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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?

#151

Post by Feniks »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #111
badsectoracula wrote: post #92

This article feels is one of the very few cases where i read something online and totally feels weird to me due to where i am from. In Greece coffee shops are really mainly places to hang out and staying for hours on a single coffee is pretty much normal and expected. There is a huge "coffee culture" here. Me and my friends would go for a coffee at 6pm (or later 7pm, due to jobs) and often leave at 11pm or sometimes…

I'm Greek too and I had the same thoughts. Specifically that it's perfectly possible to have a profitable business while expecting your customers to take over four or five seats for several hours for the price of a single coffee per head- because all the cafés I went to when I was in Greece did exactly that and they stayed in business for ever (most are still open like 12 years after I emigrated). The difference is p…

Cultures are different. Dutch people don't hang out in cafes during the day. So on weekdays cafés are quiet places.

The economy has also shifted. Lots of people are self-employed. And most jobs that people make money with only require a laptop and WiFi.

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

#152

Post by icebraining »

badsectoracula wrote: post #92

This article feels is one of the very few cases where i read something online and totally feels weird to me due to where i am from. In Greece coffee shops are really mainly places to hang out and staying for hours on a single coffee is pretty much normal and expected. There is a huge "coffee culture" here. Me and my friends would go for a coffee at 6pm (or later 7pm, due to jobs) and often leave at 11pm or sometimes…

I think that culture is widespread in Southern Europe, at least Spain and Portugal also have plenty of coffeeshops where people get together in groups.

I'm never bothered about "hogging a table"; if a certain coffeeshop happens to be full, there are at least three others within 5m of walking distance that will have many free tables.

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

#153

Post by Xcelerate »

I live in Knoxville, and we’re up to about 10 independent little coffee shops, with the bulk of them having opened in the last few years. Most of the owners don’t seem to mind people on their laptops, but then again, there is a university nearby so I’d say about 90% of people in the coffee shops are on their laptops focusing on school work. Most of my research in grad school was completed at these places.

That said, I normally don’t stay longer than 3 hours at any individual coffee shop, particularly if there’s a lack of seats for new customers. I also generally tip $2-3 — more if I buy a pastry. You can typically tell which places are amenable to laptops because they have an outlet at every seat.

I think remote work will only increase over time, and I’m sure there are other people like me who focus much better in a coffee shop with strangers and music than in an open office. I’d really like to open my own coffee shop one day with ample seating and a sign that says “laptops and conversation both welcome”.

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

#154

Post by golergka »

tobyhinloopen wrote: post #149
golergka wrote: post #138

Anticafes. I was lucky enough to visit one of the first one (the whole idea originated in Moscow), and it's a wonderful cost-effective answer to the traditional idea of a cafe: just charge visitors for time on a fixed scale and provide all the snacks, beverages and entertainment for free.

In major western cities (EG Amsterdam) there are places you can rent a workspace. It is like a café, but charged by the hour.

Anticafes are more of an entertainment place, with many people meeting with friends, playing board games and other stuff like that. Many freelance workers I know prefer cafes and anticafes to co-working spaces exactly because of this laidback, unofficial atmosphere.

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

#155

Post by petecox »

hux_ wrote: post #136
dazc wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess your not in the UK? Libraries here are not quiet places anymore. Wi-fi often sucks too.

You are not trying hard enough. I was at Trinity College Library, Dublin a few months back. There are few spaces that are more peaceful and inspiring to work in than that one. You have to understand that cafés like churches or pubs or the town square have traditionally been designed as the "The Third Space" in people's lives behind home and work. It were community building happen. It's designed for that, not for work…

free wifi to freeloaders who aren't students though?

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

#156

Post by paulgb »

Jacqued wrote: post #93
nharada wrote: post #3

So is this about sales or about the vibe of having a coffee place where people hang out and chat? I'd be happy to pay some money to work for longer than one drink at a cafe, but I don't really want to drink 5 coffees to work for a day.

In France we have this small chain of "Anticafes". They're basically coffee shops but instead of paying what you drink, you pay for the time you spend there (5€/hr. or 20€/day) and you can order beverages at will. It's not a coworking space, even though there are plenty of people working, others are chatting or just enjoying their drinks.

Neat, I'd never heard of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-caf%C3%A9

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

#157

Post by Shengbo »

foepys wrote: post #40
Double_a_92 wrote: post #35

More like "How to put off your paying customers and then complain that business isn't going well".

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…

Cafés have always been a place for both socializing and working. We just switched from sketchbooks and newspapers to laptops.

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

#158

Post by eswat »

taneq wrote: post #2

How common is it for people to do actual, regular, serious work at coffee shops and the like? I've tried a couple of times and I always feel like such a pretentious wanker when I pull out a laptop and start working on stuff, like I'm somehow broadcasting "oh look at me, I work remotely, aren't I special?"

You probably think the other patrons are more interested on what you are doing there than they actually care. I can understand feeling this with a cafe that has explicit rules about laptop use, otherwise what anyone dose in a cafe is their own business unless they are interrupting the experience of others.

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

#159

Post by ilikethiscmnt »

Jaruzel wrote: post #117
narrator wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile, Starbucks encourages people to sit around for as long as they'd like to and is pretty much taking over the world. What does this corporate giant know that every stingy corner coffee shop owner is ignorant of?

A good share of Starbucks locations worldwide actually run at a loss. The mega-busy ones elsewhere make enough profit to cover the loss making stores. It's simple economics of scale. Obviously independent coffee shops can't do that, so if you want to sit in a coffee shop all day working on your laptop, try to pick a large chain, instead of an independent.

I don't believe this. It sounds like something you came up with yourself. Do you have anything to back that up? I'm not saying it couldn't be true but I have hard time swallowing that based on supposition alone.

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

#160

Post by scarface74 »

I don't work in coffee shops - or drink coffee for that matter - but I do take long lunches at times at restaurants just to just take a break during the middle of the day and take my iPad and go through my RSS aggregator. There is something relaxing about the combination of being around other people and still not having to interact with them. I don't get it either.

It's the same way about going to the gym. On one hand, after I stopped teaching fitness classes part time and working out with friends, going to the gym became a chore. I like working out at home and converted one of our bedrooms to a mini gym. I love the convenience, but kind of miss just working out on the gym equipment around other people even if I never talk to them.

Maybe it's the sense of shared purpose?

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