[URBAN NOTE] On WiFi and coffee shops

[rfmcdonald]

Once, I remember Joe. My. God quoting five hours as the maximum amount of time someone could hang out in a WiFI-equipped coffee shop, after having bought a small coffee, before being asked to leave. This Extraordinary Observations post makes an interesting point about those people (myself not included, hopefully; I try to buy a second cup if I'm going to stay for longer, especially if it's a small indie place like the Linux Caffe). If customers are staying too long and buying too little, why not try to foster an environment where the customers will want to do something more. How?

I don't own a coffee shop (although one day I might like to) and I'm sure there are challenges that the typical customer, even someone who visits all the time, has no idea exist. I get that. But doing things like covering up outlets and turning off the Wifi is essentially punishing 20 good customers to take care of 1 troublemaker (I'm making up these numbers). The 20 good customers are probably sympathetic to the shop owner, and annoyed that some jerk is perpetually hogging space. But the old middle-school explanation that one bad apple ruined it for everyone doesn't quite fly.

The situation reminds me of the 'seat hog epidemic' going around on public transit systems across America. Most of the articles talk about the passive-aggressive approach that upset riders take: making nasty faces, posting photos on the web to 'shame' the seat hogs, etc. As it turns out, many people have come forward and pointed out that all it usually takes to sit down is to politely asking the seat hog 'may I sit down?'.