Starbucks Thailand Tells Teachers "Order More Coffee Or Get Lost"

[Ohyesuare]

I wonder if this comes from corporate as they seem content to let the homeless use the Starbucks in Canada as their shower and living room so why not tutors?

[alfredthegreat]

Good move.

I agree that there are too many free loaders. If you want space to do business, PAY!

[Lifer]

At the end of the day, when you have a business and are paying anywhere from 50K baht per month to 200K baht per month (or more) rental, then you want people in your premises to be eating and drinking your product, that's what pays for the place. If they just want to come in and sit down for a chat or study (with one drink between 6) then it's not on. That is why many Starbucks have gone from free wifi to 150 baht an hour to get rid of the free loaders. I say it is a sensible business decision as it will attract much more of the type of customers they want (as they will get a seat) and get rid of those customers they don't want.

I agree totally. It has a lot to do with children being taught plain manners and courtesy by parents as they grow up. Assuming the parents know what they are in the first place.. Let's not forget safety as well.

[Nisa]

Free wifi?????? Errrr last time I checked (which was yeterday) they charged 150bht the hour.

Sent from my Desire HD using Thaivisa Connect App

Really? I rarely ever go into a Starbucks, especially in Thailand, but always assumed it was free wifi for customers.

[trainman34014]

Should be called 'Shitebucks' as they have no idea what coffee should taste like. Would imagine the teachers think that as the price of this dishwater is so high it must include hire of a table and chair for several hours.

[Colabamumbai]

Lots of free advertising here anyway, they got us there.

I try to avoid large corporations whenever possible and try to keep the little guy (that I identify with) in business, because I was also always the little guy, the man with a business and a family to support.

The little guy usually offers you better service, but he may not always have the product. The little guy is knowledgeable, he has to be, he devotes his life to it. Unlike a large corporation where the boss is really never there and the staff are usually wishing they were somewhere else, don't know how to serve you or what it is they serve......

When that small business closes, it becomes big business. Keep mum and pop working, in whatever country you live.

[expatman]

Many fast-food places in Singapore have signs that say "no studying !"

If they didn't do this the problem would be even worse than it is in Bangkok.

This new policy is a good move, but are they really going to enforce it in a country where motorists go right through a red light in front of the police box ?

[Dap]

! I did not realise that sitting for a few hours and nursing a cup of coffee was a hanging offence. Give these people a break. So that spend a few hours learning at SBs. Good. If you want to complain about something find something worth complaining about.

Like ... losing business due to freeloaders. The world doesn't owe anyone a free ride. Earn it!

[Baloo22]

......

Something, but more so the very word "Starbucks." It's always caused a knee-jerk reaction for many of the members. The reasons are

• it's American, appeals to the vast America-bashing crowd here;
  
• it's global, anti-globalists hate it;
  
• it's not Thai, anathema to our Thaier-than-thou farangs;
  
• it's a chain;
  
• it's a corporation;
  
• it's relatively upscale for a mere coffee shop, many can't comfortably afford to go there;
  
• Starbucks coffee tastes like Starbucks coffee--not what some think coffee should taste like, not that they would know anyway;
  
• Starbucks isn't just about coffee but about the other products, service, and atmosphere--which many disingenuously ignore;
  
• some need to cling to a kind of reverse snobbery for illusory self-affirmation.
  

Me, I go to various coffee shops, but, having no political objections, I go to Starbucks sometimes, too. I've never had an unsatisfactory experience there. Starbucks will continue to appeal to a large global market (if not the all-knowing, superior YOU, so what), and I hope it stays profitable so that it won't be going away anytime soon. This new policy intended to get the squatters out should be helpful.

+1 Well said! All excellent and very accurate observations !!

[SunsetT]

Teachers taking lessons.............Cheeky b*stards......That really is taking advantage!

But students hanging out and studying..........surely thats better than daytime beer drinking outside a minimart or bar which is a common sight.

[Felt 35]

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

+1

[simple1]

......

Something, but more so the very word "Starbucks." It's always caused a knee-jerk reaction for many of the members. The reasons are

• it's American, appeals to the vast America-bashing crowd here;
  
• it's global, anti-globalists hate it;
  
• it's not Thai, anathema to our Thaier-than-thou farangs;
  
• it's a chain;
  
• it's a corporation;
  
• it's relatively upscale for a mere coffee shop, many can't comfortably afford to go there;
  
• Starbucks coffee tastes like Starbucks coffee--not what some think coffee should taste like, not that they would know anyway;
  
• Starbucks isn't just about coffee but about the other products, service, and atmosphere--which many disingenuously ignore;
  
• some need to cling to a kind of reverse snobbery for illusory self-affirmation.
  

Me, I go to various coffee shops, but, having no political objections, I go to Starbucks sometimes, too. I've never had an unsatisfactory experience there. Starbucks will continue to appeal to a large global market (if not the all-knowing, superior YOU, so what), and I hope it stays profitable so that it won't be going away anytime soon. This new policy intended to get the squatters out should be helpful.

+1 Well said! All excellent and very accurate observations !!

Disagree, ridiculous to say people knock off Starbucks because it's an American owned company. I go to a coffee shop for great coffee, not to a retail global marketing company selling an experience that is ultimately dull, but more importantly awful coffee. If you want an independent opinion go to http://www.smh.com.a...80729-3mt1.html

[BookMan]

......

Something, but more so the very word "Starbucks." It's always caused a knee-jerk reaction for many of the members. The reasons are

• it's American, appeals to the vast America-bashing crowd here;
  
• it's global, anti-globalists hate it;
  
• it's not Thai, anathema to our Thaier-than-thou farangs;
  
• it's a chain;
  
• it's a corporation;
  
• it's relatively upscale for a mere coffee shop, many can't comfortably afford to go there;
  
• Starbucks coffee tastes like Starbucks coffee--not what some think coffee should taste like, not that they would know anyway;
  
• Starbucks isn't just about coffee but about the other products, service, and atmosphere--which many disingenuously ignore;
  
• some need to cling to a kind of reverse snobbery for illusory self-affirmation.
  

Me, I go to various coffee shops, but, having no political objections, I go to Starbucks sometimes, too. I've never had an unsatisfactory experience there. Starbucks will continue to appeal to a large global market (if not the all-knowing, superior YOU, so what), and I hope it stays profitable so that it won't be going away anytime soon. This new policy intended to get the squatters out should be helpful.

+1 Well said! All excellent and very accurate observations !!

Disagree, ridiculous to say people knock off Starbucks because it's an American owned company. I go to a coffee shop for great coffee, not to a retail global marketing company selling an experience that is ultimately dull, but more importantly awful coffee. If you want an independent opinion go to http://www.smh.com.a...80729-3mt1.html

Spot on

It is overpriced and below average tasting coffee.

[sirchai]

Good - and can they also tell those kids who buy a drink and sit on a 4 person table by themselves for 6 hours to 'get lost' too (although, personally, I'd say it more strongly than that!)

You are so right. I live near Chiang Mai University and this is a universal problem at every coffee shop around here, but especially at Starbuck's. Some students will sit there all <deleted>' day studying...actually I wonder how much studying they actually do because it seems that they spend more time talking or playing with their mobiles!

I'd do it the way they do it. Would you sit in your boiling hot room instead?

[MarkCyr]

I agree with this policy entirely. In Japan, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a seat when it's getting near final exam time for university students. The uni students bring their own snacks and sometimes even their own drinks!! The same is true in some of the places I frequent in BKK.

I also spend crazy long hours sitting working in coffee shops like Starbucks, but I order at least 3 items an hour of either drinks or snacks, so I'm at least not freeloading. So for those who just want to sit, tell them to buy a drink, or hit the road.

[Fookhaht]

Lots of free advertising here anyway, they got us there.

I try to avoid large corporations whenever possible and try to keep the little guy (that I identify with) in business, because I was also always the little guy, the man with a business and a family to support.

The little guy usually offers you better service, but he may not always have the product. The little guy is knowledgeable, he has to be, he devotes his life to it. Unlike a large corporation where the boss is really never there and the staff are usually wishing they were somewhere else, don't know how to serve you or what it is they serve......

When that small business closes, it becomes big business. Keep mum and pop working, in whatever country you live.

A lot of unfounded assumptions which really don't hold water in the real world.

Remember that those multi-national companies largely employ local people (your neighbors). Secondly, your assumptions are exactly the opposite of my experience when comparing a 7-11 with a local mom & pop convenience store. The little guy has horrible, ignorant service and expired product (often you have to blow the dust off the product to find the expiration date, if any). The staff at 7-11 are always courteous and I can always find consistency in product quality.

Try again.

[dairycarlin]

Whenever I see somebody buying a coffee at starbucks, I think of ways in which that 100-200 baht could be used to help others in such poverty around the world. Now they want to get rid of teachers in a country with such desperate need of them? Who cares anyways, what nonsense, makes me wonder why I even left a comment?

[dairycarlin]

Lots of free advertising here anyway, they got us there.

I try to avoid large corporations whenever possible and try to keep the little guy (that I identify with) in business, because I was also always the little guy, the man with a business and a family to support.

The little guy usually offers you better service, but he may not always have the product. The little guy is knowledgeable, he has to be, he devotes his life to it. Unlike a large corporation where the boss is really never there and the staff are usually wishing they were somewhere else, don't know how to serve you or what it is they serve......

When that small business closes, it becomes big business. Keep mum and pop working, in whatever country you live.

A lot of unfounded assumptions which really don't hold water in the real world.

Remember that those multi-national companies largely employ local people (your neighbors). Secondly, your assumptions are exactly the opposite of my experience when comparing a 7-11 with a local mom & pop convenience store. The little guy has horrible, ignorant service and expired product (often you have to blow the dust off the product to find the expiration date, if any). The staff at 7-11 are always courteous and I can always find consistency in product quality.

Try again.

You're the definition of a 'TOOL', keep rationalizing your greedy capitalism for Quality Control. QC right?

[seminomadic]

Can we in turn write a letter to Starbucks asking them to stop serving overpriced garbage?

You can. Or you can stop buying their garbage if you think it's overpriced.

[Zoranus]

BYE BYE Starbuck - I had some much better coffee everywhere in Thailand ...

[Reasonableman]

Normally a problem at Starbucks, Swensen, MacDonalds, food courts, etc. where aircon, good lighting, comfortable seating, a table, and refreshments, are all readily available. Wifi is a bonus. Often, much of the seating is occupied by tutor groups, book readers, ipad/iphone users, laptop users, and sleepers, who may hog the seating for hours at a time, oblivious to the rights or needs of others. While sympathising with the lack of other suitable hangouts, it's great to hear the problem is being addressed. Buy up or p_ss off! Well done, Starbucks!

Edited July 25, 2012 by Reasonableman

[Fookhaht]

Lots of free advertising here anyway, they got us there.

I try to avoid large corporations whenever possible and try to keep the little guy (that I identify with) in business, because I was also always the little guy, the man with a business and a family to support.

The little guy usually offers you better service, but he may not always have the product. The little guy is knowledgeable, he has to be, he devotes his life to it. Unlike a large corporation where the boss is really never there and the staff are usually wishing they were somewhere else, don't know how to serve you or what it is they serve......

When that small business closes, it becomes big business. Keep mum and pop working, in whatever country you live.

A lot of unfounded assumptions which really don't hold water in the real world.

Remember that those multi-national companies largely employ local people (your neighbors). Secondly, your assumptions are exactly the opposite of my experience when comparing a 7-11 with a local mom & pop convenience store. The little guy has horrible, ignorant service and expired product (often you have to blow the dust off the product to find the expiration date, if any). The staff at 7-11 are always courteous and I can always find consistency in product quality.

Try again.

You're the definition of a 'TOOL', keep rationalizing your greedy capitalism for Quality Control. QC right?

You can't see the real world for your politics.

[GentlemanJim]

Whenever I see somebody buying a coffee at starbucks, I think of ways in which that 100-200 baht could be used to help others in such poverty around the world. Now they want to get rid of teachers in a country with such desperate need of them? Who cares anyways, what nonsense, makes me wonder why I even left a comment?

I bet you don't think that when you see someone buying a coffee in Starbucks. Do you think that every time you see someone do that. If you see a queue of 5 do you think it 5 times in a row? What ways do you think of for helping the worlds poor with that 100-200 baht the person has earned and is spending it on what they want? And how do you see them buying coffee in Starbucks? Are you in there having a coffee? Or in there with a glass of water and your laptop on free wifi? Just think how much your 30 000 baht for a laptop would help poverty around the world. They are not getting rid of teachers, they are telling them to go and teach in a teaching premises and leave a coffee shop to fee paying coffee drinking customers. Like you, I also wonder why you left a comment.

Edited July 25, 2012 by GentlemanJim

[attrayant]

Good - and can they also tell those kids who buy a drink and sit on a 4 person table by themselves for 6 hours to 'get lost' too (although, personally, I'd say it more strongly than that!)

Why don't you sit at any of the other three unoccupied chairs? Does the kid shoo you away if you show interest in the unoccupied seats?

[dairycarlin]

Lots of free advertising here anyway, they got us there.

I try to avoid large corporations whenever possible and try to keep the little guy (that I identify with) in business, because I was also always the little guy, the man with a business and a family to support.

The little guy usually offers you better service, but he may not always have the product. The little guy is knowledgeable, he has to be, he devotes his life to it. Unlike a large corporation where the boss is really never there and the staff are usually wishing they were somewhere else, don't know how to serve you or what it is they serve......

When that small business closes, it becomes big business. Keep mum and pop working, in whatever country you live.

A lot of unfounded assumptions which really don't hold water in the real world.

Remember that those multi-national companies largely employ local people (your neighbors). Secondly, your assumptions are exactly the opposite of my experience when comparing a 7-11 with a local mom & pop convenience store. The little guy has horrible, ignorant service and expired product (often you have to blow the dust off the product to find the expiration date, if any). The staff at 7-11 are always courteous and I can always find consistency in product quality.

Try again.

You're the definition of a 'TOOL', keep rationalizing your greedy capitalism for Quality Control. QC right?

You can't see the real world for your politics.

s

The REAL WORLD is being polluted, destroyed and overdeveloped by capitalist corporations. All I see is every democratic system in the REAL world today, NOT controlled by the people FOR the people but BY the corporations FOR the corporations. The NWCO is upon us amen...

[attrayant]

I agree with those who say that Starbucks coffee tastes terrible. I've had perhaps a half dozen in my life (all in the USA) and every single one tasted burnt.

As with most problems like this, technology provides a solution. The cash register receipt should provide a password to the wifi hotspot that is valid for 45 minutes, or however long the business wants its paying customers to hang around before making another purchase.

[GentlemanJim]

The REAL WORLD is being polluted, destroyed and overdeveloped by capitalist corporations. All I see is every democratic system in the REAL world today, NOT controlled by the people FOR the people but BY the corporations FOR the corporations. The NWCO is upon us amen...

But you are contributing to all that right now. The pollution caused by the fossil fuels used to power the computer you are on, the masses of natural resources used just to make the computer. The corporations that build the internet and put up the servers and the broadband connections and the sattelites and...... need I go on. If you dont want to pollute the world and dont like corporations then get off the bloody computer and the internet and go get some candles.

[GentlemanJim]

I agree with those who say that Starbucks coffee tastes terrible. I've had perhaps a half dozen in my life (all in the USA) and every single one tasted burnt.

As with most problems like this, technology provides a solution. The cash register receipt should provide a password to the wifi hotspot that is valid for 45 minutes, or however long the business wants its paying customers to hang around before making another purchase.

Well in all the years I have been going in there I have never had a coffee, but I have had a gazillion vanilla frappacino's (spelling ) Try them....yummy on a hot day!

[prepress]

.....

however starbucks in thailand has gone beyond even the ripoff coffee places in canada

by charging extra not only for soymilk latte's but also for a bit of cold soymilk to cool

down an americano considering the billions of gallons of organic soymilk produced

and the fact you don't have to provide shelter and healthcare and such a huge ecological and

ethical footprint and foodprint for soybeans as you do for dairycows the extra cost is a ripoff

you can't buy a starbucks card in thailand in which the extra cost of the soy is eliminated

my partner and I boycotted starbucks for more than 10 years for its coercive business

practices and it's time to think about doing so again there is lots of good coffee

in bangkok sorry terminal 21 mall starbucks your policies are either out of line

or your employees are improperly trained

fully agree. There are far better coffee places in Thailand than support this global giant.

[dairycarlin]

The REAL WORLD is being polluted, destroyed and overdeveloped by capitalist corporations. All I see is every democratic system in the REAL world today, NOT controlled by the people FOR the people but BY the corporations FOR the corporations. The NWCO is upon us amen...

he

But you are contributing to all that right now. The pollution caused by the fossil fuels used to power the computer you are on, the masses of natural resources used just to make the computer. The corporations that build the internet and put up the servers and the broadband connections and the sattelites and...... need I go on. If you dont want to pollute the world and dont like corporations then get off the bloody computer and the internet and go get some candles.

Has this bloke ever heard of ALTERNATIVE ENERGY, The world isnt black and white Bill O reilly, give the grey man a break and let the green life grow between the lines of your narrow mind...