I'm pretty sure that Starbucks does do some things to discourage people from staying there a long time. One thing noted in this and other threads is the availa

I'm pretty sure that Starbucks does do some things to discourage people from staying there a long time. One thing noted in this and other threads is the availability of outlets. In some larger SBXs, there are tables with power strips; in smaller ones, there may only be one or two tables where you can plug something in. But where things get more interesting are the subtleties. Before I got an office share, I did a lot of tutoring in SBXs, meaning I'd be there for sometimes 6-8 hours at a stretch. One thing I noticed in multiple locations was that the music would change--dramatically--every so often. (Maybe every hour, I don't know.) People think of SBX as having pretty standard cool jazz, laid-back r&b...the genre that might as well be referred to as "coffeehouse." But when it changes up, it can be jarring. Go from Norah Jones to an old Charlie Parker recording, and it is at least subconsciously disturbing. It's never blatant, never music that says "don't stay!" to someone just walking in, but enough to say, "time to change gears" to someone who settled in to one type of music. Of course this is all supposition on my part. But there has been tons of research done by Musak and others to determine buying patterns based on volume/music type/etc., and if it makes it easy for SBX to say one thing while ever-so-gently nudging people out the door, it seems like a great way to get the desired effect.