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How Restaurants Got So Loud

theatlantic.com

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Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#211

Post by reading-at-work »

decebalus1 wrote: post #182
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where: - I need to buy/consume something every X minutes - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations - people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even go…

Have you never had to work while traveling? The prevalence of internet cafes has been priceless to me over the years. I travel a lot, and having cafes to stop and work at while on the road has allowed me to be a lot more flexible with travel/work arrangements. I find them very valuable.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#212

Post by lfx »

pcarolan wrote: post #61

I work remotely and find myself working from a lot of Starbucks. The music level seems consistent no matter where you go to the point where it feels like a policy. It is just loud enough that you can't drown it out with a good set of headphones or take a conference call without annoying the rest of the group. It seems too consistent to be unintentional. Conversely, there's a new coffee shop in Chicago that is designe…

This sounds like an awesome place! Do you have pay extra for anything? I would happily agree to pay like 10$ for some time just to run away when I have to work.

Additional extra points would be if they would offer some external monitors as well. This was my dream for a while now.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#213

Post by decebalus1 »

bllguo wrote: post #202
decebalus1 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where: - I need to buy/consume something every X minutes - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations - people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even go…

Well yes, the business has the right to do what it did, of course. Really no way to knock it other than saying "I don't like that kind of store." However, there are other shops that actively cultivate the kind of culture you mention. Starbucks is probably the most prominent. It's something that Starbucks deliberately promoted since inception. You seem already aware that it's nice to have a 3rd place besides home and…

> But once it's a coffee shop you don't get it?

Exactly. Let me explain an example. I ran into an old friend once close to a Tully's a couple of years back and went in to get some coffee and catch up. Unfortunately there was no place for us to sit down at a table because all the tables were taken by single individuals working on their laptops. One of them was actually in a conf call. So we skipped that and went to have brunch at a full blown restaurant.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#214

Post by chosenbreed »

decebalus1 wrote: post #182
jlokier wrote: post #108

There's an ice cream and bagel place in town. In the late evening it's consistently packed with people on their laptops or reading books. One day I noticed the music was much louder than usual, and asked the staff to turn it down. I figured it was a mistake because it was normally much quieter. They told me this was the new company policy. To set the music uncomfortably loud to make people leave, after finishing thei…

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where: - I need to buy/consume something every X minutes - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations - people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even go…

> - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations

Quite often I get to eavesdrop on interesting conversations. Typically people launching new business ventures of various kinds.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#215

Post by epicureanideal »

decebalus1 wrote: post #213
bllguo wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well yes, the business has the right to do what it did, of course. Really no way to knock it other than saying "I don't like that kind of store." However, there are other shops that actively cultivate the kind of culture you mention. Starbucks is probably the most prominent. It's something that Starbucks deliberately promoted since inception. You seem already aware that it's nice to have a 3rd place besides home and…

> But once it's a coffee shop you don't get it? Exactly. Let me explain an example. I ran into an old friend once close to a Tully's a couple of years back and went in to get some coffee and catch up. Unfortunately there was no place for us to sit down at a table because all the tables were taken by single individuals working on their laptops. One of them was actually in a conf call. So we skipped that and went to ha…

Sounds like there's still demand for more coffee shops. Probably why I keep seeing more Starbucks, Peets, Philz, etc. opening all over the place.

Also, assuming you're willing to drive a couple minutes out of your way, there's usually a slightly less busy Starbucks with tables available.

Maybe there's a business opportunity here for either a new kind of chain with a different brand identity... a non-music coffee shop or something. I know a place near UC Davis where it's actually disallowed to be studying there. No laptops on the tables. But it isn't a chain.

Or an opportunity for something between a WeWork and a Starbucks, a Costco of coffee shops, maybe with a membership fee on top of the cost of drinks.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#217

Post by compsciphd »

I read once, can't remember where, that once the sound in a room with people talking reaches a certain level, it will get increasingly loud. The reason being, if sound is below a certain level, we can hear each other while we speak at normal volumes and the other person near us will be able to understand us.

However, once volume reaches a certain background level, we have to raise our voices to be understood over the background noise which increases the overall background level which causes others to have to raise their voices over the new background level ever increasing.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#218

Post by tejtm »

crooked-v wrote: post #181
solatic wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can still find places where you can be served a beverage of your choice in a comfortable chair and tranquil setting. They just tend to have membership fees.

I'm curious what places you're talking about.

the traditional country club, or other snooty members only organization, perhaps golf clubs in the U.S.

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#219

Post by mwfunk »

NotAnEconomist wrote: post #190
decebalus1 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It probably won't be the most popular opinion but I'm siding with the business for this one. I never got people who use cafe bars, delis, etc.. as personal offices. I personally can't get 'in the zone' in such a public place where: - I need to buy/consume something every X minutes - have to overhear irrelevant stupid/mundane conversations - people have a habit of bringing their dogs everywhere now and I'm not even go…

> I never got this working from a coffee shop thing. This is an old tradition. Cafes, bars, tea houses, etc have served as social hubs and placed to read or work on documents (now computers) for literally thousands of years, everywhere on the planet. There's simply a social need for a space like that, because it's a more efficient usage of space to have people work on a revolving basis in a shared space than everyone…

That makes sense. Having a meeting is disruptive to everyone else but working on documents does not. It's like an open office, the last thing you want to do is make noise and disturb people trying to get work done (ironically).

Re: How Restaurants Got So Loud

#220

Post by mwfunk »

err4nt wrote: post #209
otterley wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do want business, just not the kind that people who sit and stay bring. When you’re trying to improve your sales velocity, keeping existing customers moving so as not to dissuade new ones from coming in makes sense.

How does an empty café with bored looking staff invite new customers in? When I go into frequently-empty places I find that the staff, who should have all the time in the world to help, are actually more distant, because they're so used to filling up their time chatting together or doing other stuff that when a customer actually does show up it's like some unforeseen situation they didn't plan for.

I would blame the staff themselves for that attitude, not the lack of people sitting around and typing and eavesdropping on each other.
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