There's probably a market for a table surface that's just uneven enough to make a laptop wobble, but with large enough flat spaces for small plates or coffee mugs. Maybe some raised metal domes/rivets of slightly different heights placed strategically on the tabletops.
What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
161–170 of 315 posts
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#162If I recall correctly, many Wi-Fi hotspot systems can employ a MAC address block list. So that after X time, the laptop gets disconnected, and cannot reconnect for Y time afterwards. Obviously this can be circumvented by savvy users, but for non-technical remote workers, it's a good way to 'nudge' them on their way. I wonder why more places just don't employ this as a tactic?
> I wonder why more places just don't employ this as a tactic?
Because they want to run a cafe, not a networking hub. Your typical owner isn’t going to be aware of turnkey solutions for this and would rather not spend money on a manager wifi provider to solve this.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, and so I don't really believe that's what other people are thinking. But it's how I feel, and it messes with my concentration.
I think it a little. Never really "got" the whole thing I guess. I also wonder why does a supposed "remote worker" (for money, I presume) want to eat (literally) into their profits by spending money constantly at a cafe? My home would have to be a heckhole indeed... Or I'd have to be stricken with a loneliness so gnawing that I had to get out. Otherwise I'm perfectly content to have total control over a pleasant priv…
for what it's worth, you can go to Starbucks, get a coffee for under $2, and with their current rewards program, unlimited refills all day long as long as you don't leave. if you bring your own lunch, it can be a really cheap place to work, as long as it fits your work style.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#164I think the problem isn't so much that people are using laptops in cafes, but that some people will linger for hours (usually on a laptop, but sometimes not) taking up a seat that could be used by someone else. Maybe a loosely-enforced 1-hour maximum loitering time might help to get more people cycling through?
Cafes are places where people go to hang out with their friends, sometimes talking for hours, even though they only bought one or two cups of coffee.
A couple of years ago, I reconnected with a childhood friend, after about 10 years of living far apart and only having very sporadic contact. We spent 6 hours talking about everything and nothing, after we finished our burgers.
I would have been extremely annoyed if the staff had decided to shoo us out of there after an hour.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#165I work in cafes a lot and have my own code of conduct: - Don't work in a place that's really busy. If it becomes busy, I'll wrap up and move somewhere else. - Buy something at least every 2 hours. If I've had too many coffees, then decaf at least, or a pastry. Spend around $5 each time. - Tip! (Where appropriate). I like to add $1 for each purchase. - Get to know the employees. Learn their names and greet them.
I like the way it works in France: There, many coffee shops have set-up co-working rooms, which are separate rooms where you can rent a place by the hour.
Yes, it is a bit more expensive (usually ~20$ for a day), but you get the same "coffee shop experience" and don't have to feel guilty or obliged to eat/drink (often not so healthy) stuff all the time.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#166How 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?"
Being someone who works remotely exclusively...I wouldn’t survive without going to a coffee shop to work 2-3 times a week. Just need to get out of the house and be around people sometimes (during the day.) People go to coffee shops to talk, to read, to write, to think. It doesn’t seem like much of a reach to think people would go there to do work. The common theme seems to be wanting to focus.
Being someone who works at the office exclusively, I have the same need. A change of context is awesome.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#167I’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 total…
I don't think it's the silence the owners really care about, it's more that people aren't paying and they hog the seats all day for the price of a $2 coffee.
Charge them, or install some kind of time limiting then. Cafes here either charge at least $5 for a coffee (note that wage in Taiwan is about half than the US), or would ask you to leave if you stay for 2 hours (they will tell you first, of course). If this is what the owner really cares about, I feel the article is solving the wrong problem.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> 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. I'm probably missing something obvious, but how does this work? What is the purpose of keeping the loss-making stores running?
I haven't read this about Starbucks in particular, but that is a pretty common trade-off for large retail businesses to make. They accept the fact that a certain percentage of stores will operate at a loss, but keep them in existence for other reasons (branding, in most cases) if the losses can be managed.
A friend of mine is a middle manager at a retail kitchen goods chain you've probably heard of. I've heard from him that many of their stores are always struggling to break even, and that most of the business is supported by a small number of stores that do an outsized amount of business.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#169Good for the owner, I guess, but why do I have to talk to people wherever I go? Why is being alone with your thoughts considered antithetical to being out in public?
I don't mind being around other people but sometimes I just don't want to talk to them. I stopped finding "awkward silences" awkward long ago. Silence is ok.
FWIW, I'm not usually on my laptop in public.
Re: What to Do When Laptops and Silence Take Over Your Cafe?
#170I 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 han…
> 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.
We are social animals. At least most of us. If you go for a few days with no interaction/seeing other human beings you'll go crazy.