Starbucks unveils its latest plans to lure back customers – a more comfy return to form

Starbucks is bringing back a third place for its customers with comfy chairs and couches

Starbucks has unveiled its latest plans to lure customers back inside its stores, choosing to lean into comfort after focusing on convenience.

In recent years, the coffee chain has geared its stores toward the type of customer who wants to grab a drink and be on their way quickly. They’ve built more drive-thrus and introduced mobile ordering.

But as more people seek to get back to their pre-pandemic modes of work and leisure — a space that’s neither work nor home, where they can also socialize — Starbucks is focusing on making its stores warm and inviting again.

In the next year, Starbucks will renovate 1,000 stores with comfy chairs, couches and power outlets, CNN reported, in an attempt to get back to its roots.

Some might recall in the early 2000s when Starbucks had stuffed purple armchairs. They were taken out of stores in 2008.

Starbucks has unveiled its latest plans to lure customers back inside its stores, choosing comfort after focusing on convenience (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“You will see something similar to it returning to our stores,” Meredith Sandland, Starbucks’ chief store development officer, told CNN. “Will it be purple? I don’t know. I’ll tease that one out.”

CNN got a sneak peek of the first store to be remodeled. It’s located in Bridgehampton, New York. The store features tables with long couches on one side and chairs on the other.

There are also low, cushioned chairs off to the side, perfect for a coffee date.

“It’s creating comfortable seating where people want to come in. It’s not just the quick grab and go concept,” Mike Grams, Starbucks’ chief operating officer, told CNN.

Grams admitted: “Maybe over past years, we lost our way a little bit on that.”

Starbucks has already renovated four stores in the Hamptons, with plans to renovate more stores in New York City in the next few months, CNN reported.

If you’ve been paying close attention, you might have noticed other changes around your local Starbucks, like baristas writing on your coffee cup with Sharpie markers.

Starbucks has also brought back self-serve milk and sugar stations and is offering free refills for customers who take their coffee to stay rather than to go.