No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users

[RamboLiberal]

A sign at Naidre's, a small neighborhood coffee shop in Brooklyn, N.Y., begins warmly: "Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day..."

But, it continues, "...people gotta eat, and to eat they gotta sit." At Naidre's in Park Slope and its second location in nearby Carroll Gardens, Wi-Fi is free. But since the spring of 2008, no laptops have been allowed between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. weekends, unless the customer is eating and typing at the same time.

Amid the economic downturn, there are fewer places in New York to plug in computers. As idle workers fill coffee-shop tables -- nursing a single cup, if that, and surfing the Web for hours -- and as shop owners struggle to stay in business, a decade-old love affair between coffee shops and laptop-wielding customers is fading. In some places, customers just get cold looks, but in a growing number of small coffee shops, firm restrictions on laptop use have been imposed and electric outlets have been locked. The laptop backlash may predate the recession, but the recession clearly has accelerated it.

"You don't want to discourage it, it's a wonderful tradition," says Naidre's owner Janice Pullicino, 53 years old. A former partner in a computer-graphics business, Ms. Pullicino insists she loves technology and hates to limit its use. But when she realized that people with laptops were taking up seats and driving away the more lucrative lunch crowd, she put up the sign. Last fall, she covered up some of the outlets, describing that as a "cost-cutting measure" to save electricity.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950421033208823.html#mod=rss_US_News

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. Makes sense to me - a guy parked for 8 hours for $2 worth of cofee costs the shop a lot

[Raineyb]

8. Only if he's keeping others from buying because there's no seats.

The electricity needed to keep the place open will be used whether the coffee shop is busy or not.

[RamboLiberal]

11. A Laptop plugged into outlet

adds to business owner's electric bill.

[Cant trust em]

2. I usually limit my visits to an hour or two.

Plenty of time for a bagel and coffee. It's one of my favorite weekend traditions.

[MineralMan]

3. People who take up a table like that at lunch hour are just rude.

I doubt the places mind that much except during their busy hours. You're probably going to buy more than one cup of coffee, after all, and there's no competition for the seats. But during their busy hours, take your damn laptop and go to the library with it or something.

For pete's sake.

[madaboutharry]

4. I have had to leave a cafe/lunch place more than once

because there was no place to sit down and eat. I have been with my family and had to leave, because one person was taking up a table for four while looking on their laptop and not even eating. The times that this has happened, the owner would lose the revenue from four lunches.

If someone sits with a laptop and takes up a table for hours, just add up how much money the place is losing.

[RamboLiberal]

5. I like to go to Panera's for lunch and there are some

there during the busy lunch who are basically running their businesses from a Panera table with perhaps only a cup of coffee. Damn rude IMHO. I'm for kicking them out during busy hours.

[TreasonousBastard]

6. Throw the bastids out...

I don't care if they just lost their jobs and right legs. Rude is rude and not only are they rude, they're stealing income from the shop owners. And they're scaring away, or at least pissing off, paying customers.

Kill the free wireless and give them ONE section of the Times to read. Maybe the Style section, or Arts and Leisure,but with the puzzle ripped out. Another section if and when they pay for something else.

(I knew a guy who was famous for keeping a diner seat warm for 12 hours straight getting up to pee maybe once during the whole shift. His shift-- he might have a meal, but two shifts of waitresses would be giving him the free coffee refills.)

[kaylynwright]

10. Agreed

That guy should have been tipping an extra 2$ or so for every hour he sat there. If I am going to be somewhere for a while (and only if it isn't busy), I pay for my meal, tip 20-25% and then throw in a few more dollars for every hour I'm there if the waitress is still refilling my drink.


I'm glad this coffee shop is doing this. It drives me nuts when I go somewhere to eat with a friend or two and we can't find a table because about 5 four person tables are being occupied by 5 people. That's 15 extra seats being wasted! People who go to Panera with their laptops always do this. I cannot imagine how frustrating it would be to own the place where it is happening.

[napoleon_in_rags]

7. Hey, I LOVE to sit for hours with my laptop. And I have no problem paying for it.

If its a busy place, sure don't allow it. Just make sure there are places that people can go where you can do it, and realize that you CAN charge some for outlet/wifi usage and we don't mind.

In fact I've always wished there was a place in my town called Downtown study hall/office or something, where you can just go in and get like a cubical to work on your project, with printers and meeting rooms and so forth. Like Kinkos Cafe and workspace. A lot of businesses that do out of office work, like small construction contractors and so forth, could do their paper stuff there and save money on office space they don't need.

[crispini]

9. You should look into what's called "co-working"

it's basically what you describe and I wish there was one near me too.

[cbdo2007]

12. If you don't want to pay go to the library.

Our libraries here in Kansas City are nice, comfortable locations where you can use the WiFi for free.

If you don't mind paying there are still plenty of great coffee shops where you can waste an afternoon sipping a cup using your laptop.