Quote:
Originally Posted by HamsterRage
I wonder if a coffee shop actually can tell you not to do something like that? Legally, I mean.
Clearly, if you're monopolizing a seat without purchasing product, they have right to turf you. But for using a computer or ereader? I dunno.
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Well they are the owner, so I suppose they cab decide what you can do and what not. As long as it is not discriminating in any sense. But if they don't tell you in advance, and you have your order, I also think they cannot limit you in an unreasonable way. Like forbidding you to look at your watch (because according to their definition it is a computer). Or reading a book. If they don't allow reading books they should tell you in advance. Then you can choose whether you want to order or not. Once you have your order you should be allowed to consume it in a reasonable way, including while reading your book. If that book is on an ereader, that should not make a difference. Redefining the ereader as a computer is ridiculous: it has a completely different purpose and size. If they would forbid me I would give them the choice: I continue reading or else I leave without paying. And then the shop would have lost a customer, not only for that occasion but for ever. A coffee shop or any similar business is not only a place where you buy and consume drinks but it also has a function of temporarily relaxing. If that includes reading for you that is part of the deal. Again: unless they have forbidden that in advance.
A lot of comments here have focused on the point of occupying tables too long etc. But that wasn't the point: The guy from the shop came immediately, at the time the client was starting to drink his coffee.