Starbucks Left Town

Some stores did not survive the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know about your city. I thought it was smaller businesses in strip malls or stand-alone coffee shops, until I saw a FOR LEASE sign on a corner Starbucks.

Pandemic or not, it had a steady clientele because of government offices, hotels and apartment buildings. Coffee houses have two  kinds of traffic: drink inside and takeaway. I’ve always wondered how Starbucks in particular, made money because of strays, people who buy one cup and sit there for hours. Other strays brought laptops and other digital ammunition. My idea of a successful coffee shop are scenes in movies like You Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and English Vinglish starring Sri Devi, the late Bollywood star. Busy, busy. These movies have busy coffee shop scenes.

How do you know that Starbucks is a pandemic casualty? Maybe less people are drinking coffee. I’m certain it is another casualty because a sister Starbucks in a busy mall uptown, also shut down after the pandemic. When it was still in operation, I often wondered how it made money. There were always few customers and most of them were glued to their phones, and not books.

Another Starbucks in the same city, but another mall also did not return after the pandemic. It had neither tables nor chairs, strictly grab-n-go (take-away). I don’t think coffee lovers were many in that location because of the socio-economic situation in that part of downtown, but the Starbucks in this blog photo? They definitely miss it because government workers pick up coffee in the morning on their way to work, coffee break before lunch, and afternoon coffee break, before offices close at 4 p.m.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger