COFFEE SHOPS CUTTING OFF ELECTRIC FOR EXTENDED LAPTOP USE
I'm not a huge laptop in the coffee shop user, but for those who use their local cafe as a second office this recent trend has started in New York and a couple locations in San Francisco. Let's hope it doesn't make its way to Chicago.
And I quote, "Dear customers, we are absolutely thrilled that you like us so much that you want to spend the day...but people gotta eat, and to eat they gotta sit." At local Brooklyn coffee shop, Naidre's, even though the Wi-Fi is free, laptop use is not allowed during the prime lunchtime hours.
Ironically, the owner of Naidre's is a former partner in a computer graphics business. While she hates to limit use, she does rely upon the income from the peak food-purchasing hours. In San Francisco, local coffee house, Coffee Bar, will put out signs while the shop is busy asking those laptop users at large tables to share the space and make room for other customers.
Starbucks Corp. coffee houses, which in some cases charge for Wi-Fi, and bookstore chain Borders Group Inc., which always charges for Wi-Fi, don't have any plans to change their treatment of laptop customers. Neither does bookstore giant Barnes & Noble Inc., where the Wi-Fi is complimentary.
This new phase in coffee shop etiquette is repositioning the way we work, play and interact by preventing us from hiding behind our laptops and talking to the people at the local coffee shop.
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CATHY MALLERS & DEAN'S TEAM CHICAGO
