Complimentary Internet in Baton Rouge Coffee Shops
The Wall Street Journal recently published an article detailing measures some coffee shops are taking to prevent abuse to their complimentary wireless. This free commodity is practically standard in coffee shops across America, and they have since become yet another place of business for most Americans. That some shops would be discouraging extended customer stays to use this service is beyond me: I would think it lends towards higher profits. However, some local shops—presumably because of the recent economic slump—are encouraging customers to move along.
ControlAltTv’s Gregory Schultz got on the beat to interview some local coffee shops to get their take on the whole issue. Soon after, The Reveille also published a full-length article concerning the matter.
Both articles are thorough, so any repetition here is unnecessary. However, it’s clear from both articles that complimentary wireless is here to stay—which is what I’d expect—but shop owners do get fairly upset when they see non-patrons leeching off their wireless. It really all boils down to just showing a little respect: don’t take what you didn’t pay for.
This is rather annoying to my coworkers & myself. People bring in their own foods or drinks & just sit in our store for hours on end stealing our wifi. They also pull tables together so they can have more room for their laptops. That’s kinda a pet peeve for me even with paying customers, but that’s beside the point. A lot of times people will stay after we close & continue to use our wifi. We used to be able to turn it off, but we can’t anymore. The problem then turns into people loitering & bringing more food & leaving it outside for us to clean in the morning. On a few occasions, there have been beer bottles left outside. We used to have a cop who would sit in our parking lot, but they usually have better things to do (however where my store is, it’s a pretty good location for catching people speeding down Coursey). Some people are polite about it & ask for permission to use it, but the majority just set up camp without any notice. Obviously we don’t want to charge for wifi because it is a big reason why people come to our store. I kinda like the idea of paying for coffee by hour or half hour or day, but I don’t think they’re going to change it at our store. The problem is there isn’t any real solution that doesn’t involve money, unless you have a password that people have to get from a barista & it changes daily, but people would still ask around & try to get it. The assumption that people will be respectful in general is putting a lot of faith in mankind. I’m so jaded. C’est la vie.
It’s certainly a huge issue and it’d be terrible to see coffee shops stop offering this service. I doubt we’ll see that anytime soon, but it’d be super awesome if people were just honest about it.
Thanks for your insider input.
I’ve often considered figuring out how to turn the router off then waiting to see who comes up to ask what happened to it. of course, i’d feel bad about all the paying customers who are trying to use their computers. One cup of coffee is $1.96. you could even get just a single espresso for less or a bottle of water for $1.64