Starbucks

I discovered that a Starbucks existed somewhere on the NAIT campus and I thought today would be an appropriate day to check it out. Wandering the maze of hallways in NAIT on a Monday is a great way to start the week, isn’t it?
I anticipated it being interesting and I’m not particularly fond of the NAIT campus. It’s sprawling and disorganized. There are many interesting programs and things happening here though.
I figured I knew where the Starbucks was, and I was right. It’s located in the Common Market and is peripheral to the large, open cafeteria space.
This Starbucks is really geared to students only, and there’s no free wireless per se. You can’t just login and go. There is public wireless access, but if you’re not a student or staff, that requires a call to the help desk. Ten minutes later, after identifying who I was, who I was with and what I was doing, I was granted 24 hour access. Pain in the butt!
This isn’t your average Starbucks. You’re not going to come here unless you have business of some sort at NAIT. I’m going to evaluate it partially from that perspective, but also from the perspective of anyone looking for a place to plug in.
If you have business here, it’s okay, but otherwise, it’s a real pain to find parking, you have to walk quite a distance to get to it, there are few power outlets and logging in is a serious pain. Best to avoid it unless you have a reason to be here.
Busyness — Judging by the approximately 200 seats, this place probably gets very busy. Today it’s quiet. Classes for most haven’t started yet.
Noisiness — There is no carpet and little else to absorb the sound, so I can imagine it gets incredibly noisy.
Ambience — The space is dimly lit with institutional fluorescent lights, and has a wall of windows on one side. In the centre of the room are several couches that look to be fairly comfortable. It’s fairly typical of any large educational institution.
Power — Seems to be very limited and found only on permanent walls. Couldn’t see any outlets by the windows and forget power on the middle seats, which form the majority of seats here.
Free wifi — It’s free, but it’s not an anonymous login like you have at other Starbucks. If you don’t already have a login as a staff member or student it took me ten minutes to get a 24 hour login. One really good thing is that it’s fast!
Staff — The staff seem to be friendly and on top of things. I bet they’re busy when school’s in session
.
Seating — There are a lot of seats here. I am thinking 200, but who knows. I’m not going to count. I do like the fact that the tables are large and give you a lot of space to work on.
Security — Colleges and universities are prime locations for laptop theft. Ensure yours is locked with a security cable to a secure object such as a chair or take it with you.