Celebrating the Third Place: Inspiring Stories About the Great Good Places at the Heart of Our Communities

The best third places are locally owned, independent, small-scale, steady-state business,

Vitality is an essential element in attracting customers to a shopping center, and it’s also a very important characteristic of a third place. Clearly, the most important ingredient of vitality is the presence of people.

Once people come into Annie’s, they quickly find that they are our first priority. We want to know our customers. We lean across the counter and ask about vacations and school activities, illness and recoveries, births and deaths.

Also I was looking for something to give the customer outside the exchange of money for merchandise. That exchange wasn’t enough for me; it left me feeling empty I wanted something I could hand over that was extra and free, something that would help the customer slow down and relax.

The atmosphere, both physical and social, is the trickiest and most essential part of creating a warm and welcoming third place. Both need constant attention and periodic tweaking. Both show signs of neglect and fatigue immediately

MOST THIRD places enjoy a location where pedestrian traffic is heavy and many regulars live but minutes away

Essential to informal collective effort is the habit of association, and essential to informal association are places where people may gather freely and frequently and with relative ease.

Through the chess set, free entertainment, a magazine stand, and a variety of community events, we make a conscious effort to send out the message to our customers that they are welcome.

we invited the police to open a substation on the property.

Pike Street in Seattle, or Granville Island in Canada,