Comment by rich_sasha
6 hours ago
Cafes provide two distinct products, usually bundled into one: seat rental and food/drink.
How about charge separately for each? I get that it would be awkward to try, but why not.
6 hours ago
Cafes provide two distinct products, usually bundled into one: seat rental and food/drink.
How about charge separately for each? I get that it would be awkward to try, but why not.
Or have actual public places? The Cafe's are there to serve coffee, it's just courtesy as business model to let you hang around in the premises and when the business model starts to fail in some way they adjust it.
After university, the most I miss is the actual places that are mine to use and are made for hanging around or working and not necessarily consuming anything.
> The Cafe's are there to serve coffee, it's just courtesy as business model to let you hang around
Traditionally it's the other way around, the drink is a by-product of a public house where people can gather. Could you imagine a bar where people are just supposed to drink and leave?
How does this work? Were these public houses literally owned by the public and someone noticed that they may sell something there? AFAIK it's more like people opening their premises to outsiders to hang around and sell them stuff.
Last week's submission is a company created to do this, too: https://badgeapp.co.
Japanese Manga Cafes / Internet Cafes give you all you can drink coffee and tea for hourly pricing, and usually comes with a PC and a private booth. I'm not sure how much of a thing they still are though, but they were big in the 2000s and early 10s
How interesting - so the other extreme. 0 cost on drinks, 100% time in seat cost.
This is what we had all over the world (...) when Internet Cafes were a thing. Perhaps they should come back?
The "Santander Work Cafes" (https://www.santanderbank.com/workcafe/cafe) are an excellent implementation of this.
Most developers could not really do their own thing on a PC/laptop that is not theirs.
Are they supposed to set up their development environment each time?
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Newer Coworking places generally seem to have some Starbucks-vibes, but AFAIK they are not doing to well.
Maybe the price of a coffee is exactly what people are willing to pay for a seat, a small table, and wifi for some hours.
I haven't seen a coworking place that isn't insanely overpriced compared to a coffee shop so it's no surprise they're not doing well.
In my experience price isn't the only issue. One of the (smaller) coworking spaces I can have access to locally, closes at 6pm while a coffee shop at around 9-10PM and it's also open on weekends.
But then again, I find working in coffee shops too distracting, so work from home and randomly popping into a coworking space now and then.
Yeah, but isn't the question whether the co-working place is overpriced or if the coffee shop is underpriced or maybe both?
Coworking spaces need to colocate with services. Starbucks, Fedex Kinkos, massage chairs....
Imagine if a little critical thinking like this had been allowed to enter the minds of WeWork investors.