"Coffeeshop Turns off Wi-Fi on Weekends"
"Victrola Cafe and Art in Seattle is a popular coffeeshop that offers free Wi-Fi--except on the weekends. In an experiment, the cafe started shutting down its Wi-Fi network on Saturdays and Sundays after watching their culture erode: the shop became full (and was turning away customers) with six-to-eight hour Wi-Fi squatters, many of whom didn't even purchase anything. Their second Sunday without Wi-Fi was one of their best revenue days in some time. I don't propose a Wi-Fi (or free Wi-Fi) backlash, but it's interesting how with some time under their belt, the clash of inward facing technology and outward facing culture hit these particular entrepreneurs' limit."
I think that free wi-fi is great... I was one of the first to implement free wi-fi in our area. I'd have to say that in one of my shops, the laptop-user to people-sitting-talking ratio has worked out great. At my other shop though, not so much. A sea of Dells, Powerbooks, and ThinkPads. It's really quite eerie how when there's a break between songs on the stereo, there's usually complete silence.
What happened to people sitting, talking over a cup of coffee?
It's a tough conundrum to face. Don't want to play 'Wi-Fi Cop,' but something really needs to change. Some of the folks who left comments on the linked blog entry had some interesting ideas.
I dunno... do y'all have any thoughts on the subject? Victrolans? How has 'Wi-Fi-less Weekends" worked out?
I was there a few weeks ago on a Saturday (Thanks Bronwen, your directions were spot on!!) and noticed that it looked like a study room in there. Musta been 15 laptops... I think this is a great idea.
ReplyDeleteIn this day, Saturday/Sunday could almost be seen as arbitrary days to choose, but it's kind of nice to be reminded that we all need to take break now and again.
another great reading.
ReplyDeleteplease include RSS feed too.
Nick, I've been to your shop on Sundays and was surprised at how many laptops were being used. It was kind of a strange thing... almost as if I didn't belong because I was laptop-less.
ReplyDeletesome people just dont know how to tell when they are in public, manners are gone. it's a very good idea.
ReplyDelete-w
sometimes between songs i don't hear silence. i hear people talking into their cell phones.
ReplyDeleteLG
It is still too early to tell how this is going. The postive response has outweighed the negative but the negative is pretty harsh. We are being accused of trying to "force" people talk to one another. of being capitalist pigs who just want to make more money (to support our Victrola Mansion and our yachts of course!) and of trying to cheat people out of their money because our sign letting people know were turning off the wifi on the weekends was not placed prominently enough. If only people were this interested in all the hard work we put into our coffee....
ReplyDeleteJen, sometimes you just can't win ;) I guess the lesson here is, are those customers really worth having?
ReplyDeleteOn a serious note, in my other biz (web and software design), we found out early on as we started up that the customers that were the most trouble for us were the ones that we either a) cut deals for, or b) did work for on the super cheap because we needed work, and bargain priced our services. We discovered that the lower end of the pay scale (customer wise) were the ones who demanded the most - would change the project midstream, ask for more, but not expect to pay more, would nitpick the smallest details, etc etc. Customers who paid a good rate for our services, on the other hand, saw the value of what they got, and were almost never a problem. If new things were asked for midstream, they fully understood costs were involved.
The moral? Those who were freeloading are the most demanding. They aren't worth having as customers. Boot them to the curb. You *can* fire your customers, you know that?
Mark
I love this article.
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