Coffee Shops Ditch WiFi and Laptops To Limit Remote Work (axios.com) 60
Numerous coffee establishments across the US are actively restricting internet access and laptop use as they push back against remote workers monopolizing their spaces for hours.
New York's Devocion chain limits WiFi to two-hour windows on weekdays and eliminates it entirely on weekends, while Detroit's Alba coffee shop has operated without WiFi since its 2023 opening. Some venues have resorted to physically taping over electrical outlets.
DC-based cafe Elle initially launched without WiFi but reversed course after receiving negative Google reviews, implementing a compromise with access restricted to Monday-Thursday, 8am-3pm, with a 90-minute usage cap. The restrictions primarily aim to increase customer turnover, improve sales figures, and restore the community atmosphere that extended laptop sessions often diminish.
New York's Devocion chain limits WiFi to two-hour windows on weekdays and eliminates it entirely on weekends, while Detroit's Alba coffee shop has operated without WiFi since its 2023 opening. Some venues have resorted to physically taping over electrical outlets.
DC-based cafe Elle initially launched without WiFi but reversed course after receiving negative Google reviews, implementing a compromise with access restricted to Monday-Thursday, 8am-3pm, with a 90-minute usage cap. The restrictions primarily aim to increase customer turnover, improve sales figures, and restore the community atmosphere that extended laptop sessions often diminish.
We Hate Customers! (Score:1, Funny)
Ah yes, the Basil Fawltification of America, but now the Major is the President, and Manuel is being shivved in El Salvador.
Re:We Hate Customers! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:We Hate Customers! (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously requires being in a space where that works, but I thought that was a good fix.
Re: (Score:3)
A Linux-based coffee shop would use dynamic deprioritization -- each customer would be assigned a default priority upon entering the shop, and customers found to be using up too much table-time would be automatically deprioritized and bumped off of their table and into a waiting-queue if necessary, until spare tables became available again.
Re: (Score:2)
Mod parent insightful. It should be related to usage. As long as there are empty tables, it's okay.
But if they want to do it properly, the algorithm could get complicated. They really should cut off the Wi-Fi of the customers who have been there the longest while buying the least--but after giving them the chance to buy something sufficient to justify keeping their connection live.
Unfortunately it breaks down for people who are using their own networks.
As regards the Subject, I have definitely noticed a lot
Re:We Hate Customers! (Score:5, Informative)
the coffee-shop side had loudish, energetic music and the office was quiet.
Some restaurants actually do the loud upbeat music thing in order to keep customers from hogging tables. A chicken tender place near me practically blasts their music (which is primarily a playlist of current pop), which certainly does tend to drive off everyone who isn't a member of Gen Z.
Re: (Score:2)
Some places have their music up so loud, I don't even get a table. I just leave, and take my dining money elsewhere.
I don't understand how people can stand to eat a meal in such places. I mean, jezuz Christ.
I went into one place, and had to use the toilet so bad, I went there first before getting a table. Even in the god damned rest room, it was so loud it was like being at a rock concert. After I finished my shit, I just left and ate somewhere else.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
the coffee-shop side had loudish, energetic music and the office was quiet.
Some restaurants actually do the loud upbeat music thing in order to keep customers from hogging tables. A chicken tender place near me practically blasts their music (which is primarily a playlist of current pop), which certainly does tend to drive off everyone who isn't a member of Gen Z.
I am glad this is not a "thing" in the country where I live. Most places don't try to shoo away customers but by the same token, your average Brit is too embarrassed to sit in a fast food restaurant for a few hours to work.
The only restaurant that plays loudish music around my town that isn't a bar or club of some description is a branch of Five Guys and well, the music is part of their "American Diner" shtick.
Re: (Score:2)
A coffee shop is not a rented office space that can be acquired for the cost of one latte. I can see where they're coming from.
But...But... The coffee shops owe these people. Having the best of the best programmers at your shop is nothing to sneeze at.
Re: (Score:2)
The Tullys up the hill from me used to encourage people working, and there were probably a couple of dozen of us who would be there for half a day once or twice a week. The reason why it worked for them was that normally it was only busy for a couple of hours in the morning and evening around the commute, the rest of the day the rest of us would drop in, buy a coffee, later a pastry, maybe a sandwich, and then another coffee before leaving. (It helped that they had a gorgeous raven haired barista who made
Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Even if they do get a token coffee when entering, them staying for hours and hours just because they have a pretty table, wifi and AC there stops other customers from sitting and buying.
I was just thinking this recently while buying coffee at an overcrowded Starbucks, with barely any customer rotation and plenty of laptop usage at the tables.
Re: Makes sense (Score:2)
Were they there first? Did you buy more than the one drink they bought? Why do you think you should come later, buy the same, and have more meaning as a customer than them?
You think a 100 percent empty building attracts customers?
Re: Makes sense (Score:4, Insightful)
Why do you think you should come later, buy the same, and have more meaning as a customer than them?
The first customer is getting several hours (or more) of comfy coffee shop sitting time, and the second customer is getting none. So why do you think that by coming earlier and buying the same, you have more meaning as a customer than them?
Re: (Score:2)
Why do you think you should come later, buy the same, and have more meaning as a customer than them?
The first customer is getting several hours (or more) of comfy coffee shop sitting time, and the second customer is getting none. So why do you think that by coming earlier and buying the same, you have more meaning as a customer than them?
He might be angry that his "I will never come to an office again" outlook is being jeopardized, and he can't do anything about it. I'm not even being a smartass. This is going to be a problem for some people.
Re: (Score:2)
It's called Work From HOME for a reason. Surely he can make his own coffee.
Re: (Score:2)
It's called Work From HOME for a reason. Surely he can make his own coffee.
What it is called, and what it is are not always identical.
Re: Makes sense (Score:5, Insightful)
You think a 100 percent empty building attracts customers?
It's definitely better at doing so than a 100 percent full building.
Re: (Score:2)
Were they there first? Did you buy more than the one drink they bought?
You really think that buying one cup of coffee means you ought to get a table at the coffee shop as your personal remote office all day?
Maybe if you're there at a slack time, when plenty of tables are free, but if you're hogging a table for hours and hours when other people can't sit down, you're a moocher.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:lol (Score:4)
You stayed more, you paid more.
Alas, cybercafes got a bad rep and went into disrepair and decay closing most of them.
Coffee shops where fancy coffees are served don't want the same reputation either.
Mobile hotspot (Score:5, Informative)
Sure but with mobile hotspot capabilities included with many phone plans (at least on Verizon with my unlimited plan with an Android phone...) you don't even need that, unless you're doing something bandwidth / data intensive.
I don't consider computing a public activity for me anyway, but I can see it being handy for someone who rents a room in an apartment in a big city and just needs to get out of dodge for a while.
Some friends and I owned one of the first internet cafes in Silicon Valley. This was the late 90s before widespread adoption of WiFi, so we had ethernet jacks at all tables that were up against a wall, and with each purchase you'd get a free hour on our T1 by keying the MAC address in from your machine. A friend wrote the code to handle that. You could also buy additional time inexpensively, or buy another coffee. We had plenty of room so overstaying one's welcome wasn't an issue, the local university students really liked it there. Fun times.
Re: (Score:2)
I used to travel around to customer sites, coffee shops were great places to spend some time between stops and get some work done. Fill out tickets, take notes about the previous job, review the upcoming job, whatever. Have a coffee, maybe a pastry, and then on to the next stop.
Re: Mobile hotspot (Score:1)
Lol, like even 1% of today's tech users could tell you their Mac address.
Good (Score:3)
Good! I get really annoyed when I go to a coffee shop to relax and there's nowhere to sit because everywhere's hogged by people on laptops.
If a coffee shop opened near me that didn't have WiFi at all, I'd patronize it for sure. And if it jammed cell phone data, that would be a bonus! :)
Say what? (Score:2)
New York's Devocion chain limits WiFi to two-hour windows on weekdays and eliminates it entirely on weekends
On weekends, they eliminate the two-hour limit or the WiFi access completely? What, do they not want customers watching dumb TikTok videos while drinking their lattes?
Aside from this slightly confusing bit in TFS, time limits do make sense. The Target near me has free EV chargers that are only free for the first hour. If you stay plugged in longer, you'll get billed and it's actually a little spendy. This mostly succeeds at keeping non-customers from hogging the chargers. Seems like a similar system wo
Re: (Score:2)
my guess it is badly described in the article, they probably eliminate the 2-hour restriction during the weekends, not eliminate wifi access
lol (Score:2)
ngl, I get drive through coffee all the time, but going into a coffee shop for anything more than picking up an order? Like the entire point of it is to use their wifi on my laptop.
Who hangs out in a coffee shop for any other reason? I'm just saying just close your doors and just go drive through only if you don't want remote workers hanging out cause they are your only real sit down customers you have in t
Re: (Score:2)
I suppose some of it depends on what you sell. FTFA:
Elle's bottom line played into the decision to cap internet usage, says Pimentel: "We can't have someone sitting there for three hours [on the weekend] with a cup of coffee while there's a wait for people who want to eat brunch."
So, I suppose, if all you sell is coffee, that might be the case. But if you have baked goods, sandwiches, etc. having someone take up a seat for three hours with a cup of coffee while others are waiting or, more likely, saying "It's too crowded" and going elsewhere would definitely make the owner think about limitations.
Re: (Score:2)
Who hangs out in a coffee shop for any other reason?
The Starbucks down the hill from us sees a lot of traffic from realtors meeting their customers.
Come on now. (Score:3)
If you're charging $3+ for a cup of coffee, treat those customers well and give them some damn free internet. Speed cap it to 3 Mbps per device if you absolutely must to discourage the moochers, if you absolutely must.
Also, use that usage data to help plan for staffing levels accordingly.
Re: (Score:3)
We are now in the realm of tariffs, the coffee beans themselves might cost $3.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're charging $3+ for a cup of coffee, treat those customers well and give them some damn free internet. Speed cap it to 3 Mbps per device if you absolutely must to discourage the moochers, if you absolutely must.
Also, use that usage data to help plan for staffing levels accordingly.
At first I thought... "where are you getting a coffee for $3"... Then I realised you were thinking of that burnt dishwater Americans pass off as coffee, not a decent esspresso based drink.
Even in Colombia I'm paying near enough to $3 for it (11,000 pesos). Seriously, if you're ordering one drink and staying an hour, its not the cafe that's the problem.
Good timing (Score:5, Interesting)
The timing here seems interesting. While some cafes are chasing away "work from cafe" people because they are "bad for business" another shop sees this as an opportunity and is basically renting people office space at a set rate.
Re: (Score:2)
Now that's good thinking.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not? A lot of places are busy only during the commute hours, may as well put that space to good use the rest of the day.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh no! A 90-minute usage cap??? (Score:2)
Why is mobile 4G data so expensive over yonder? (Score:2, Troll)
Australia has a 'coffee culture' but the idea of free wifi isn't.
The idea that a business should let you occupy a table for an hour or two sponging off their internet screams entitlement. Anyhow, that's what our municipal libraries provide.
Create a wifi hot-spot over your phone's 4G connection and you're up and running. Data seems even cheaper in Europe; get off the plane in Barcelona, buy a 30-day SIM and you can forget crappy hotel or youth hostel wifi.
Re: (Score:2)
sponging off their internet
Which costs them nothing, so unless they're blocking staff or other customers I don't see the issue.
Re: (Score:2)
All well and good but, from the article, can be a problem with 'overcrowding, affecting sales and detracting from a community feel.'
Going back to my point, what would be the affect of relying on 4G tethering? I've done the coffee and cake thing at a cafe with a work laptop. But I'm under no illusion that I'm adding to the experience of the staff as I peer over my screen in a darkened corner.
Free wifi in my country is a value-add not a basic universal human right. Business owners can choose to implement it o
Tragedy of the commins all over again (Score:2)
People are fucking stupid and self-absorbed. It will be the rare coffe-shop owner that minds if somebody uses their space when it is readily available and the person also consumes some reasonable amount of things and asks before whether this is ok.
This move is the result of people hogging tables for hours when demand is high and them ordering almost nothing. Greedy, self-absorbed assholes that do damage to the business they are abusing and to everybody else.
Not new (Score:2)
Finally I will be able ... (Score:2)
... to get some work done without being distracted by an internet uplink.
Targeting the wrong thing. (Score:2)
Wifi is useful for many people, think e.g. travellers who are taking a break from being a tourist in your city and don't have a mobile plan. Targeting wifi for this is stupid.
One of our local coffee shops has two separate sections, and upstairs area and a downstairs area. The rules are simple: no laptops downstairs. You want to work go upstairs and see if there is a free table, the downstairs tables are for people eating.
NYCHOLES - Like MassHoles only stupider (Score:1)
You can pretty much guarantee that if somewhere is going to make life inconvenient, it will be the people of New York. They elect criminals to be mayors, arrest minors, and now NO MORE Wi-Fi but drunken limo drivers with no brakes are still ok. Or did I confuse them with New Jsrsey? There's "the garden state". Other than Trump's golf resort where he buried his x..... no gardens..
Next thing is that COFFEE WILL NOT BE SERVED preventing people from sitting around, socializing, talking. Good thing they got
Wasn't that the whole idea? (Score:2)
Provide Wifi and a place for the laptop, so people drink their coffee instead of brewing own at home.
Re: (Score:1)
I own a shop...I would never spend my hard-earned money to open a business where people can come in and sit for hours abusing my resources for the price of a coffee. I don't know why anyone else would, either.
Glad your parents gifted you the shop. You're no entrepreneur and you're no shop manager. Like you say, you don't know why anything.
Next time you go out to a restaurant (at other people's parents' places) or a movie or a theater, don't use the restroom, drinking fountain, front door, or parking. You wouldn't want to be "abusing" their "resources", right?
Just stay home. Live on the "income" from that "shop" you own.
We avoid your type of "shop" around these parts.
Breaking company rules? (Score:2)
I know some places (maybe all for all I know) which allows hybrid / wfh requires that the place that the remote work is performed is in a somewhat controlled environment, with no random strangers shoulder surfing you as they walk pass, etc.
So, will working at this cafes break their rules, even if the cafes are cool with it?
Ahhh America! (Score:2)
Here in Norway, business is impossible to conduct at coffee shops. Gaggles of mommies walk to the shops, park the sleeping baby outside (often in mid winter), head inside, have an extremely overpriced coffee and a pastry which is more of a table rental fee than reimbursement for food and drink. Then, when the bab