Yokohama Starbucks Observation

There are 27 Starbucks with WiFi in Japan. I selected two stores for my observations. One is Sangenjaya store the other is Yokohama Park store. I started my observations at the Sangenjaya Starbucks, but did not see anyother WiFi users there during my observations. The Sangenjaya store is located in an area with a shopping mall, university, theater, smart restaurants and shops. So most customers are shoppers or young women. Here I will summarize my observations at the Yokohama Park store.

The Yokohama Park store is located in the first floor of a life insurance building and is a five minute walk from the station. City government buildings, a stadium, a beautiful park, many offices and fast-food restaurants surround the shop. There is central business hub in Yokohama City.

The store has an entrance and window facing a pedestrian wralk. You can see the scenery of the Park and the stadium through the window. The store décor is like other Starbucks. It has 10 small round tables with about 25 chairs and 2 wide tables with about 10 chairs. There is terrace with 3 round tables and 12 chairs. Since the store is on a busy street, the chairs are always 70%-80% occupied.

I asked a few brief questions to the shop attendants. They say that approximately 30%-40% customers are salary men in the morning or during/after lunch time. Another 60%-70% customers are housewives, students, elderly people and others. But in the evening, around 5:00pm to 8:00pm, they are many salary men who drop in after work. Most people do not drop in the Starbucks to use WiFi. Mainly, they spend their time reading a book or newspaper, talking with friends, dallying, and communicating by text messaging on their mobile phone. My observations also bear out this picture of a typical day at this Starbucks. It is very rare to see a laptop and WiFi user.

WiFi connectivity is free, if you register online and get a user ID and password from Yahoo BB!. There are, however, no pamphlets or advertising about WiFi in the store. Most people do not know that they can use the WiFi connectivity in the store. (Or as mentioned before, they may not be interested in mobile Internet by laptop.) I ask the shop attendant, “how many people use WiFi connectivity or AirH” card with their laptop.” According to them, they ganerally see 5 laptop users in a day. Ten to one the users are men wearing suits. One shop attendant says that he has never seen 3 or more personal use laptops at a time. In most cases, the users are sitting alone after work.

I grabbed an opportunity to do a very short interview with one young salary man who sat next to me by chance and started using WiFi connectivity (around 4:30pm). Because of sudden interview, he was quite brief. He had a lightweight new “Let’s note” laptop (produced by Panasonic). He works near Sakuragicho station, and he often comes to a company located near the Starbucks Yokohama Park store. He sometimes uses that shop to drink coffee and check his e-mail and browse the web. He mainly receives/sends business e-mails. Less commonly he replies to private e-mail at that café. Of course his office has many desktop computers and he can use Ethernet connectivity there, but it is not easy to check his private e-mails while at his office. So he drops in the Starbucks before he goes back to his office. He sometimes checks out other shops where he can use a WiFi network.

The store I observed may be considered/located a relay spot between the outside and the office, or between the office and the home.

in front of the store

store interior

terrace