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What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

nytimes.com

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Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#61

Post by CaliforniaKarl »

I wonder how often places will change up their music as a way to shift things.

The example I'm thinking of is Philz in Sunnyvale. Starting some time around the new year, every time I've been there they've been playing much harder & louder music.

When I'm at a place, I prefer to be there without headphones, to show that I'm not completely disconnecting from the outside world. But with some of the music that's been playing, it's really hard to do, and so I've been avoiding it for the past month or so.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#63

Post by xxs »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #55
foepys wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People working on their laptops are actually not a paying customer. Yes, they might come in and buy a single coffee but then they sit in a corner for 3 hours and occupy a seat that could go to other customers that are actually buying things that make a cafe money. It also has something to do with atmosphere. A cafe should have light chatter and people socializing. If the majority is sitting around in silence, it take…

Before laptops people would sit around reading newspapers or books, I'm not sure it's changed that much.

Trying to use the premises (incl. toilets) to do business instead of leisure is quite the change.

Also it's somewhat off-putting for the people trying to have the leisure.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#64

Post by therealmarv »

Double_a_92 wrote: post #33
therealmarv wrote: post #14

No power plugs (I think most effective) & time limited Wifi. A cafe is not a coworking space although when beeing in USA or more specifically in SF I have the feeling people think it's the same.

Why shouldn't it be if it fills some peoples need? Why should a cafe not offer that if it brings them customers?

It's the owners decision to make. Not mine or yours, it's his/her business. And it's definitely not making everybody happy ;)

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#65

Post by hux_ »

ballooney wrote: post #47
dazc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing most people using cafes as workplaces are going to baulk at paying for 4G? It can get really expensive if you're working more than a couple of hours a day.

I haven't paid-by-the-byte for 4G for about half a decade now. It's unlimited with my reasonably priced monthly contract (about $30USD/mo), from a mainstream provider in the UK (Three), lets me tether and gives me free data when I'm abroad too (I'm in the US and France a few times a year typically). I hope this doesn't sound too let-them-eat-cake, but I'm surprised that anyone with work-on-app-in-a-café-in-a-trendy-c…

That and find a good library. Libraries are designed for people to focus. Cafes are not.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#66

Post by xxs »

anonytrary wrote: post #52
foepys wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People working on their laptops are actually not a paying customer. Yes, they might come in and buy a single coffee but then they sit in a corner for 3 hours and occupy a seat that could go to other customers that are actually buying things that make a cafe money. It also has something to do with atmosphere. A cafe should have light chatter and people socializing. If the majority is sitting around in silence, it take…

> it takes away from the special feeling a cafe normally has If people start using Cafes differently, why hold them to a forgotten standard? Cafes should see a business opportunity in that they can align themselves further with the needs of the consumer. Either that, or the consumer walks.

They have to add some tariff per hour which feels unwelcome. There are co-working areas that do that but they are not labeled cafes

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#68

Post by mnm1 »

ballooney wrote: post #47
dazc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing most people using cafes as workplaces are going to baulk at paying for 4G? It can get really expensive if you're working more than a couple of hours a day.

I haven't paid-by-the-byte for 4G for about half a decade now. It's unlimited with my reasonably priced monthly contract (about $30USD/mo), from a mainstream provider in the UK (Three), lets me tether and gives me free data when I'm abroad too (I'm in the US and France a few times a year typically). I hope this doesn't sound too let-them-eat-cake, but I'm surprised that anyone with work-on-app-in-a-café-in-a-trendy-c…

I'm not aware of any such plans in the US. All carriers throttle "unlimited" plans so unlimited plans simply don't exist. Not with the major carriers anyway.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#69

Post by mnm1 »

toomanybeersies wrote: post #39
kenning wrote: post #12

If I bought a cup of coffee at your shop and sat down, only for you to tell me that laptops are "not allowed," I'd be very unhappy with your store. Anyway, this is why coworking spaces exist.

Your $3 coffee doesn't entitle you to sit there for an hour though. If I was running a cafe, I'd expect that you'd be leaving within 5 to 10 minutes of finishing your coffee. The very few times I've worked in a coffee shop, I've done that myself. It's not a coworking space.

The $3 coffee most certainly does entitle you to sit there for an hour. That's the whole point of getting a coffee in a coffee shop. And if you told me to leave after 5 to 10 minutes, I'd tell you to call the cops and make me. With that kind of attitude, however, your coffee shop won't be in business long, so it shouldn't really be a problem that you treat people with so much disrespect.

Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?

#70

Post by uranusjr »

I’m somewhat surprised by the article. There is recently a giant indi cafe boom in Taipei that made it one of the most developed cafe city in Asia, but almost all well-regarded shops do everything they could to keep the place as quiet as possible. Maybe it’s the introvert eastern Asian culture in play here, I don’t know. The article assumes it is abnormal for cafes to be taken over by silence, but I mean, it’s totally cool to build your cafe a social place, but it’s not an inherently bad thing if your customers want it to be quiet either. Maybe your customers actually want that—and if that’s the case (maybe it’s not, I don’t know, but if it is), it sucks to have another quiet place taken away.
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