What the Move by Starbucks May Be About

The move by Starbucks to lay off nearly 1,000 employees and close about one percent of its locations in the U.S. will be described as a common move by fast food places to Joann Fabrics to a host of other retailers to cut losses and make changes to improve the bottom line.

In other words, what Starbucks is doing is a typical and expected move.

But maybe it’s about something else, something that is changing in the way more people are looking at life.

The stores Starbucks says they are closing are the ones that were designed to be quick pick up shops, the get your coffee and run kind of places responding to a lifestyle of hurry up and move on.

But in saying they want their stores to be the coffeehouses they became known for and more comfortable environments with more seating and more power outlets and make things simpler, it’s a signal that their customers and maybe all of us want a life that is slower, less hectic, and more meaningful.

When the COVID pandemic began more than five years ago, and we became more separated, and as politics has become more divisive that has split up people and has even led to lost relationships, maybe we want what more of what we had. 

(Photo Getty Images)