For all their talk about social responsible this is now the third (out of three) Starbucks in New York that does not have customer restroom. You basically just have to use the tax payer funded one the park. And Starbucks does not pay taxes.
Discussion
There's also the depressing trend of removing comfortable seats, sometimes even all seats. Combined with loud music and the big Uber Eats backpacks it signals: this is for take-away, just another Uber Eats dark store. But the nice wall decoration reminds the visitor of days gone by.
E.g. this on in the Bronx, five years ago did have nice seats:
But no longer.
Of course we know the reason behind the trend: homelessness. This is apparently how Starbucks envisions solving that problem. It's part of a bigger trend that's certainly not limited to US corporations:
Why do you frequent it then? Why are the alternatives worse?
Outside the US they're usually really nice. It's a habbit and it's nice when travelling to have some predictability. But in the US it's getting worse every time I visit (once a year or so for the last 20 years, though Starbucks only since 2008).
So my incentive to seek out alternatives has increased. That's good news for smaller independent establishments out there!
Makes sense. I liked them for being a predictably a solid spot to work from; other smaller coffee shops could be a hit or miss in that sense.
But as you, I've seen declining quality of service and spaces from Starbucks as well in the US. For sure would recommend to try other SMBs by now.
They're absolutely not work friendly anymore here. With a few exceptions. Part of what I do on long walks is to find and bookmark them. The Bronx is perhaps not the ideal spot for that :-)
I'll also take a look at WeWork, if they have any good "roaming" deals. At my home base I have a great setup. Hotels are also hit and miss.