No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull The Plug On Laptop Users

Wall Street Journal:

A sign at Naidre's, a small neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins warmly: "Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day..."

But, it continues, "...people gotta eat, and to eat they gotta sit." At Naidre's in Park Slope and its second location in nearby Carroll Gardens, Wi-Fi is free. But since the spring of 2008, no laptops have been allowed between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekends, unless the customer is eating and typing at the same time.

Read the whole story: Wall Street Journal

Comments

[Wingit]

I go to one place that automatically disconnects your wi-fi connection after two hours and you cannot sign back in on the same computer for 4 hours. They also have a countdown clock pop up that shows your time left. Other places have notices that laptop use may be limited during busy periods. Some places post a sign that there is no wi-fi available between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m and they turn it off..
There are lots of ways a shop owner can take advantage of the increased traffic of having wi-fi and managing the abuse by a few without ticking off the entire customer base.

[Deaninphilly]

Actually only those who abuse it will be ticked off.

[DennisMM]

I've been through all seven pages (so far) of this thread. It seems to me that those upset at the limiting of time and/or wireless use have several issues.

1. They are entitled to use their tech wherever they care to (except, perhaps, a theater).
2. Free internet access and free access to AC power should be offered widely in eating and drinking establishments..
3. There should be no limits on access to those amenities so long as they are willing to make a token purchase.

WTF? People are acting as if these are rights! They're not even privileges. They are GIFTS.

[DennisMM]

I work at a university library. We allow students, faculty and university staff to check out laptops. We had to limit the checkout time to six hours because all the laptops would be in use and patrons would be left without access to them. We also had to limit non-registered patrons' use of public desktops to two hours a day. People feel entitled to whatever new tech comes along.

They also feel entitled to bring food into the library, and even have a coffee cart on premises so they don't have to walk 300 feet to the next building to buy coffee. And have loud discussions outside of the conference rooms. And steal books because textbooks are too expensive. Lots has changed in my 11 years here.

Everyone wants SOMETHING for nothing. That something varies, but we all want something.

[CharlieMarlowe]

Try a Tim Hortons. More and more of them are opening in the US. They are a high-volume retailer, very busy, and this discourages the laptop loiterer.

[DakotaMinnesota]

That's why I "camp" at the public library - until they privatize that and pollute it with profit motive...

[Morganster]

It was about time! There was a coffee shop near the nursing home where my mother was a patient.

Just for a break, every single day I would take my dad to the coffee shop. All we wanted was to sit down and relax for a few minutes with a cup of coffee. But could we? No, because the shop would always be filled with people who purchased one cup and sat there for hours with their laptops!

My poor father, a World War II vet, would lament about whatever happened to people's manners and consideration for others.

[mountainweb]

Cutting laptop use during the normal eating period makes sense, you cannot eat and type at the same time and do either well.....

[RIPRNC]

Seems reasonable to me. I live by a Tullys Coffee near a Seattle college, and the students seem to be the biggest campers at all. Tully's isn't pulling the plug though. Yet.

[zenmonkman]

They should ... as soon as possible.

[quantumspin]

Campers are a huge profit drain on coffee shops, even during non peak hours. If the camper is sitting there for three hours from 7am to 10 with only a cup or two of coffee (refills cost less typically), that is not respecting the establishment in my view. During peak hours, its worse of course since they displace higher revenue. I don't blame coffee shops for 1)limiting wireless use and or 2)charging for connection time beyond an hour or so. "Membership" is another possibility. Having known of three/four shops with this issue over the years, I can fully appreciate the problem.

[xtiangodloki]

I wonder just how did coffee shops became places where people would pretend to work and study at the first place. There are certainly exceptions but the majority of the squatters at coffee shops and places like Panera bread are a bunch of pretentious, narcissistic d-bags.

[WasteNJ]

So I guess I'll just have to sit in the car outside the shop and steal the bandwidth? If shops don't want people with laptops, why do they provide the wireless access point?

There are a lot of different restrictions that can be implemented to limit use (disconnecting after a set time, selling access keys, etc.) and manage the process within the hardware/software used. Covering outlets is an offensive way of stopping the use, not to mention somewhat silly since most laptops will run at least a couple of hours on a single battery charge. (no doubt longer than the shop owners want them sitting there.) In my experience, once you kick a customer out, they don't come back.

[CoconutLime]

My MacBook runs for about five hours. Needless to say, I rarely have to plug into the electrical outlet when I go to a coffee shop.

[zenmonkman]

It's the fact you're taking up space ... that's the problem!!!

[devadasi]

Coffee shops are for talking and meeting people, not isolating behind a computer screen.

[gle helle]

And I thought they were for coffee.

[Deaninphilly]

I really don't think they want someone who just wants to squat back in their establishment. Apparently you are really missing the point. They want you to go become some one elses problem.

[DennisMM]

If the customer is buying one or two cups of coffee and displacing someone who would have lunch or dinner, it's better to lose the occasional coffee drinker and gain the diner.

[emmeaki]

The provide wireless access, but that doesn't mean that they want you to sit there for five hours with a $1.50 cup of coffee while other people have to turn and leave because there isn't anywhere to sit.

[ubeman]

The people with the laptops who sit at Starbucks all day are actually the moderators (content police) working for Huffington Post. True!

[zenmonkman]

The H*//P should provide them office space, home internet connections or a bundle of cash to buy latte grandes ... get out of the coffee houses!

[DennisMM]

Or they could make plain coffee at home. Whatever happened to plain coffee?

[mcap56]

The business at this particular spot seems like it is down a lot (could be the economy but I don't think so). There should be sensible policies to limit abuse. Just get rid of the wifi. A great cafe in Manhattan - 71 has no wifi and they are always full. The sign put up here seemed semi-hostile. Kind of incongruous with the neighborho­od/friendl­y vibe they were trying to create.
Most of the laptop set there spent a lot of money. One day they sat with their computers for a couple of hours with only a couple of cups of coffee. They next, the came in for lunch and left. The next day, coffee or food to go. Then, they filled the place during off peak hours and in the evenings often ordering dinner. You can't have it both ways. Now most of them won't go there for any reason.

They have underestimated what this could do to their volume. It usually looks fairly empty when I walk by these days. Of course, with this article, I am sure they will see a rise in traffic, if only out of curiousity :)

[WasteNJ]

Deft observations. Let's remember, when you drive away that customer, another coffee shop will eat your lunch.

[DennisMM]

I work at a university. Students camp.

[KarleyBarley]

I work there--you are absolutely right.

[bartonfink]

please. it's as if you're describing a bus schedule. so it all balances out is what you're saying? do you think that people who work at these places might have a better sense of the ebb and flow of squatters to actual diners?

but you're absolutely correct: get rid of the wifi, get rid of the squatters

[dreamsugar]

The coffee shops could offer pay for use of outlet. I mean it's also the coffee shops electricity they are using as well as the WiFi and taking up seats for hours. Why not pay for the use -- especially if you're conducting business.

[Eoin45]

I love it. I'm so tired of going to my local coffee roasting company and finding someone taking up two full tables with their laptops while I can't find a seat for lunch or dinner. Often they're also listening to music or other audio material through the speakers rather than on headphones. Down too with the cell phone users who pace back and forth across the room, yacking away. I'm an old guy and it used to be that this sort of rude, self-absorbed behavior simply wasn't done. While I recognize all the advantages of laptops and cell phones - I use both - their intrusion into the public space makes life less civil.