Free wi-fi in cafes?

Comments

• chefrob

  April 2008

  Hmmmm. Sometimes you get a couple of people having a "business meeting" in your cafe. They buy a coffee each and sit at the table discussing future projects for 2 hours. Having free wi-fi only exacerbates this problem, because internet surfing or answering emails is a solo practice, so you have only one person per table, ordering only one coffee per hour. Because they are so engrossed in doing as much work as possible online for free, they will stay for a few hours and have only one coffee, maybe two, whilst taking up a whole table. They may come back day after day, and when other people discover your magnaminous offer of free internet, you'll be inundated with solo tables of laptop warriors buying your tables for the price of one coffee per hour. Advertising companies who are selling these systems are ofcoarse going to tell you that it will put bums on seats. But they won't tell you that it will not increase your profits. In fact, it will probably have a negative impact on profits, as more people are taking up more space for longer periods of time, whilst spending a minumum amount of money. Instead, how about promoting how great your products are, having friendly staff that talk to your customers, and having a few newspapers and current magazines for your customers to browse. I think that internet in a cafe is a bad idea. I go to my favourite cafe for the great coffee, the great cakes, the great food and the great conversations that I have with my friends. I can't put it any simpler than this. If you have free internet access in your cafe, then you are inviting in a bunch of free loaders who will not make you any money at all. If you can't differentiate your cafe from the one next door, then you don't deserve to be in this business. Speaking of the business next door, they will use your free service for their own devices, as you can't control how far your free service extends. Cafes are people places, not technology hubs. Well, that's my small opinion, don't get me started on pokies in Pubs! Anyone else agree/disagree? Rob

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• askthecoffeeguy

  April 2008

  I'm in the unenviable position of having free wifi in my cafe's by default - as the whole university has universal free wifi access for students - but at least there are no plug-in power points at the kiosk, and there is only one at my other joint, which limits the amount of time you can sit there before your battery goes flat On a slightly different note, around 10 yrs ago I worked for a well know Melbourne Italian hospitality family in one of their city-based restaurants, and they had a policy of NOT serving coffee by itself over lunch - you had to order lunch as well - and this policy they vigorously enforced, much to the dismay of some But I secretly enjoyed watching mainly shoppers being ejected to make way for the local business community who were regulars for lunch. And the regulars seemed to enjoy the high theatre of it all Getting back to the topic: because universal access to wifi is a given in the university environment, failure to provide this service can result in a down-turn in trade during the all-important quiet period, outside of the semester timetable But yeah, I agree with the general sentiment, Rob, its like eating on trains: who was it that said that you should never eat on a moving vehicle, as this only detracts from the central eating experience? Same thing applies to coffee Pat  

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