MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Many indie coffee cafes now restrict, or ban outright, the use of e-reading devices

outlander78 · 02-17-2011, 02:36 PM

I live in Toronto, Canada, so I'm not east or west coast.

If a coffee shop has enough seating to ensure that no paying customer is left standing, then I'm all for the people hanging around reading and surfing the web. However, every coffee shop I have been in in TO has too few seats to accommodate those with an afternoon to kill. The low-end places are usually stuffed full of high school students, and the high-end ones with people who think it is cool to work in coffee shops, but the end result is the same.

My usual experience is to walk into a Tim Horton's, Starbucks or Second Cup and find twenty people in line (suggesting that business is good), the seating stuffed with loungers, and a few people wandering around with food and drinks but nowhere to sit. A few more seats won't fix the problem, it will just attract more loungers. The end result for me is healthier kids (they don't get donuts often) and no money spent at the local coffee shops, which isn't doing them any good.

I can't get my head around the economics of it. If a family of four comes in, they will likely spend $12-15, stay until the kids finish eating (20 minutes max), and move on. That means a one-hour table hog needs to spend at least $36 an hour to provide the same profit to the store - how likely is that?

02-17-2011, 02:36 PM	#228
outlander78 Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 263218 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1, Kobo Touch, Kobo Arc 7	I live in Toronto, Canada, so I'm not east or west coast. If a coffee shop has enough seating to ensure that no paying customer is left standing, then I'm all for the people hanging around reading and surfing the web. However, every coffee shop I have been in in TO has too few seats to accommodate those with an afternoon to kill. The low-end places are usually stuffed full of high school students, and the high-end ones with people who think it is cool to work in coffee shops, but the end result is the same. My usual experience is to walk into a Tim Horton's, Starbucks or Second Cup and find twenty people in line (suggesting that business is good), the seating stuffed with loungers, and a few people wandering around with food and drinks but nowhere to sit. A few more seats won't fix the problem, it will just attract more loungers. The end result for me is healthier kids (they don't get donuts often) and no money spent at the local coffee shops, which isn't doing them any good. I can't get my head around the economics of it. If a family of four comes in, they will likely spend $12-15, stay until the kids finish eating (20 minutes max), and move on. That means a one-hour table hog needs to spend at least $36 an hour to provide the same profit to the store - how likely is that?