Starbucks Korea announced Wednesday that it is expanding "Focus Zones," dedicated spaces for one to two customers designed for "café studiers" who use coffee shops for studying.
Focus Zones are separate areas distinct from existing single seats or outlets, operating since August last year to provide customized spaces for customers visiting to study or work. The zones have been introduced at six stores: Sillim Nokdu-geori, Songpa Bangi, Ilsan Hugok, Gwanggyo Sanghyeon Station, Sejong University, and Hanyang University ERICA.
The Sejong University and Hanyang University ERICA locations opened this year in university commercial districts. Considering the high volume of college students visiting for assignments and exam preparation, approximately half of the total space at these stores is configured as Focus Zones.
The Hanyang University ERICA store, located on campus, features various seating arrangements including single booth seats for solo customers, community meeting tables for group projects, and partitioned window-side tables. The company said the Sejong University location is particularly popular for its single booth seats with L-shaped partitions that allow customers to fully concentrate on studying.
Starbucks plans to actively introduce Focus Zones at new university area store openings based on demand from college student customers. Beyond Focus Zones, the company is also offering various purpose-specific spaces, including "Family Friendly Zones" for customers with children.
"We are expanding customers' spatial experience through store design based on usage purpose and stay patterns," said Lee Kyu-chan, head of store development at Starbucks. "We will continue to present differentiated Starbucks spaces so customers can spend more valuable time."
