In the Mood for Starbucks

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A while back -- two years ago, maybe? -- a writer friend and I decided to be each other's accountability partners, meeting once a week at our local Starbucks to write. At the time we started this, she was a barista and I wasn't teaching every day, so we'd meet after her shift on a day I didn't have classes.

As our work schedules changed, so too did our meeting times. The latest schedule shift has led to us meeting in the early evening instead of sometime around the lunch hour.

My favorite Starbucks is a whole different place in the evenings. During the day -- when I am most often there -- the "regulars" fill the seats. Business people work on laptops and documents, making phone calls or strategizing in groups. Students -- usually boisterous, often high school age -- drink frappuccinos and plan events that are a cross between social and academic. Friends (often female) converse over various beverages in pairs or groups, retirees read the paper and sip their coffee and families with children stop in, perhaps between errands, loading up on hot coffee and cold juice boxes. The drive-through is busy, the mood is lively, the music is upbeat (and often loud) and customers zip in and out, picking up mobile orders.

In the evening, the mood is more mellow. The business people have packed up their laptops and the high school students have gone home, making it much easier to get a table, especially as the evening wears on. The music is different, too, although I suspect this has as much to do with who's working as what time of day it is. The students who are there are more likely to be older than high school age and working by themselves (though it depends on the evening) and the conversations are quieter. The mood is more relaxed and less frenzied, though depending on the time of day and the weather, the drive-through may still be doing a booming business.

It's interesting to take in the ebb and flow of this place where I spend so much time (and money). This particular store is only a couple years old and, when it first opened, it took me a while to figure out its rhythms. You may wonder why this matters since I'm only a customer, but that's exactly why it matters. Figuring out when I can get a parking spot, a table or my favorite food is key. If I want to meet a friend, any seat will do. If I want to get work done, a small table might work, a larger one will be even better and a seat at the community table will too distracting. If I'm meeting my writer friend for a writing session, anything smaller than the larger tables leaves us a little pressed for space.

Although it's been a bit of a shift meeting in the evenings, we seem to get more work done. I don't know if this has to do with deadlines, our own exhaustion after a full work day or the mood of the store itself, but we seem to spend less time chatting and more time on the task at hand.

From time to time, I total up how much I spend at Starbucks in a week and wag an imaginary finger at myself, considering the other things I could do with that money. But I enjoy my daily Starbucks runs, whether they're an accountability writing session, a long overdue chat with a friend, a solo work session or a quick run though the drive-through or into the cafe to pick up a mobile order. The baristas know my name (and my order) and, depending on how many new folks are behind the counter, I know most of their names as well.

There are still times when I miss the smaller Starbucks with the bigger parking lot that this store replaced, but Starbucks remains my office away from home, a place where I've written parts of novels and non-fiction books and more blog posts than I can count -- have even done book signings. I know most of the regulars by face if not by name and I know some of their stories as well. My daughter got a summer job through a connection I made with a Starbucks couple, and I met a woman last month who might help me with my professional branding.

Some people do networking. I do Starbucks.