My Starbucks has a large oval desk with a raised central oval with lots of plugs (as a kind of divider), very reminiscent of University. Not a coincidence. They also have some soft chairs, some standard cafe tables and chairs. A real mix. Designed for each person to find their place.

Shame it takes them 10 minutes to make an Americano: they're often very busy washing the sugary goop out of the blender containers...