the money in the bank.

[wonkylegs]

I think YABU to be surprised that this happens and to think they shouldn't do it - they are a group of customers like any other
Starbucks obviously felt they could make money from it which is kinda the point of their business.
YANBU to take your business elsewhere

[Bubba1234]

I don’t think of Starbucks as a kid free place anyone is entitled to go

[Sephi1]

lost Im with you. If anyone asks to meet over a coffee I'm out. We meet with customers and suppliers over lunch. Normally we pay when meeting with suppliers so as to not be beholden to them. Meeting in Starbucks is what friends do.

Also agree. There are some better suited independent coffee shops or bistros for an informal coffee meetings or lunch. A hotel or restaurant, for something more formal.
I like these coffee shops for meeting with friends so it's not a personal snobbery.

[PickleFish]

I don't mind if people have business meetings there, as long as they realise that just because there might be several of them, they still don't have the right to talk loudly as if there were no-one else there. That's what annoys me more than anything - like they haven't heard of 'inside voices' when they were little!! It seems like as soon as there are three or more (and sometimes even two), having a sort of meeting or interview or whatever else, they've decide it's their 'venue' so they can talk the way the normally do in the office, rather than people who just happen to be using part of a public space.

I like to go there and read my paper. I quite like the coffee. I also like independent coffee shops. I often find costa or nero too strong. I prefer the Starbucks coffee in america, but that might just have been good/bad luck about the ones I went to.

I like the Starbucks that are quiet, but I realise I can't always control it.

[minniemoll]

Mums and babies en masse would irritate me although I'd put up with it, but the music would have me taking to my heels and running far far away. Completely inappropriate in an adult space.

[crackerjacket]

Musical baby morning?

Do people actually know what this entails?

[crackerjacket]

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

^Completely agree

^

Depends on the profession.

[DailyMaileatmyshit]

My local NCT run a group out of a coffee shop. It's a great group, more for the mums to have social contact than for the kids. The local coffee shop love it too - they've lost a couple of regulars that day but make three times more from the mums and babies than they did otherwise as it was usually dead in the mornings and the mums buy coffee, cake then often stay for lunch too. It's all about the money.

[imnotreally]

Sadly we live a little too far from London for anyone to use any of those suggestions.

By entertained by I didn’t mean her situation. Having been there myself. But the amount of information she chose to share in a public space.

[IWannaSeeHowItEnds]

Turning a coffee shop into a baby and toddler group will just alienate everybody else. I tried to avoid those groups even when I had small children - I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend money on overpriced coffee and be forced to listen to it now my dc are older! So I suspect everybody else will leave and starbucks won't do this twice.
I don't mind people having meetings in coffee shops so long as they aren't expecting everyone else to treat their meeting as a priority, but children's music and singing interfeares with other customer's ability to have conversations and enjoy the space, which is why I think it's wrong to host these sorts of events in coffee shops.

[zeezeek]

I'm not sure why people are putting the words business meetings and work in sneer quotes. I have been involved in both in cafes. Without quotes. I'm sure this isn't uncommon.

Its not in the real world where those of us who work live. I frequently have meetings in coffee shops and frequently meet people there. II'm not going to book one of our few meeting rooms just to have a chat with a student about some results. Also when I'm visiting other sites I often stop for an hour or so for a break and to do a bit of work.

However, in smug mummyland only mothers and babies are allowed to go to coffee shops and spent hours over one slice of cake and a latte.

YABU for going to Starbucks though.

[expatinscotland]

YABU. I'd have just walked right back out.

[DuckOffAutocorrectYouShiv]

‘Business meetings’ in coffee shops sounds like the kind of thing MLMers do when they’re —brainwashing— recruiting

Equally, i’d expect formal baby/toddler groups (ie not just a few mums meeting up for a chat with their offspring) to be held in a private space that isn’t shared with the general public. Something like a community hall or the Waitrose community rooms.