Technology

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But even Starbucks has fallen far from its roots. Does nobody remember the ‘90s Starbucks that were actually comfortable places with good wifi, good living room seating like couches and low tables? Some had small libraries of free books and newspapers? The coffee was actually pretty good! The pastries were pretty darn good too, with a wide variety.

Now it’s all institutional, cheap metal hard seats. The spaces are smaller and far less welcoming. The pastries come out of a plastic bag. They want you to buy your shit and leave.

For the record - I travel a LOT. If you want to go to a coffee shop and look for instagram shops, that’s what you’ll find. Any decent city has its own independent shops with a variety of styles and better coffee than any chain.

I've been to several coffee shops through the years that also had local artists that helped with the decor, and local musicians playing a couple days a week.

For whatever reason I've never really looked at a coffee shop as a bar/pub for daytime folks but I guess that's what a lot of them kind of were.

I remember this time. It seems wild to me that I used to simply walk down to the coffee shop, just to hang out after work or on the weekend. I remember whiling away hours and hours, often closing out the shop and having to move to another coffee shop to continue a conversation. I didn't even have a smartphone lol it was amazing

And I'm a mad introvert, I don't know what it was about that time and place... would be nice if young people could have that again