Many indie coffee cafes now restrict, or ban outright, the use of e-reading devices

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

d'oh!! dang this small townto which I've ben exiled! I see what ya wrote nooow...of courde I read it as "the Met" as in the MMA anf "the Movies"...sigh, pitty me for I have been assimulated bu Podunck Nowhere and have lost al connection to real people who have atually dined at restaurants with real cloth napkins & nowhere on the menu is the phrase "supersize me" to match my fries.

If the napkin is cloth, it's frites, not fries, as in, "do you want frites with that?"

These days, it seems that there's nothing in the city that you can't get in the small town. To wrench the conversation back to the topic, however, the largest Starbucks style coffee shop I ever saw was in a small town, to wit, Erie, Penn. That was pre-EBR, though.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by travfar

Man. I guess this is the difference between the East and West Coast. On West Coast, the mom and pops coffee shops go out of their way to entice people to stay.

This has been my experience here in the South too. Very welcoming and they go out of their way to make things cozy and comfortable. Heck, some of them have their wifi wide open and invite people to use it on the patio for free without even coming inside.

I dislike sweeping changes to fix a specific problem. It means that management isn't willing to take care of the actual issue - people who hog tables without spending money. That's called loitering, and that can be solved without banning electronic devices or herding everyone in and out on some kind of a schedule.

[outlander78]

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?

[Duiker]

Originally Posted by jhempel24

I'm glad I:

A.) Don't drink coffee

B.) Hate the coffee shop atmosphere, it's like hanging out in a Mac Store.

I just wish "Mac" stores aka Apple Stores would serve coffee. Heaven.

[travfar]

Originally Posted by outlander78

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

Toronto is East Coast. I can tell most Canadians by their accent, but people from Toronto sound like they are from Jersey to me.

The economics are working out just fine. You say that the lines are 20 people deep. So they are getting as much, if not more, business than they can handle. As for those table hogging loungers, I bet many of them go in there every day or every other day. How often does the family of four go in? If I were a business owner, I would prefer to get the regular customers than hope for sporatic ones. Especially since the line is already 20 people deep. It also saves the cost of hiring someone to do the clean up after the families. Many times when a family with kids comes in, it looks like there's been a food fight centered around the table. At my local coffee shop, they roll their eyes since it takes a couple of them a few minutes to clean up afterwards. The loungers tend to be fairly low maintenance.

I spend a fair amount of time in New York. The line for the restroom is always longer than the line to buy something. Most of the restroom users aren't customers. Coffee shops, particularly Starbucks, are considered the unofficial official public restrooms in Manhattan.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by outlander78

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?

I see your point, but I don't think it's as simple as that. That "table hog" over at the corner table might be there for an hour or two today and not spending much, but maybe the rest of the week he stops in twice a day, spends $10 but can't stay. He might be a good tipper too which (at least in the US but may not apply in Canada) could be pretty important to the workers there. (I know our tipping system and wages for waitstaff seems alien to many other countries.)

That's kind of what I used to do. I was in and out of the Starbucks next to my old job several times a week grabbing a drink or a snack on the go, and sometimes on an "administrative day"* I'd escape over there for an hour just so I could work in a different environment for a little while. That's why I don't think blanket rules are the best way to solve problems like these. By your calculations I "earned" way more table time than I ever used, but you wouldn't know that just by seeing me there when you come in. A business should know who its best customers are and act accordingly. Blanket rules rarely accomplish that.

(Honestly, though, if it was crowded and me leaving would open up the table to your family I would get up and offer you the table. I tend to think in rather clinical terms when it comes to issues of business management and customer service, but in practice I'm actually pretty nice to people. )

*My "administrative days" were days I had paperwork or records that I had to catch up on or special projects to work on and everyone else was supposed to leave me alone so I could get it done - but they would constantly interrupt me anyway.

[outlander78]

What you say makes a lot of sense - I had not considered that the long-term visitors were short-term visitors on other days.

[boxcorner]

It's time for a coffee break ...

Guess where the coffee plant originated.

Spoiler:

Coffea arabica (pronounced /əˈræbɪkə/) is a species of Coffea originally indigenous to the mountains of Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, hence its name, and also from the southwestern highlands of Ethiopia and southeastern Sudan. It is also known as the "coffee shrub of Arabia", "mountain coffee" or "arabica coffee". Coffea arabica is believed to be the first species of coffee to be cultivated, being grown in southwest Arabia for well over 1,000 years. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess how big the coffee plant is.

Spoiler:

The coffee tree averages from 5-10 m (15–30 ft.) in height. As the tree gets older, it branches less and less and bears more leaves and fruit. The tree typically begins to bear fruit 3–5 years after being planted, and continues to produce for 10-20 more years, depending on the type of plant and the area. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess when coffee first arrived in Europe.

Spoiler:

In the 17th century, coffee appeared for the first time in Europe outside the Ottoman Empire, and coffeehouses were established and quickly became popular. The first coffeehouses reached Western Europe probably through the Kingdom of Hungary, (thus this was the mediator between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire) and appeared in Venice, due to the trafficks between La Serenissima and the Ottomans; the very first one is recorded in 1645. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess where coffeehouses were banned.

Spoiler:

Coffeehouses in Mecca soon became a concern as places for political gatherings to the imams who banned them, and the drink, for Muslims between 1512 and 1524. Though Charles II later tried to suppress the London coffeehouses as "places where the disaffected met, and spread scandalous reports concerning the conduct of His Majesty and his Ministers", the public flocked to them. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess which countries banned women from coffeehouses.

Spoiler:

The banning of women from coffeehouses was not universal, but does appear to have been common in Europe. In Germany women frequented them, but in England and France they were banned. Émilie du Châtelet purportedly wore drag to gain entrance to a coffeehouse in Paris. In a well-known engraving of a Parisian coffeehouse of c. 1700, the gentlemen hang their hats on pegs and sit at long communal tables strewn with papers and writing implements. Coffeepots are ranged at an open fire, with a hanging cauldron of boiling water. The only woman present presides, separated in a canopied booth, from which she serves coffee in tall cups. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess when coffee was first cultivated the Americas.

Spoiler:

First cultivation in Caribbean (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico) - 1715-1730. First cultivation in South America - 1730. [Source: Wikipedia]

Guess how much a coffee farmer gets for a pound of coffee.

Spoiler:

Small farmers included in the International Fair Trade Coffee Register are guaranteed a minimum of $1.26 per pound of coffee, the "Fair Trade price," from coffee importers. The free trade price of coffee rose above this minimum in September 2007, but due to recent economic events, the free trade price dropped back below this minimum in October 2008. The fair trade price for (conventional natural robusta) coffee has been $1.01 since June 2008. The price of conventional commodity coffee was also over $1 in 2008, but about $0.70 in 2009. [Source: Wikipedia]

... no need to guess which country consumes the most coffee.

Café
Coffee
Espresso
Coffee bean
Coffeehouse
Coffeemaker
Coffea arabica
Fair trade coffee
Economics of coffee

[snipenekkid]

someone needs to integrate more sativa and indica into ones diet instead of too much coffee.

But seriously, that's some FUN info, thanks for that post! It is in that category of stuff we always take for granted even though now it takes 2-seconds to start learning it all.

Originally Posted by boxcorner

It's time for a coffee break ...

Café
Coffee
Espresso
Coffee bean
Coffeehouse
Coffeemaker
Coffea arabica
Fair trade coffee
Economics of coffee

[snipenekkid]

people seem to be overlooking that the coffee shop in the US is an American icon. In small towns everywhere there is always at least one coffee shop where locals gather, often for hours on end to gab, gossip and even, gasp, drink a single mug of coffee with bottom-less refills. People even eat now and then. But these places are and always have been places to get to know others, whats happening in town and even who died or is boff'in who.

While I "get it" that some places need to make all the money they can, in fact I applaud it, I think it's somewhat a swingandamiss to introduce such polices as in the US anyway, it really goes against the cultural traditions of a coffee shop.

I suspect the cafes and coffee houses in other countries with even stronger traditions surrounding the social bonding of sharing coffee or tea, but these countries would never even consider such a move to assembly line feeding of customers.

To me it is rude of the shops but it is also rude on the part of those who over use the ability to setup an office for a few hours every day. However I see nothing wrong with someone using it whenever they need it in a pinch. It's no more a bother than three people walking in and only one person buying something with the other having just a water who then proceed to sit at a table or counter for an hour chatting.

I think shops would be better served to banish the sorts who cackle at the top of their lungs to make sure everyone for 3-counties can hear them. THOSE are who drive other out of the business. My ditch water hometown is filled with these sort of people and is my primary reason to avoid SB's whenever other options exist. funny part is I never see this behavior at other coffee houses/shops. I see it only at SB and really only here where I am currently sentenced for the rest of my days it would seem. But these people pretty much treat our SB as a dive bar where such behavior is fine. So perhaps it's not the booze after all that makes people obnoxious, it seems it's the individual them-self that is obnoxious.

Anyway, it's what I see here and it's just weirdly interesting to me.

[boxcorner]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

someone needs to integrate more sativa and indica into ones diet instead of too much coffee ...

Cannabis coffee shop

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Duiker

I just wish "Mac" stores aka Apple Stores would serve coffee. Heaven.

Well, you would have to buy the iCup to drink the coffee. No bringing your own mug. And for only 99 cents, you could add iSugar and iCream, but only in quantities and proportions allowed by the iBarrista. The iHazelnut and other iSyrups would each be an additional 99 cents, and would come in cute little iTalian designed packages. The iCup Holder would be also extra, but would really look cool, have a constant temperature heating element, and somehow fit all the iCup sizes perfectly. It would turn out that Steve does not think that people like round cups, so they would all be in the form of hexagons, with a side panel which would report on the temperature of the remaining coffee, and offering a refill if you buy the extended Heating Element Replacement Plan, and everybody would rave about how they fit your hand perfectly. And it would be a damn fine cuppa iJoe...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Harmon

...iSyrups would each be an additional 99 cents, and would come in cute little iTalian designed packages. ....

iKarma for that!

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Harmon

Well, you would have to buy the iCup to drink the coffee. No bringing your own mug. And for only 99 cents, you could add iSugar and iCream, but only in quantities and proportions allowed by the iBarrista. The iHazelnut and other iSyrups would each be an additional 99 cents, and would come in cute little iTalian designed packages. The iCup Holder would be also extra, but would really look cool, have a constant temperature heating element, and somehow fit all the iCup sizes perfectly. It would turn out that Steve does not think that people like round cups, so they would all be in the form of hexagons, with a side panel which would report on the temperature of the remaining coffee, and offering a refill if you buy the extended Heating Element Replacement Plan, and everybody would rave about how they fit your hand perfectly. And it would be a damn fine cuppa iJoe...

BEST POST OF THE YEAR!!

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by boxcorner

Cannabis coffee shop

but in Harmon's iCannibus iShop the iBrownies would require a special iDock.