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'We don't want to be an office:' Café owners are pulling the plug on WiFi
When HotBlack Coffee opened in downtown Toronto a year ago, it took a risk few businesses would dare take in today's online-driven world: it turned off the WiFi.
"Every day people come in and ask for it," says Jimson Bienenstock, the café's co-owner.
Still, he hasn't wavered.
"In the short term, it hurt us," Mr. Bienenstock says. "It took us longer to become established, but once we reached critical mass, it has become a self-fulfilling virtuous circle."
While most cafés offer free WiFi, including large chains such as Starbucks, McDonald's and Tim Hortons, HotBlack is among a small but growing number of independent coffee shops choosing to ditch or limit Internet use. By not offering WiFi, they're hoping to create more of a community atmosphere where people talk to each other instead of silently typing on their computers.
If coffeeshops come to discourage people working, perhaps that activity can shift to libraries.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:30AM (3 children)
If you are in a busy high-expense location and can't affordably expand, you'll be limited by table space. You want customers to eat/drink and then leave ASAP.
If you are in a normal location, you need to encourage people to stop by. Tables are free. Maybe too many tables are free, and you sometimes look like you might be closed or otherwise unappealing.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:36AM (1 child)
Smithers, I've discovered the perfect business. People swarm in, empty their pockets and scuttle off!
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @04:45AM
Trump, or Mr. Burns? [trumpormrburns.com]
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday May 02 2017, @02:51PM
Yours is perhaps the most insightful comment on this whole thread. With pervasive Starbucks on every other corner in a lot of towns, there's just more table space than demand. In such places, it absolutely makes sense to encourage customers to linger and perhaps buy another occasional drink or whatever.
As someone who has frequented coffee shops in busy walkable areas in major cities which frequently have a line at the counter almost all day long, table space is a premium. They may have different priorities for their customers.