Ever seen someone sitting at Starbucks with a computer, coffee, and a phone in the middle of the day? There’s a good chance they are out of a job and have made Starbucks their office. With the Wi-Fi opportunities and the comfortable and quiet atmosphere, Starbucks is the perfect place to work. Jill Colvin from the Columbia news service put a new twist on things when she explained that Starbucks’ sails should actually be heading against the recession because of all the people who are out of work that have now made Starbucks their new office.
The cool thing about it is that Starbucks is helping one aspect of our economy that is growing. Colvin explains that even before the economic downturn, America’s independent workforce was growing, with more than 10 million independent contractors, consultants and freelancers in February 2005, according to Steve Hipple of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, in more recent months, their numbers have soared, with Web sites such as ODesk, which matches employees with independent contractors, reporting an increase of 450 percent. Starbucks is actively participating in this soaring business and benefiting from it. Or are they? Some would say that because there are so many business people taking up desks all day, others are less likely to come in and get a cup of coffee, thereby hurting Starbuck’s business. Either way though, Starbucks is getting more and more people coming in every day who have lost their jobs and are using Starbucks as a place to work and use the online resources to get back into a steady job.
This gives me an appreciation for Starbucks and their laid back environment with chairs and good music where ANYONE can come and do whatever they want. Starbucks deserves a pat on the back for providing this working space, whatever the motives may be.
Doug Lange seems to think a little differently. He says internet at Starbucks has become a huge problem. Starbucks used to be a place where people would come and talk and be a community of people, now people are selfishly absorbed in their own lives. But isn’t this true of our whole society nowadays? What is Starbucks going to do? Stop having Wi-Fi? That would be foolish and dumb. All they can do is provide the best atmosphere for sales possible, and hope and pray they make some money.
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