Please Watch Your Laptop

I’ve always been struck by the distance this industry puts between store design and store security. From time to time, we might discuss how clever design can hide the eye-in-the-sky cameras in a sea of soffits and ceiling lights, or the newest iteration of jewelry showcase locks.

But, for the most part, designers design and then operations worries about crime and shrinkage.

Recently, though, design intentions and security concerns are sitting down in that same meeting place everyone else seems to show up at: Starbucks.

The charm of Starbucks through its incredible run of the last 15 years has been its self-proclaimed “third place,” a design that invites you to throw off your coat, curl up in a chair and spend a couple of hours – with other latte lovers, web surfers, jazz aficionados, book readers and, oops, the occasional thief. Because it’s apparently this disarmingly comfortable, relaxed, familiar environment that’s breeding an epidemic of Starbucks heists.

The New York City Police Department, which has set up actual sting operations in the city’s Starbucks, says people routinely set their stuff down, then wander over to the counter to order their coffee or grab a Splenda packet. When they return, coat, laptop, purse, shopping bags, briefcase, all gone! Or they get so distracted in their texting they lose a sense of their surroundings.

I lived in New York for a long time, and would never, never have thought to leave a coat or briefcase or anything of value unattended – in Starbucks, on the subway, in my own living room. In the New York I knew, citizens lived with their guards up. It was tiring but necessary. But today, even famously wary New Yorkers stroll the sidewalks at 3 a.m. as if they were in Fort Wayne, Ind.

It’s not just New York, by the way. Similar crime has been reported in notoriously crime-free Toronto; crunchy Seattle; laid-back Berkeley, Calif.; and, by the way, in Fort Wayne.

None of this is to blame Starbucks (which says it does have security cameras). It’s hard to imagine what the retailer could do, short of armed guards or motion-detecting laser beams that cut across the store. I’d hate to see the comfy furniture or roomy coffee tables disappear. But it’s up to Starbucks’ store designers to figure it out, to maintain the pleasant informality with some sense of secure formality.

Years ago, retailers addressed the issue with signs that said, “Please watch your hat and coat.” Everything – technology, human behavior and store design principles – has evolved since then. The tools may be more complex, but they’re doubtless there. It’s a design challenge now.