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oh, gosh, how many hours have I spent just hanging out at cafes shooting the breeze?
But are you constantly buying things when doing so? If I meet up with a friend at a cafe, it seems we usually just buy some coffee when we get there and then sit there and chat without buying more.
Running a restaurant or cafe is pure social engineering. Because you control the environment you can influence the behavior of customers that occupy that space. Restaurants and cafes are a hospitality industry. You must treat your guests like kings and queens. But you also have to make money. Margins are razor thin.
You can change the mood and behavior of a place with music and lighting alone. If the customers are too sedentary crank up the music and make it a fast pace. Turn up the lighting. It gets people moving. Send waiters out and ask customers if they need any thing. Be nice, cheerful, and helpful. They will realize that this isn't an office.
If you have a problem with laptops you can kill the wifi and power. A better way would be to work with the laptops and devices. Give people an opportunity to spend. Make it work for you. Offer them technology to use! That's what I helped do.
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I'm guessing that rents are low for the coffee shops. I also decry the loss of public spaces such as libraries (in my northern European city the main public library was rebuilt at fabulous cost and has less seating than the old one).
I'm from Canada and the local library near me was also recently renovated with less seating than the old one. The actual building is probably twice the size, it used to consist of tightly packed 10ft bookshelves and cubicle desks and little nooks and crannies where people can sit. Now it is a more "open concept" layout with two story ceilings, short bookshelves that you can see over, big lounge chairs. I would glady…
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?"
At the wifi cafe near me, everyone gives off that vibe and seems pretty proud of it. I've discovered it's a great place to take my kids to do their homework. They get a hot chocolate and someplace quiet to focus on their work and not be distracted by games and toys. I could never get much work done at one of those place, but then again I don't get much done at my office either.
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?"
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?"
I wrote kind of a dumb amount of my dissertation at Mishka's Cafe and the Delta of Venus in Davis. Mishka's has a thin row of seating at the front with a 'no work' policy - including no reading except for newspapers - and then a huge area of grad students on laptops. Delta's much less structured, has a lot more ambient conversation, and has a real (and excellent) kitchen which I imagine rounds out their business nice…
If its just revenue, then I think the alternative is to charge for wifi, for time-in-seat. e.g. here is your table. its yours for $8/hour. House coffee free. Anything else, go to the front.
I like to work at coffee shops. Its true. But I don't blame coffee shop owners, especially in high-rent areas, for complaining about coffee shop workers. First, when they start a business, they likely have an idea of what they'd like to see it become. Running a place like a cafe isn't likely just a business proposition for them; its a cultural one. Maybe they like the idea of their cafe being a hub of social and cult…
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.
Personally my feeling is that this is the wrong direction for society to go.