Fully agree.

Just watched a episode of Friends yesterday. The cafe there could be the definition of a third place. ;-)

Friends is very idealistic in a lot of ways. The closest thing to that experience in real life is a dirt cheap college bar, at least in the day I'm not sure if they are still like this. Everyone has nothing to do after doing the minimum of their responsibilities for the day so we'd just show up at the bar as soon as we could, and others would know to end up there soon as they could whether that be at noon with a backpack still on or around midnight. It was cheap enough where you could basically sit there and drink all day for maybe $20. That probably gets you a drink and a half today if that, and what do you know, no one's hanging out all day at these places because that could cost you $100 instead of $20.

The issue is that its a starbucks. I think if people are trying to hang out with their friends, at this point in 2024 they are not going to waste that moment of everyone's schedules aligning like the planets at merely starbucks. I hope at least. Not to mention the menu is basically optimized not to have you stay and hang out, its prepackaged or microwaved stuff, unlike most other local cafes where they will serve you hot food on ceramic dishware.

Where I grew up it was either Starbucks or McDonalds. We didn’t otherwise have a lot of options as young people. The only other third places were bars.