Sh-sh-sh! You're in the Coffee Shop!

The new renovation results for my "favorite" local Starbucks are in: it looks like a freaking library to me! That's interesting because my local "favorite" library branch has recently undergone its own renovation to make it more resemble a coffee shop...

When I first walked in this morning, I noticed two things: the strange, collective seating instead of the many small tables for small parties that the old design featured (and which I liked very much), and the fact that during such a busy time no one was sitting there. Just look in the above picture at a table that I would expect to see in a library. Not pictured is a row of packed-together seats lined up at a very narrow counter facing the window around the corner, seats that even children might have trouble fitting into alongside each other. In the time I've spent here today (sitting in one of the few "for-two" tables left in the joint), nobody's felt fit to sit there. Small wonder...

I don't blame the people running this store for the new arrangement, which is one of those top-down outcomes of a VERY top-down, highly centralized corporation. Still, I managed to throw in a couple of diplomatically expressed barbs at the manager when I ordered my coffee this morning (like I'm sure they'll instantly change things back to before after hearing my objections). But after sitting here a little, I began to shift a bit in my thinking...

Sometimes I see myself (please don't laugh) as a little bit different from people at large, even to the point, at times, of being a different variety of human being. If I decide to use the new seating while others shun it, then maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to actually come in at formerly crowded times and be able to find a seat, albeit one that I don't particularly care for. Yeah, maybe that cramped, long window counter with its small, high chairs is just the ticket for someone like me who tends to go "counter" to the crowd. Then again, my common sense tells me that the "crowd" will eventually adapt to the new seating and once again "crowd" me out...

Later...as I left the place, sure enough, that thin counter with its cramped seating was starting to fill up. Oh, well...