Is it just me or have you noticed that in the evenings the local Starbucks fills up with people on computers using the Wi-Fi. Interestingly enough, not everyone is using the Wi-Fi because it gets pretty slow with that many people on it. The young adults still bring their laptops and college textbooks, and they often study in groups. Most of the major subjects taught at the most local colleges are what they are studying. A quick survey will tell you that, and yes, I’ve asked; “what are you studying” to more than a few of these students.

Luckily for Starbucks each orders a cup of java and uses the Wi-Fi, lighting, and ambiance to study. In essence it has turned into a giant study hall. Starbucks doesn’t fight it, after all it is filling the place up, provided they do have the room, of course that’s just the issue, once it fills up there isn’t any other place to sit down, so others just leave. Fewer people come and sit down before or after movie or restaurant, there just are not enough seats, so more folks take it to go, or are now trained to skip it, there isn’t enough room anyway.

These kids sit there for hours on end. How do I know? Well, I’ve often been there for a while myself, and they are there before I get there and stay until well after I’ve left. Starbucks is in business to make money and it is better to have the place looking full than empty, but if they are losing evening sales then that hurts their revenue growth as the economy recovers. Should they stay or should they go?

Well, at some Starbucks they limit the number of outlets or plugs for electricity, but this also causes problems for others who need to charge their cell phones, or use their tablet computers when they run out of juice, especially a problem with tourists who stop in because they know it is safe and they trust the Starbucks brand name.

Maybe Starbucks needs to have a secondary brand; “Starbucks Study Halls” and provide a simple menu, and higher bandwidth Wi-Fi, mandatory purchase to get in. The line starts at the door and once you buy something you can get to the lobby? These newer sites could be away from other locations, and also perhaps serve during the day as meeting halls for businesses, partitioned off sections for group meetings. They have a new type of customer, maybe they should capitalize on it and free up some tables at their retail consumer outlets. Please consider all this and think on it.