Three reasons why Starbucks’ Irish cafes suck for wifi

1. They’re crammed and over-congested. Whoever designed the layout of Starbucks Ireland's outlets has strayed hugely from its relaxed US design. Whereas American Starbucks stores are all about space, sofas and a feeling of comfort, its Irish venues are overpacked with small wooden tables and thin window counters (I have a call in to its Irish operation to ask about this). People have to excuse themselves to fellow patrons as they make their way through because of the general seating logjam. It’s disruptive and claustrophobic. The message seems less one of ‘hey, stick around for a while’ (appropriate to wifi-users) and more one of ‘just drink your coffee up and get out’.
2. They’re loud. In the US, the chain’s outlets have calming music and hushed tones, thanks to the design and atmosphere. In Dublin, it’s a tinny chattering cacophony, punctuated by the scraping of chairs on hard floors. And in the Harcourt Street outlet, the whole café shudders and reverberates every time a Luas passes by. Which is about once every six or seven minutes.
3. The whole thing is very expensive. First, there’s the coffee. Granted, it’s at least as good as Insomnia, Coffee Society or Café Sol. But €3.75 for a large coffee? You’d pay it if it was a passport to an hour’s happy laptop browsing. But, thanks to points 1 and 2 (above), that’s unlikely. Bear in mind that you also need either a €5-per-hour scratchcard to access the wifi or a subscription to Eircom’s wifi service (an incredible €80 per month if one isn't already an Eircom subscriber). 

Comments

[Stephen McCormack]

Damn Right! - they are just not comfortable or relaxing....if enough people link to this post with"starbucks dublin", they may take notice...in the mean time, stick with Cafe Society or any other good local one....

[keith bohanna]

Maybe it is modeled on the New York Starbucks which share all of the characteristics of the Dublin ones by the sound of things. Since Dublin is almost as expensive maybe that makes sense.

But got to agreee - take those things away from the Starbucks formula and there is not a lot left.

keith

[Andy]

Can't agree that Starbucks coffee is as good as Insomnia. Starbucks coffee is truly awful AND ridiculously expensive.

I'll stick to Insomnia. They play nice mellow jazz too :)

[Antoin O Lachtnain]

Well, there are economics to think of. The overheads in one of those stores are around EUR 1000 a day. That's a lot of coffee to sell to cover that.

[Adrian]

Same rates for other cafes which seem to make the space.
By the way, €1000 is 270 large cappucinos in Starbucks. That's probably not even a morning's sales, if you've seen the scrums in there.