Comments on: More on WiFi and Cafes Not Being Such a Good Mix

By: Lambeth

Lambeth — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 18:10:45 +0000

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By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 16:42:05 +0000

The one thing that you all seem to forget, is that the Cafe owners have to make a living too, and maintain their equipment, and, every laptop user who sits there for 4 hours, takes up space that other customers could be using, typical cafe’s rely on the turnover of customers to make a living.

I wonder how many of you actually know what it costs to run a cafe, Rent, Payroll, Supplies, these are all things that nobody seems to think about, in our cafe, payroll runs close to $100,000/year, rent, $75,000, coffee alone is about $4,000/month, add on cups, sugar, milk, electricity, well you get the point.

Charging a nominal fee for WiFi in a cafe environment is no different than using a payphone.

By: Cyclotron

Cyclotron — Fri, 19 May 2006 20:13:41 +0000

I think the people giving you a hard time are missing the point. Maybe its a little obscure. The point is: with so many people staying for hours, there is less customer turnover, which means less cash in the cash register. Starbucks makes money by serving hundreds and thousands of customers daily. If the cafe is crowded all the time, people are less likely to go to that cafe for coffee. If the cafe is crowded with people on laptops and not people drinking coffee, the free hot spot is crowding out the paying customer.

Having spent a number of years in cafes, I am pretty sure people hanging out for hours are not buying the same quantity of goods as those who come and go. People who hang out are usually cheap freeloaders.

Free wifi is a good gimick to drum up business, but the point at which seats are impacted, its time to start charging.

These are the plans I’d like to see – if you charge $2 for an hour of wifi, then you get an hour for every $2 you spend at the cash register…

Or, and or, also: charge for wifi at peak hours and make it free at off peak hours.

The bottom line is that free wifi is intended to make the cafe money. People who think everything should be free are crazy and probably poor at successful business.

By: Matt Hoffman

Matt Hoffman — Fri, 19 May 2006 14:51:06 +0000

mmmmm… rasins

By: jangelo

jangelo — Wed, 17 May 2006 16:33:24 +0000

They make good raisins, eh?

By: Joe Muggs

Joe Muggs — Wed, 17 May 2006 16:27:23 +0000

I dont like sour grapes.

By: jangelo

jangelo — Wed, 17 May 2006 12:33:59 +0000

Interesting thoughts, guys (more interesting than the post itself, methinks).

JC: Sour graping? Well, perhaps, yes. The people were paying customers ,yes. But there were also about 15 prospective customers (no laptops) who decided against buying beverages and left instead because there were no tables.

Brian: I agree–it’s probably etiquette that’s the best solution. I think it would be ok to stick around all day as long as you’re not depriving other customers of space. I mean, I’m entitled to my space/table especially if I got there first.

cdstuart: It’s great, indeed, if most of the customers are decent people.

knight37: Ah, yes, we’re a species on our own.

By: knight37

knight37 — Tue, 16 May 2006 20:17:02 +0000

I don’t understand the species of human that likes to sit in these cafes to do work or browse the web or whatever. What is the attraction? I mean, most of them probably have broadband at home. Why not go there instead? It’s not like they’re actually be social, they’re just being anti-social in public. I prefer to be anti-social at home. I can understand travellers using it since they aren’t near their home. I just don’t get the guys that live 2 miles away but choose to spend their hours at the cafe. Alone. In front of their laptops.

By: JC

JC — Tue, 16 May 2006 16:12:47 +0000

So you had a bad experience with one wifi cafe and from that you extrapolate that putting wifi in cafes is bad. Guess what. They were full. And all of those people were paying customers. That doesn’t sound like a failed business model to me. More like sour grapes because you had to sit in the smoking section.

By: cdstuart

cdstuart — Tue, 16 May 2006 15:05:43 +0000

As someone who regularly makes use of wi-fi at several cafes in my home town, I think you’re off the mark here. The cafes I go to are already ‘monetizing’ their hotspots: they’re the only cafes I’ll go to. They’ve taken my business (and the business of many people I know) away from all of the cafes that don’t offer free wi-fi. And from those who make me pay for wi-fi. These places give me wi-fi away from home, and in return I buy food and coffee.

If these places started charging money for wi-fi, or giving me some kind of cheesy minutes-per-cup-o’-joe limit, I’d take my business elsewere. If they all started doing this, I’d take my business back where it came from — my living room, which has perfectly good coffee and wi-fi, and a really comfortable couch. But it’ll never come to this, because the last place in town with the friendly, open wireless network would always be packed, and thus have little incentive to institute the sort of programs you’re suggesting.

This works because most of the customers are decent people who understand that to keep getting what they want, they have to pay for it. We buy more than our share of coffee, pastries, and sandwiches. I’m sure we finance the occasional bad customer, but in general, the system works. I think your ‘better alternative’ would hurt, rather than help, business.

By: Brian Larter

Brian Larter — Tue, 16 May 2006 14:14:41 +0000

I can only see wi-fi being benificle to a small cafe as long as they manage it correctly. Such as change the pass key every hour and require purcheses.

But I think the key is teaching an etiquie about wi-fi useage. Only use it for short periods and quickly or make a purchese for every hour you are using their net work. Personally i do a lot of writting at cafes because I feel comfortable being around others who are also being productive. I make sure fo every hour I am there I make a purchese. and roughly spend about $10 or more dollors in a two hour span.