Comment by PaulRobinson
1 day ago
They'd rather that than an empty seat, especially if that person is turning up 5-6 days/week.
Most coffee shops where I live (London, UK, specifically out in West London) are at best 20% full through most of the day, that's a lot of dead real estate not paying for itself.
When I tried working out of coffee shops a bit some years ago the "etiquette" seemed to be ~1 drink/hour to pay for your seat. I don't like coffee that much, so was consuming more like 0.66/hour (i.e. around 2 drinks every 3 hours), and people were fine with that, as it was effectively a rent payment of £20/day, or £100/week, which is a little under what a hotdesk would cost me in the same area but with a lot more flexibility (never pay for idle!), and of course its good margin sales for them.
Of course, they could just say "no laptops". There's a pub chain in the UK that did that (Sam Smith's - no screens, no swearing), but the rule is not widely followed or enforced and where it is the pubs are empty far more than the ones that welcome customers.
Obviously some coffee shops are gonna want that but some coffee shops are making all their money by selling to customers during short periods in the morning, lunch and maybe in the afternoon and if this person is sitting there blocking the chair that could be used by many customers during the time the total of two cups of coffee will be less than what they are losing from not being able to serve those customers. Of course for some coffee shops they are never full and they probably benefit from this and they would love to have those type of customers.
I believe there was an HN article recently about a business that provides a service to cafes to formalize that rent agreement. Spend a certain amount (e.g. 8 euros every 3 hours) or you lose wifi access.
The problem isn't your one coffee an hour during the lull of the day. It's you taking up a table at lunchtime that could be occupied by 4 customers who will outspend your entire day by several times over. Sure the place is mostly empty for most of the day but your cheap ass is taking a seat during the precious hours where they make their profit.
>> but the rule is not widely followed or enforced and where it is the pubs are empty far more than the ones that welcome customers.
I mean, I went to one in SOHO and it was packed and indeed, no one was on their phone and people were being actively told off if they used a phone. That was nice. The fact that I paid £9 for a pint was much less nice though.