On a personal level, I’d realistically pass on both of these places. But the nice thing with the bottom option? 9/10 times there’s another place with what I’d want within a reasonable walking distance, along with other options. Even in a small European village I’ve observed several places to eat within walking distance of each other.
My absolute disdain for traffic overpowers my disdain for crowds by far.
The silver lining is I can nip inside to the almost empty coffee shop and leave with my order before two cars have been served. No idea why these people would rather sit in their car for twenty minutes than walk for twenty seconds.
It is best to just put in the order online. Then you can park, walk in, grab it, walk out and be moving before they serve a single car.
No idea. I served in drive throughs and I can tell you waiting time is shorter inside the store
Waiting time is shorter and I don’t have to keep idling the car ( or turning it off and on again) before I can order.
I’m used to running inside because I ride a motorcycle a lot, and you’re right the wait is almost always shorter inside the building. It’s fun to see the same cars sitting in the line when you leave.
I wish this was true, I’ve tried it multiple times at Starbucks and it doesn’t work.
I think the majority of the staff is working on mobile/drive thru orders vs the orders that come in at the counter.
Regardless, going inside has taken me longer then joining that stupid line.
Ahh but you can’t ever be part of a pretentious and pointless pay it forward chain, where suburbanites of the same financial status pay roughly for someone else what they would have paid for their own drinks
Because they clearly don’t have to worry about all the extra money and time they’re wasting on gas to buy commercial coffee every day. Must be nice.
deleted by creator
My car is probably more comfortable tbh. Especially if weather is bad.
deleted by creator
I’m socially anxious and don’t really like crowds so sitting in my car is preferable. But I’d park and walk in rather than wait in a line like that.
Really I work from home and get my own coffee every day without needing pants, which is infinitely preferable to both.
Pic number one is definitely more comfortable. Because you don’t have to be around so many people. You have your own private environment. Listen to an audiobook, zone out, drink some coffee, sounds perfect.
deleted by creator
Yeah sounds like a fucking dream. When I’m depressed.
I know you’re getting downvoted, but I agree. I have lost most of my tolerance for people in businesses at this point. Too many rude, inconsiderate jerks treating the staff poorly and acting like they own the place. I’m not saying sitting in your car waiting for it is good either, but compared to dealing with horrible people, I’ll take it.
Now, if you’re lucky, you’ll find a coffee shop with decent clientele. If you’re lucky.
Get ready to find out that there are countries where horrible customers are a rare occurrence
That’s great. As soon as you get me and my family jobs, a home and citizenship in one, I’ll change my tune.
Yeah thats unfortunately just a larger cultural problem
Maybe this whole car/big business environment contribute to the this.
Where I live I know the name or faces of most people who attend my local café, which is run by an old dude and his wife, I think this leads to a more friendlier place then let say, a big chain store with new staff every couple weeks who can’t care less about the place and also customers who sees the place as only somewhere where you go to buy stuff and leave.
Agreed. If pic two was a sleepy coffee shop with maybe one or two tables occupied. And you could get some personal space and read a book quietly. It would be superior. If you live in a transit oriented community, and everything’s walkable, you got a coffee shop right next to your house that you can go visit in the morning. Beautiful.
But that wasn’t the question, it was of the two which was more preferable.
The bottom cafe holds a lot more people comfortably.
So if both had the same amount of customers, the bottom one would be a hell of a lot less crowded.
deleted by creator
Some cars have by far the most comfortable seats I’ve ever sat in. Nissan in particular has some amazing seats. Far better than anything Herman Miller has ever put out. There’s a reason some dedicated people out there take seats out of cars and mount them on the rolly things.
That said I’m not going to idle my car for more than 5 minutes for just about anything. The people who wait 30 minutes in a drive thru line are insane.
I’m a fierce opponent of cars in inner cities and I want a revolution in individual transportation that makes us mostly move away from cars (and make cars much smaller for those who are reliant on it).
However I love driving although I hope I’ll never need a car ever again for climates sake. I’d definitely rather sit in my own isolated space.I hope it’s higher than that. I don’t want to hike 3 miles to sit on a crowded sidewalk with randos under someone’s house to wait 20 minutes for 2 oz of espresso probably in a cloud of cigarette smoke.
I like a cafe, but it’s going to be way out of the way and no one waiting but me.
You guys only have a cafe every 3 miles?
Lol, we have some every couple of 100 meters. In my small neighborhood town, I know of at least 7.
It’s 43°C out here in Texas, so yes, but I would rather climate refugee my way into a nice place like the bottom picture because with the way things are going, soon 50°C is going to be the new norm out here (especially if we keep building photo one infrastructure) and 43° is already too hot. We also have lines like this for fried chicken. SNL even did a parody auto dealer commercial where the dealership is blocked off by the traffic in line for chicken.
Cars cause global warming. Cars have air-conditioning. Temp outside right now is 105 F. The first one.
This post backfired spectacularly on OP, didn’t it?
Actually, no, it didn’t. Unlike many children of the internet, I can learn and expand my horizons with new vantages. Many people take coffee in a variety of ways, as it appears. By illustrating this dichotomy, in the end, I could better unravel the tapestry that is coffee drinking, thereby enriching my life. Sorry if this disappoints, but as Monty Python said, “Always look on the bright side of life.”
When the drive-thru is that backed up it’s often faster to just park in the lot and order inside.
that photo was almost definitely taken during covid, when going inside was not an option
Not only that, but there’s only one car parked. Is there only 1 employee working?
Not entirely calling shenanigans, but I’ve got questions.
Many people working these jobs full time cannot afford their own car and must walk or bus to get to their job.
I was told that nobody wants to work.
deleted by creator
Lifes too short for this. Full automatic at home and instant powder for on the goes. :)
I don’t like waiting in my car, but I fucking hate packed restaurants/cafes where I have to scoot my chair in extra tight so people don’t keep having to rub their junk on me every time they squeeze behind me.
I choose option 3: make my coffee/tea at home because I’m poor asf.
I’m on option 3 because no coffee/tea is worth the wasted time and resources of leaving my house early (even if I had to commute) to wait in line for it. This is just terminally stupid to me and I am unable to understand why anyone does it as part of their daily routine.
yeah I just make some black coffée when I get to work, maybe add a sugar packet if I feel zesty
so people don’t keep having to rub their junk on me
I agree with GiantFloppyCock.
Is there a sublemmy for this yet?
Be the change you want to see
- Rimjob Steve
I wouldn’t have noticed without this comment. Love it.
Well, if you weren’t poor, you could just go and sit in half empty cafe where trey charge €10+ per cup.
High five for practical frugality. I’m with you there.
I hate getting bumped, but for me it’s the noise. Can’t stand a crowded space with many conversations.
Removed by mod
Removed by mod
What a ridiculous comment. Maybe they already have been. Maybe they can’t afford it. Maybe they don’t even have autism. A diagnosis isn’t some magic cure for sensitivity to noisy crowds anyway, so it’s not a helpful suggestion even if all your assumptions were true.
Removed by mod
so people don’t keep having to rub their junk on me
Same, bro. Now where is this coffee place, so I know where not to go? 📜✍🥸
in the US, there’s another side that makes it even more frustrating – not only is turning every square foot into road or parking being actively rewarded – but any attempt in the other direction is actively punished – reams of legislation against medium density housing, open patio seating, mixed use zoning, walkable cities, bike-friendly roads, …
imagine what would happen if federal dollars could only be spent on upkeep of existing highways and not to build more or expand highways, and the excess money was put into rail transit construction and protected bike lanes
I like the sentiment, but imagine it’s above 35oC
If I am to answer honestly, the car. But only because it’s like a little fortress of solitude and separates me from the public where I would otherwise be an anxious mess. But to be fair, you did only ask what looks more comfortable. I still don’t want cars to be the main mode of transportation.
First, I agree with everything you typed. BUT
Second, “a little fortress of solitude and separates me from the public” is kinda the problem we have that leads to the top part of the picture. We in the West in general and the United States in particular have lost our sense of community. My car by myself listening to what I want in solitude is AWESOME, but stopping to sit and be part of a community is probably better for me.
For me, I look at all those factors as coping with the fact that we are often alone in our cars and that they inherently create a sense of isolation from the outside world.
Yep. There’s a BIG difference between “I like driving” and “We should design all our towns and cities around driving.”
And the ironic thing is that designing around walking and public transportation makes driving better. You don’t have to deal with nearly as much stop & go traffic if there aren’t as many people on the road, and if arterial roads don’t need to have intersections every few hundred feet.
I don’t think the problem with cars is that they aren’t comfortable. Unfortunately they are too comfortable. You get to sit in an air conditioned box with leather seats, no external noise while listening to an audiobook. Then your coffee just shows up.
Removed by mod