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Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

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Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#91

Post by frizkyK »

padolsey wrote: post #14

This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…

I would love the idea of buying something every hour or so. In return get a code that you can use to extend the WiFi availability. Or just straight-up pay via your laptop for X amount of WiFi hours which allows you to sit in the coffee shop.

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#92

Post by Aeolun »

iso1631 wrote: post #21
emsixteen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just don't have wifi.

Tether off your phone. I rarely use public wifi, too much hassle. Don't have power though and I won't be around for long.

Yeah, have enough traffic on my phone that connecting to wifi that has hundreds of other people connected to it is generally a bad idea.

If my network slows to a crawl, it’s always because I’ve accidentally connected to some public wifi network.

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#94

Post by edouard-harris »

padolsey wrote: post #14

This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…

This is going to depend a lot on location. Coffee chains are able to support this sort of behavior because the many customers that drop $4 in one minute on their morning commute, are subsidizing the few customers that pay $4 for six hours of seating and wifi.

Assuming you open your cafe on a viable commuter path, you can take advantage of this subsidy and your economics can work out. You can improve your economics even further with the tactics a lot of cafes already to nudge behavior at the margin, some of which you've already noticed (e.g., less-than-stellar wifi, thermostat at slightly cold temperature, limited actual seating space, only 1-2 customer-accessible wall sockets, etc.).

On the question of charging-by-the-minute: the marginal profit you can earn on coffee is higher than marginal profit you can earn on real estate. That's why Starbucks (which sells coffee and gives away real estate) is a better business than WeWork (which sells real estate and gives away coffee). Therefore instead of charging by the minute, you might consider raising your coffee prices and/or controlling the average amount of real estate you're giving away per unit of coffee sold.

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#95

Post by james_pm »

padolsey wrote: post #14

This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…

Uncomfortable chairs is how fast food restaurants handle this. If you make the seating comfortable, people will stay longer. Make it less comfortable (or uncomfortable) and people will move on after a shorter period of time.

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#96

Post by frizkyK »

frostwarrior wrote: post #90

Is this prepared for worldwide locations? I'm in South America and the nearest location is a cafe in Amsterdam. Is this due to a small data set or does it set you in Europe/North America by default?

Yes it is, the places are submitted by users of the website. Places are fetched from Google API when there are no places on Workmode. Turned this off tho, for now, because it slowed the backend

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#97

Post by bentcorner »

ascar wrote: post #57
padolsey wrote: post #14

This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…

Isn't it fair for restaurants to ask you to clear the table if you haven't ordered anything for a while and they need the space for new customers? Why shouldn't cafés do they same?

> they need the space for new customers?

I think this is an important point. I occasionally work in a Panera near me during the weekday (I usually order a soup or sandwich) and I don't feel bad about taking up a seat for an hour or two since the place is practically empty, and would be a little irked if someone asked me to order something at that point.

I would feel bad and wouldn't mind at all with leaving or ordering something more frequently if I wanted to do the same thing on a Sunday afternoon since the place is often very busy.

Some signage similar in tone to what I see with metro buses and wheelchair seats seem appropriate (roughly worded as "it's perfectly fine to sit here, but if you see someone who needs this spot, you should give it up").

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#98

Post by swalls »

markus_zhang wrote: post #53
padolsey wrote: post #14

This is cool. Reminds me.. I have always liked the idea of opening a cafe (who hasn't !?) but I'd struggle with the modern behaviour of peeps sitting for hours taking up a plug + wifi in exchange for ~£$4. Hugely uneconomical for independents. Good-faith customers aware of the economic burden of their behaviour are a VERY rare breed.. So I quite like (/ethically hate) the idea of creating scarcities in order to influ…

I'm thinking instead of cafe maybe a place that one can rent a small, dark and quiet room at relatively flat price. Say any coffee for the first hour and then $2 per hour. Additional basic Coffee is free but food needs $$$. Does it make any financial sense? I guess no? Is there a way for the customer to claim the expense as sort of WFH expense?

It's not exactly the same, but in Japan a few capsule net cafes opened up that sound similar to what you're talking about:

https://youtu.be/HkNzjvueJm8

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#99

Post by ChrisArchitect »

Fun to play around with, nice job. Looking at all the cafes and coffeeshops from the before times when going out was safe and working from home wasn't the norm.

Random: a 'workplace' near me is listed on the map but it's a medical supplies store? Not sure why it's listed as an option, pretty sure there's nothing in there but retail. What's the criteria for your listings?

Re: Show HN: I built a website to find nearby cafes to work remotely from

#100

Post by frizkyK »

markhalonen wrote: post #86

I've found libraries to be superior to cafes for working -- dead quiet. Funded by the taxpayer, so zero financial worries, just a public space. Free WiFi, Printer, etc. Nice chairs too

Yes, I agree! You can also submit and check into libraries on Workmode.co!
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