The Tragedy of the Coffee Shop, and how to address it

THE TRAGEDY OF THE COFFEE SHOP is a meme banging around the intarwebs. Thursday’s Wall Street Journal had an article entitled, “No More Perks: Coffee Shops Pull the Plug on Laptop Users,” wherein writer Erica Alini takes note of a “largely New York phenomenon” where coffee shops have begun restricting laptop users. The restrictions are primarily because these users tend to take up valuable space from paying customers at a time of economic downtown. (More or less, there’s a case to be made.) Joey de Villa at the blog Coffee and Code has thoughts for how coffee shops should best think about this, uh, challenge. These thoughts include (a) It’s not a war between shop owners and customers (b) cafes with lunch or dinner rushes should considering disallowing laptops only at those times; (c) mobile workers should know the “personality” of the cafe, and which best allow for extended “third place” use (third place is a place that is neither home nor work); and (d) know the people at the cafe, i.e. build relationships with the owners and employees (Rudy adds that you may add value to that relationships by regularly bringing in your friends slash new customers).

Here are my two cents for how to strengthen the Coffee Shop business in a way that embraces the general population’s digital needs:

CENT ONE: Rent out cubicle space. There is a need for workspace. The virtual office market continues to grow, and not everyone needs something as intense as Regus. How about four spaces, with windows (all sorts of illicit private space activity will be discouraged), that can be rented on an hourly basis? The spaces with windows and locked doors (and soundproof? can you make that happen) are valuable for anyone who needs to make business related phone calls. From my own experience, I often need to make important phone calls when I am in laptop-workspace and am often willing to pay for just this sort of amenity. A corollary to this tip is to make sure that – somehow – the cell phone reception at your coffee shop is good.

CENT TWO: Rip-off the Apple Genius bar concept, only make it for general technology advice. People can come in with computer questions, fax questions, satellite TV questions, toaster questions, my IKEA dresser set-up, oil change. Think about it. Somewhere in your life you have a fix-it person you can turn to. Imagine that fix-it person being down the street, at the coffee shop, and can answer – or refer you to answers – for all of your tech and repair needs.

Both of these ideas would draw paying traffic to the coffee shop, because they meet real world needs. I’d love to see these ideas implemented at Urban Beanery in Grand Rapids, MI; The Coffee Gallery in Altadena, CA; Koinonia Coffee House in Jackson, MS; and in other great coffee shops across the country.