Starbucks Sales Down HUGE Since They Started Letting Anyone Shit In Their Bathrooms
(Forbes)–Monthly visits to Starbucks dropped 6.8% compared with other nearby coffee shops after the open-bathroom policy was put in place in May 2018, according to a joint study released Tuesday by academics from the business schools at the University of Texas at Dallas and Boston College. The study, conducted in collaboration with the data company SafeGraph, examines aggregate and anonymous cellphone location data from more than 10 million devices between January 2017 and October 2018.
It covers nearly 10,800 U.S. Starbucks locations and compares them against other cafes and restaurants nearby.
In a word…
My favorite bar in the city is Declans in Old Town. Just a perfect neighborhood Irish pub. The right size so it feels full and yet somehow not crowded either. Food is good, bartenders know my name, they all pour a great Guinness and they even put the sound on for Blackhawks games if you ask. The number one bar as far as I am concerned. The only problem is if you have to go #2
If you’re a dude and you need to shit you can’t do it at Declans. The stall situation is untenable. Thankfully, there is a nice Starbucks right across Scott St. Walk on in, order a small coffee out of guilt, and that $2.50 afforded you a shit. The $2.50 afforded you the comfort of a comfortable shit. You can expect the Starbucks bathroom to be relatively clean, you can lock the door, you can scroll on your phone for a while and trust your environment. It was a great experience. Well worth the money. Now though…FUCK that. It’s the wild west. Piss everywhere. Always occupied. Starbucks opening their shitter to people unable to afford the small coffee lost them their differentiator. You might as well as shit in the alley or worse, shit in a gas station. Starbucks entire brand is built around being elite. Being able to look down your nose at people who drink Folgers or fast food coffee. That brand takes a hit if you walk into an unlocked bathroom and a homeless guy is showering in the sink. Starbucks only option now is to have a bouncer at the door and with a velvet rope and if you didn’t order a trente coffee then sorry, you can’t come in.