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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: 3, Informative) by VLM on Tuesday May 02 2017, @12:32PM (4 children)
perhaps that activity can shift to libraries.
My local one sells coffee now. Gotta get funding somehow. In the old days when libraries were about books they didn't allow food and drink which was pretty stupid because I would eat and drink at home while reading books. Now a days libraries are about free internet access for poor people and they still ban food and drink around the computers, and yes, of course at home I sometimes eat and drink at my battle station.
The going rate for makerspace nano office with a door is $200 which frankly is cheaper than a $7 coffee habit. Coworking spaces with a personal locked desk seem to run $125-$150 around here. Not a bad deal other than the nearest makerspace being 40-120 minute drive away (depending on traffic). Of course there's some nice industrial zoned real estate for $1600/mo equivalent nearby although there's more expenses than just rent, but I could see fronting the rent personally, renting a couple nano offices to pay some fraction of the rent, and making a run at a makerspace.
That being such a delicious looking business proposition there's corporations like Regus, they bill by day by person on a 24 month lease, so a relatively dumpy although furnished "ready to occupy" window office is like $6K/month, much cheaper to avoid the middleman.
If you remove the "public" from a public coworking environment the private-ish coworking environments are going to pick up the slack.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 02 2017, @01:01PM (1 child)
My local one sells coffee now. Gotta get funding somehow. In the old days when libraries were about books they didn't allow food and drink which was pretty stupid because I would eat and drink at home while reading books.
Because careless people would spill their drinks on the books or get food smudged on the pages. Remember, they're the library's books that they lend out to everyone, not your own personal collection to ruin as you see fit.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday May 02 2017, @03:51PM
Right, and what prevents them from checking the books out (the normal function of a library), taking them home, then spilling food and drinks on them there?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Tuesday May 02 2017, @01:53PM (1 child)
I get you. I eat and drink while reading and computing all the time, and have never had a serious spill.
A lots of klutzes though will do so frequently. When you eat and drink at home, your crumbs and jelly fall in your own keyboard, or your drink falls on the book you've officially borrowed, and the cleanup and/or cost is all on you. Do the same thing in a public library or computer lab, and the damage and mess is their problem. Odds are most people won't even mention that there was a problem before they leave their mess behind.
I've managed computer labs before, and even with posted and (mostly) enforced no food or drink rules, the mess from wrappers, crumbs, and spills was a pain in the ass, though we didn't lose too many keyboards. About he only time I've seen it work at all was in a semi-private computer lab reserved for upper-classmen in a small CS department. There were still occasional messes, but pretty much everyone thought of it as "their" lab, and actually cleaned up after themselves.
Also, for libraries especially carpet seems to be a common theme, in the "nooks" if not always the halls - it contributes a great deal to the comfort and coziness of the space. And frankly, there's a reason eateries avoid carpeting.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday May 02 2017, @02:18PM
About he only time I've seen it work at all was in a semi-private computer lab reserved for upper-classmen in a small CS department.
I suspect there is a class issue to it. In residential neighborhoods you can pretty accurately estimate crime and income stats based one the amount of litter blowing around. In the olden days reading books probably skewed higher IQ so the disciplined cleanliness traits would have kept a food+drink library pretty safe, but "free internet (pr0n) " is going to skew toward the kind of people that have litter tumbleweeds blowing down their street