What do you think of laptop users in your cafe?

[Geekpreneur]

Hullo,
My name is Dean and I’m a writer for Geekpreneur, a site about freelancers. You can see it at Geekpreneur.com. We’re putting together a post about working in cafes, and we’d like to know what café owners and workers think about customers sitting at tables with laptops.
Do you welcome digital nomads in your café?
Or would you prefer that they didn’t take up valuable table space for hours on end while ordering a single latte?
What do you do to encourage/discourage people who bring their laptops to your café, and what can freelancers do to make themselves more welcome?
Looking forward to your comments!
Dean
dean(at)geekpreneur.com

 

[Damion_iAM]

Im not a cafe own i just sell coffee online
But the habit of having laptops in cafe's is great, as you can see starbucks made coffee a social trend by putting in wifi, LCD TV's extra, i believe in absolute comfort. So if i owned a cafe as a coffee lover, i would welcome them .
and ill check out your posts on geekpreneur.

Regards
Damion

 

[neglid]

Check out this link.

http://www.coffeeforums.com/forum/coffee-industry-forum/5610-what-do-about-campers-electric.html

 

[kanyevil]

I'm fine with it....

BUT,

Seeing people with Macbooks Starbucks looking like they are writing the next Harry Potter, but are actually browsing on Facebook makes me giggle.....

 

[PinkRose]

~ The originator of the thread "What to do about campers and electric" went out of busines a couple of years ago. Even though she offered "free WiFi," I've heard that she wasn't very welcoming towards people sitting in her cafe with their laptops. I've always felt that if you make someone feel bad about being in your cafe, you're going to make then think twice about coming back....and they probably won't.

Now-a-days, people look for places that have free WiFi.

The only problem I have seen, at the cafe where I work, is that when it gets busy, there is limited seating available for the other customers. Some people get very annoyed at the laptop users when they take up so much room. I think the laptop users should be mindful of the space they're taking up, especially when people are standing around waiting for a chair.

Rose

 

[wmark]

The problem is always about making money.

Part of the problem with people sitting in coffee shops using wifi and plugging in, is that unless they are consuming product, they are costing you money and preventing others willing to consume product.

So what type of place are you running ? Are you making money ? ie What is your revenue per seat ? What is your capacity utilization ?

 

[eenneed]

Thank information.I don't know much information coffee.I something drink of coffee.

 

[farijal]

Approaching those who work with laptop in cafe, and offer another drink as additional.

 

[theperfectcoffeecup]

Seems to me to solve the Coffee Shop Laptop Gridlock would be to expand and open a Coffee Garden or a larger Coffee Computer Shop or better yet a Wi-Fi Coffee Garden, you could have indoor and outdoor seating and have designated areas for customers who are obviously going to be there awhile and an area to quickly serve mobile and drive thru customers. You could even focus on the Wi-Fi usage and make special offers that could monetize the Wi-Fi Service and help with some of the overhead. I just don't think you'll ever get to separate computer users from coffee shops, they're too intertwined.

 

[PinkRose]

People don't like to walk away from the table (and their laptops) so they can go up to a counter to order coffee.

How about having a roving barista strolling amongst the tables, taking coffee orders and delivering them to the tables. Maybe that would intimidate people to either place an order or move on.

Rose

 

[NicolettiCoffee]

Interesting, recently I read that the charging of laptops & cell phones was an issue.

 

[PinkRose]

Using the cafe's electricity to charge the laptops and cellphones, combined with the taking up space and not spending money, are all issues that every cafe owner who offers free Wi-Fi needs to consider.

 

[tazzadiluna]

Hmmm, maybe the Italians charging 3 or 4 times more for a customer to occupy a table have the right idea after all... I don't think that will go over well in the U.S., though.

 

[hannah2012]

Especially when we are completely full, when our staff has time we will a pitcher with water, grab some cups, and walk around asking people if they would like some water or anything else. Orders are collected, water is given, and all the customers are happy. Doing anything to discourage customers from coming to your shop is a disaster.

I suppose at some point you'd need to make a decision to turn off the wifi forever if you really had an issue; but most shops do not have that much of a problem - in my experience it's the owners who panic but their panic is not really justified. You should either have wifi or not; but never push people out the door or make them feel unwelcome.