Posted on 08/08/2010 4:24:04 PM PDT by Willie Green
To stimulate sales, coffeehouses are pulling the plug on the Net.
Reporting from San Francisco —
Housed in an old San Francisco warehouse, Four Barrel Coffee — with its vintage record player, 53-year-old coffee roasting machine, tables hewn from recycled wood and wall of mounted boar heads — calls one of the world's most wired cities home.
But don't expect to get an Internet connection there.
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Coffee connoisseurs hooked on this roaster's beans won't find a working signal — or even a power outlet. The uninitiated often try to plug into a fake one that owner Jeremy Tooker spray painted on the wall as a gag.
"There are lots of marks on the drywall," Tooker said, laughing.
About 30 miles south in Palo Alto, the heart of Silicon Valley's technology industry, the Coupa Cafe offers some of the fastest Internet service in town. But even this popular hangout for entrepreneurs and venture capitalists bans Wi-Fi on weekends to make room for customers sans laptops.
"We had big parties or family groups who wanted to eat but had no room," said Jean Paul Coupal, who runs the cafe with his mother, Nancy. "They were getting upset about it. They felt the whole place was being taken over by techies."
Coffee shops were the retail pioneers of Wi-Fi, flipping the switch to lure customers. But now some owners are pulling the plug. They're finding that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line. Others want to preserve a friendly vibe and keep their establishments from turning into "Matrix"-like zombie shacks where people type and don't talk.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
how gross that someone would spend 8 hours in a business establishment and purchase just one cup of coffee...
Well, finally somebody is talking about trains!
"We had big parties or family groups who wanted to eat but had no room," said Jean Paul Coupal, who runs the cafe with his mother, Nancy.The obvious white line down the middle of the road would be to offer the broadband during the later hours, when only the freeloaders (students for example) would be sitting around drinking coffee and surfing the web.
I've used used coffee shop band width before. The reason people hang out all day is because they are not getting decent speeds. Starbucks, for example, maxes you out at around 170k. At that speed it takes nearly a hour to download a one hour TV program.
Every bar I go to has free wi-fi. None care a bit if you nurse a drink.
It’s not the wi-fi/nurse problem. It is a high cost business model. Epic fail. Starbucks is based on selling 6 dollar cups of bad water every five minutes. Fine, but sorry. That is capitalism. If you have a model that doesn’t support customers desires, change the model. Or not. Customers don’t care about you, your cost structure, nor should they.
You might add, "Empty seats."
The solidly established businesses described in the article were able to attract quick-turnover customers to replace the slow-turnover WiFi crowd. Many coffeehouses have plenty of empty seats available even with WiFi users present.
(And I protest, we aren't all freeloaders!)
Good point.
So was the one by the poster who suggested cutting off broadband during the meal rush periods.
It is still going to be more of a problem as 4G networks are deployed, and the only thing I see for that one is to hope other venues attract more people during rush periods (Since if WiFi isnt needed one can read anywhere)
Perhaps the Pixel Qi screens will take off, and people will go back to reading in parks. I would be happy freeping from the local wildlife refuge on a crisp autumn day.
The internet service isn’t really free. At Starbucks and McDonald’s, you have to subscribe to a WiFi service offered through ATT, which at a minimum costs $20 a month. Or you can pay $7.50 for a one-time connection. I do not consider that freeloading; Starbucks has a deal with ATT.
For awhile I was paying for this because I needed to check email and job-searching sites while I was away from home. I so disliked the environment in Starbucks and Mcdonald’s that I’d sit out in my car to log on to their ATT service.
I talked with the owner of a southwest coffee shop, and he said that some of the best entertainment you could get was a traveling Mexican mariachi. Unfortunately, most of them are old, and there are not many left. It doesn’t matter that they sing in Spanish, because they have the same depth as old style blues guitarists.
Ironically, most Mexicans don’t care for it much. But the fans love it.
He also tried the old Turkish idea of having a “reader”, with a high chair and podium, reading classical short stories. But that also needed a waitress, because customers didn’t want to miss the story to get new drinks.
Who says you have to buy the coffee? Just park your car outside the coffeeshop and surf.
The same person who suggested removing reading chairs from Borders bookstore... Now customers looking at a book sit in the coffee area - for what seems like hours - stopping customers from getting a quick coffee and croissant...
Our local Starbuxx alternative provides you with a temporary 2-hour internet access code with purchase.
It's not rocket surgery.
wo0t
My local coffee shop is just flat-out open. You could sit in the parking lot and surf all day if you wanted to. Of course I almost never use it. I’m only there with family or friends, so I usually do that thing people used to do at coffee shops before this free WiFi business — talk.
A couple of Santa Cruz coffee joints did this a year or so ago. The places were always packed with UC students who would spend hours on end hogging the tables.
Even the commies in SC still have an interest in capitalism. Heh.
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