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 ...
Whoever came up with the business idea of trying to attract freeloaders?
Seriously.
Probably got a bonus for that great idea.
And these are the people that run the world...
But what about the trains, Willie ? What about the trains ?
Even McDonalds has WiFi, if they don’t and I want to read on-line, I’ll find someplace that does.
I am not a free loader there to get free internet although I see many who are in shops for that purpose.
The best laid plans of mice and men, often go astray.
Probably the guys that figured you could execute the tightest imaginable target marketing to a generation that lives online when you can read their every keystroke.
And sell 'em a 5 dollar cup of coffee once in a while.
Starbucks used to require you to buy something once in a while and for some reason stopped. Pity, 'cause I can't stand their coffee.
The other place down the road, before they burned to the ground when one of their roasting machines went haywire -- I always bought something anytime I came in to check my email.
Yesterday I spent 20 bucks at another place on a tiny lunch for the privilege 'cause Starbucks was full of...well..."freeloaders", I suppose.
This is a problem that's easily fixed by having each unique Mac address (that's the unique address for every network card in a computer) which has grabbed an IP address time out after say, 30 minutes. That's what most of the coffee and sandwich shops in the loop (Chicago) do and it works quite well. Can't nurse that cup of coffee all day anymore taking up room for PAYING customers that way.
Go to any Panera Bread in the Chicago area, you only get 30 minutes on their wireless in a 24 hour time period and I don't see them hurting for customers.
The proper model for WiFi is:
1. No free refills.
2. expensive drinks.
3. no power outlet.
Within 3 years, deployment of 4G wireless broadband will have anyone who wants to be online at a resuraunt able to do so anywhere.
The key is to keep them spending money.
I’m gonna start up a string of Wi-Fi shops where you pay to get the wireless access, and you get the coffee for free.
Maybe call it ‘Wireless Coffee’.
Yeah, it’s called budgetary spending cuts.......... =.=
Makes good business sense to me. If it is costing more to provide an incentive than the revenue it brings in, get rid of it.
If lefty eggheads are willing to pay $10.99 for a fair-trade, non-fat, skinny latte topped with organic cinnamon served in an unbleached, 100% recyclable, non-carbon-footprint cup along with a transfat-free granola muffin, I guess they've earned the right to DUeep (or whatever the DU equivalent to FReeping is) for as long as they want to.
But I suppose if I'm taking up a space of somebody that will spend more than me, so be it.
Interesting!
I sure as hell wouldn't want to spend enough time in a Starbuck's to justify surfing the web.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Thanks for the warning. My kid has a 3 hour class “in town” several nights a week and I’ve been looking for a new place to spend an hour or so. I’ve been thinking of trying the Panera Bread for a change, but I’ll cross that off my list. I’d have a problem with only 30 minutes since I not only drink coffee, but also plan a dinner and/or splurge on a “fancy” dessert.
BTW: I certainly don't begrudge Panera Bread for limiting customers to 30 minutes of free wireless. It's an added "benefit" to choosing them for lunch IMO, and I get to update my iPad with the latest Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Fox News content for the long train ride home.
Internet child predators will have to go to the library to make their arrangements...
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