Posted on 08/08/2010 11:06:46 AM PDT by thecodont
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.
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.
That shift could gather steam now that free Wi-Fi is less of a perk after coffee giant Starbucks stopped charging for it last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Sure glad that you aren't putting a negative spin on the man sitting in his car, using his laptop.
I don’t get this.
Just specify a minimum charge/hour. Send a staff person around once an hour, to ask for the surfer to order something to keep connected. Put a sign up, indicating such.
The shop gets steady revenue from surfers, and everyone’s happy.
It’s not rocket science. Sheesh.
4G will make this all a wasted effort..
Yeah, this is San Francisco Luddite chic. Certainly, a business can do whatever it wants, and certainly the customers who like playing with the 53 year old coffee machine are welcome to go; but watch for the Internet to become yet another thing that our progessivists want to take away from us.
Does anyone remember the triva game craze that hit the bars in the 90’s? I think it was called NTN network.The bars and restaurants soon found out they’d sell one drink and the patrons would sit there for hours. Sort of bad for the bottom line.
Gee, my Blackberry gets the Internet though my cell phone service. I don’t need WiFi
If I spent $4.50 on a latte that cost $0.40 to make, I would have no shame in reading FR for a couple hours on my laptop at a small table with one or two seats.
“If I spent $4.50 on a latte that cost $0.40 to make, I would have no shame in reading FR for a couple hours on my laptop at a small table with one or two seats.”
Of course he has no overhead and is not allowed to make a profit and the loss leader items miraculously cost nothing to make up for your attitude,
Have you ever run a business?
Libraries are hard to find when you are on the road.
I want my free Wi fi!!!
Thanks!
My library does this. But the digital copy is time-limited, so like the paper copy you only have it for a time.
The ideal place to have a coffee shop is next to a public area, such as a mall court with tables, that offers WiFi. People will keep ducking in for sustenance without blocking access by other customers.
My library has digital online services. I use it all the time. I also still buy books as I’m a book person and am addicted.
http://www.overdrive.com/products/dlr/
It depends on local management. I complained to the manager at Border's about not having a place to sit with my coffee cake and coffee as two bums, one sleeping, were taking up space and two wifi enthusiasts were happily surfing and eating non-store purchased items.
His reply? "We have a policy not to bother the homeless, if you don't like it, you can leave." I put down my items on the counter and left, never to go back. It is a shame, it is a nice store with lots of merchandise. But here, the local Barnes and Noble has a policy that the cafe is for eating and drinking and there are no bums. So now I go there for coffee and cake. If it was not for the military and tourists, Hawaii would be like Samoa.
Not Trivial Pursuit?
Yeah. If they can figure out a way to do it, they will. They HATE the fact that people can easily do things like review the text of a speech that a politician gave two years ago.
You could do that before the Internet, but it wasn’t easy. Not only that, it gives people a place to pool their expertise and resources to analyze things. Before the Internet, would anyone have caught CBS lying about Bush’s military service?
So, yeah. I agree with you. But from a business perspective, I understand this decision.
While I can't think of anything besides FR, I'm pretty sure that the interwebs are good for something else. :=)
Totally agree. Logical solution, and everyone is happy. I used to be a hostess/waitress in college at a restaurant that had 24 hour service, and a smoking section. We had the people who bought one cup of coffee (free refills) and sat at a table smoking for 5 hours a night. If you were lucky, they tipped 25 cents for the whole table. UGH. Yes, minimum order for an hour of free wifi seems fair to me!
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