Do you care if computer-users sit in your store all day and nurse one cup of coffee?

There's been a rash of stories about coffee-shop proprietors who've had it with people who use their wi-fi for hours on end and don't buy a second cup of coffee. (Some are pulling the plug on free Internet during peak hours.) I know that Starbucks leaves customers alone (and free wi-fi is limited), but do you have computer-using customers that you'd love to kick out? || Read "Wi-Fi + freeloaders adds up to caffeine headache"

Comments

[North Star Barista]

HA! It's about time.

We had a couple sit down in two comfy chairs, pull up two tables and four wooden chairs so they could spreadout and plan their wedding for four hours. All for the the price of one tall coffee.

[th]

it's supposed to be a "3rd" place. so why would i mind? it makes me feel as if i am working in a real coffee shop, rather then in a fast food joint. customers that stick around for hours on end give you the best opportunity to sample and connect with. why complain?!

[emmr]

Eh, it doesn't bother me. Most customers that I see doing things like this are regulars that come in daily and stay for hours. It makes me happy to see them so comfortable at our store.

I know I've been guilty of going to Starbucks and working on my homework for hours. For some it's a great place to get work done, so I don't really see the problem.

[Batista Ben]

Yeah th but the people complaining are real coffeeshops. Here, since I have no idea what our electric bill is, I could care less.

[me myself and I]

I don't mind them. Except for the one guy who uses us as his entire office. He frequently even has HIS customers visiting him in our cafe for ours. The only good thing is, he is usually getting a coffee for them. He seems to be a real estate agent, showing off tons of expose's and pictures of houses. I don't really mind him using us as his office but he usually ends up taking the biggest of our three (!!!) tables and blocks it off for most of the day.

[is it so hard to be civil]

I had a guy how would be in all day every day. When it was time to lock up he would say "I'm just waiting for a down load" and not leave. I never saw him buy anything but he would get hot water in a thermos. He would be rude to guys working and be creepy to girls working. I was glad when he stopped coming in. I don't really care if someone is in all day but be nice to the staff and leave when we are closing.

[Bloody Mary]

We have one who runs his business from a table.
All day. His family is out in the parking lot all day, sitting in a van with the windows and side door open. They come into the restrooms to wash off periodically also. What bums. We are thinking of blocking the outlets and turning off the WiFi randomly. Why don't people show class? I imagine because their appointed lawyer tells them they don't have to.

[K.Latte]

I really enjoy those folks, actually. Makes our store feel more like a community coffee shop and less like a McDonalds (which tends to happen because of the drive-thru volume.)

[AVB]

I used to work in a SBUX that was very close to a college. We would have 20 tables filled with students pretty much from open to close. It made it the SBUX to be at. It as quite a different feel during the summer breaks. Way to quiet.

I say stay a long as you like. That's why we are here. (Oh and buy something too)

[Andrew]

That quiet business man nursing his one cup of coffee today, might be the business man who, tomorrow, brings in a party of 4 clients and buys them all food and drinks.

[fmrSM]

Or, he may not be. The stores with small cafes are the ones hit. I used to go to a Starbucks that was always full of studying college students, with empty cups. I never got a seat, so I stopped going. Hanging out for a while is one thing, loitering is another. Even at $5.00+, a venti white mocha does not entitle you to an all day hang out at the local 'bucks.

[Bearded Bearista]

We used to have a customer who came in and got a Venti Coffee and would get free refills all day with his registered card.
He would take up a table all day, till close. He was a nice enough guy, I just wish I could have charged him for his coffee after his first refill.

[meme]

we have people who hang out all day and just keep asking for Venti waters or refills on their ice coffees with a splash of breve, 1.5 packs of sugar light ice or worse yet BT no h20 refills every 20 minutes. Yes they actually request the size waters they want. It is no longer can I get a glass of water, now they request the cup size.

[Argentius]

I will admit I am kind of one of those guys, as well as a former partner.

Wifi and outlets have definitely changed the game with hanging out all day.

I really, really like hanging out at coffee shops, and I like plain drip coffee. At stores with a clover, I get that, and at indy cafes with GOOD coffee, I am happy to pay a premium. I usually buy a pastry, as well.

But, I like to read, and write, at cafes, and will probably stay an average of ninety minutes, up to three hours. It's the only place I can focus to get things done.

I've never been given trouble.

But, like one of the owners said in the article, it is about a social contract.

At the store I worked at, we would have groups of young people -- a huge one, starting at 6-10 and sometimes growing to 30. Most were pretty good customers, and I understand that EVERY member of a group is not always going to buy a beverage, but the worst group would have 1 drink per 3 or 4 people, and would stay for hours.

The double-worst was when they started asking for a "VENTI CUP OF HOT WATER WITH (PICKYOUR) SYRUP ADDED" and expected, and often were, charged the "add syrup" $0.37 or whatever for it.

[espressolover]

I love working/reading/writing at Starbucks. The music is the perfect volume and there's not too much background noise, plus the atmosphere is great. I'll usually buy a soy latte and sit at a small table for an hour or two, sometimes three. It's not all day and I'm not asking for a million refills, so I figure I'm OK.

[Mike]

As someone who works at starbucks AND spends hours on end there doing school work, i think its a great deal for everyone. Customers get a nice quiet place to work/whatever else, and for partners it seems to me that these types of "lingerers" are almost always friendly and respectful, and make some very good conversation if you try to get to know them. Everybody wins.

[That Girl]

I think having regular customers who spend an hour or so hanging out in the cafe helps make the legendary experience. Our store has several early morning drip coffee drinkers who like to come in, have their coffee and read the paper. They tend to claim the comfy chairs. At first they would just come in get their drink sit down and ignore the person in the next chair. Now there are about five of them whole all gather and chat and talk about articles in the paper and often buy each other's coffees. None of them knew each other outside or Starbucks. Now they talk about business, help each other with marketing their work, even have arranged a couple hiking trips together. Having a few customers who are in the store long enough and frequently enough to get to know the names of more then just the morning shift makes it a community store. Sure sometimes (especially near midterms or finals) we have to ask the students to use only one table and one chair per person to respect others looking to sit down, but they are always happy to move their stuff. I think it is how you approach the situation.

[Dave F]

But do these squatters owe anything to other customers who can't find seating in busy stores?

[(former) FLA SM]

Every time I hear about this topic I'm reminded of the Family Guy episode where the two guys are working on their laptops in Starbucks talking about how they go there so people will see them working on their laptops.

[Jo Ann]

@ Dave F: Interesting point regarding the other customers... I'm a frequent visitor (up to three times a day), and am always aggravated that I can't find a seat to sit for just a small while. I do feel entitled, as I drink a $6 beverage and eat the food and tip well routinely. But I don't get a seat. But someone else can take advantage. If you ask me, the real losers are the "good" customers.

[scared_of_bbs]

Don't know how it is elsewhere, but in New York there is a real risk of picking up bed bugs by sitting for hours at Starbucks.

I'm a customer who worked out of Starbucks for a few months while I had bbs (being very careful not to carry them around) and wasn't allowed at work until I was sure I was over them. While spending those many many hours I overheard several conversations that indicated other people sitting around had infestations -- who knows how careful they were being.

Now that my infestation is gone I NEVER sit down at a Starbucks.

[Moe Szyslak]

I personally wouldn't have a problem with it, but we get very little sit-down traffic compared to some locations. We're a massive drive-thru store, and we don't have enough customers motivated enough to actually come in for there to be any seating shortage.

[Moe Szyslak]

I should correct myself based on what I said in another thread - we don't get much sit-down traffic although we get a significant amount of traffic coming inside, they just don't stick around. I meant to say we don't have enough customers motivated enough to actually come in and sit down for there to be any seating shortage.

[tulipfield]

As long as they buy something it's not really an issue for me, especially since our cafe is rarely full enough to where someone can't find a seat. There is one woman, however, who buys the bare minimum to get wifi ($5 on a giftcard once a month), and absolutely nothing else. Then she sits at the biggest table, alone, for hours on her computer, and will not leave at close even as we pester her relentlessly (in the most legendary way possible, of course). That I cannot support.

[Wil Jansen]

I'm usually guilty of doing this, but I leave a $5-10 tip and then everyone's happy. I can't drink too much caffeine, but I often need the space. It's only fair that the staff get something for seeing my ugly mug for hours on end :) As for the electricity: 60W for 4 hours equates to a quarter unit or about 2 cents. Internet access: assuming a total DSL bill of $40/month and 100 customers a month, my share = $0.40. Overheads? I think I've covered them because $10 is equivalent to 4 cups of coffee or 1 cup per hour. I only do this in independent coffee shops BTW, if I have to do it in Starbucks, I know that I'll come in umpteen more times (with customers and without my laptop)

[DoctorsPepper]

If they are polite, then I've no problem with them staying around the lobby all day. As long as they buy something it's fine. It feels great to know that some people would feel comfortable enough to stick around all day. :)

[SBUX manager]

Unless they are causing an issue who cares. I realize that they may crowd that cafe sometimes but if they are a good customer you should consider it a complement to your store that they are comfortable enough to stay that long. Why not connect with them, learn more about them so they will then begin to want to contribute to the company that is providing this environment for them......and they may tip more, too=)

[CaffineJunkie]

A few months back a local paper ran an article relating how shops that shut their wifi off during peak times actually lost business in the long run. A few of the Paneras actually reversed their policy of shutting it off at lunch rush, because it chased away their regular customers.

I'm a grad student and do a lot of studying and paper writing at Starbucks...and I'm one of those who gets the tall drip coffee and refils it a time or two. But, I also buy other stuff from time to time...such as my beans and a snack to complement the coffee :). Plus, I often meet friends there and bring in additional business that way.

As one person noted, people hanging out there is what makes Starbucks unique. I would never go to Dunkin Donuts to do homework...even if they do offer wifi. Something about sitting in hard plastic benches....Starbucks has captured something unique in their stores - even if some people knock it as "created" community (aren't all communities created?). Even before my grad school days, I would go to Starbucks to read the paper or hang out with friends.

I try to be polite with my internet usage, I take a small table out of the way and don't strew stuff all over the place. I've seen some people take up a four place table while people are standing around for lack of seats. That's just rude.

[Zach]

I work at an extremely busy store. It's really not uncommon to have a double wrapped line on a Saturday while a couple of people hang out and take up premium seating for several hours. This really does not bother me in the slightest. If asked, I always encourage common courtesy toward your fellow human beings, but there are more important things to worry about than how much wifi time someone is using. Starbucks has positioned itself to become the 3rd place for many customers and this is exactly what they have achieved. I enjoy seeing the same regulars at the same time every day. As long as people are not being rude to other customers and/or fellow employees, I have no problem with them hanging out and studying, working, etc. We had a guy set up his iMac for four or five hours earlier this week. I loved it and applaud his dedication.

[BA Dissertation]

Blogs are so informative where we get lots of information on any topic. Nice job keep it up!!

[invierta proyectos]

Like your article very much!!!
Keep it up..

[Jeanne]

Seems like alot of the responses are not from the owners (who are the ones paying the bills) but from staff. A large tip does not in anyway offset a loss of business.

[Pwoodeecoo.blogspot.com]

I know i'm a little late on this post but i HAD to comment. Regarding the old time coffee shops where the regular locals sit ALL day...it is unnerving. They sit out of boredome and expect you (the one working) to entertain them.

[steve goodman]

How about the people coming in who want to say fifteen minutes and just have a cup of coffee only to find that there is no place to sit because some jerk thinks its cool to reserve his seat for four hours for the price of a tall coffee!!!! the fact that nobody sees this as rude or a problem makes me wonder about where we are going? Try that at your favorite restaurant and see what happens.

[Ronnie]

Nothing is worse than a regular guy who has NEVER once bought anything, claims the best and comfy seat after the previous customer left the spot with their empty cup, sits in and using free wifi for hours! And sometimes dares to ask for free water from barista! I am totally disgusted at such cheap-minded people!