I was reading an interesting column in the Santa Cruz Sentinel a while back about the issues that owners of establishments that offer free wi-fi are running into: namely that too many customers are walking into a coffee house, say, buying one drink and then camping out for six or seven hours, thereby discouraging other paying customers. Wallace Baine writes:
The Coffee Cat, the great little coffeehouse in Scotts Valley, abruptly decided to shut down access to free Wi-Fi. Many customers were miffed, some really outraged, and business has fallen off in a period when the recession is putting a hurt on small businesses everywhere. Free wireless Internet connectivity has been a common feature in coffeehouses for the past several years. But in recent months, coffee merchants have begun to take a dimmer view of free Wi-Fi. It's been an amenity for which the headaches have begun to outweigh the benefits.
At the Coffee Cat, free Wi-Fi use simply got out of hand. So says Manthri Srinath, the owner/operator of the coffeehouse ... some people would park at a comfortable seat for six hours or more, monopolizing the table and buying the minimum. The employees were obliged to become freeloader cops, confronting people for bringing in outside food. Sometimes they were even called on for tech help. What was needed was to "break the culture," said Srinath, to return the Coffee Cat to what it used to be, a place that sold coffee and offered people a comfortable space to relax and socialize, not to take up permanent residence.
What's your experience in the Fresno area? In the Sentinel column, Baine notes that the economic downturn has left many people "officeless," and they're crowding free wi-fi hot spots. Do you think that's the case? Where do you go these days when you need a fix of free wi-fi?
I would agree that 'camping out' at free wifi hotspots is wrong. It's a little different at a Borders or Barnes & Noble where you have ample space to get away with it.
Aside from those places -- I don't know of any places in Fresno that really offer free wifi.
Is there a list of establishments somewhere? I'd love to know of places!
Yes, of course the unemployed and struggling entrepreneurs may (over) utilize cafes and restaurants offering free wifi. And yes, owners of those establishments should feel free to ditch free wifi if it has a negative impact on their business. I have noticed that the Revue in the Tower District, which has offered free wifi for years, has a lot more wifi users these days than in the past. I'm not sure but it doesn't seem like it is hurting business there. So many businesses are behind the curve here in Fresno when it comes to wifi that I doubt we'll see this sort of issue anytime soon.
I have no doubt that some establishments see problems associated with offering free wifi. Does that mean free wifi is endangered? Certain coffee shops may always have this type of problem on some level, but other establishments like hotels and even entire cities probably won't.
More and more, people are thinking of internet access as a basic legal right. We're not quite there yet as a nation, but Finland is.
Perhaps we'll start to see more interesting ways of dishing out free wifi to customers. I could see places like coffee shops offering Free Wifi*
* Two hour limit
I've noticed, Stephen, that fancy hotels tend to charge big bucks for wireless access, while the more moderately priced chains often offer free access. (Of course, it's nothing new for more expensive hotels to add lots of fees because they can sock it to business travelers.) This makes me think that folks will continue to charge for wireless if they can get away with it -- which is the American way. I think the Finns have the right idea.
Ditching free wifi is a great way to resist the inevitable. More people are working in coffeeshops with free wifi because the world's workplace is quickly becoming a place for knowledge workers. Knowledge workers who don't want or need to work for a company, or even in an office. Joes Coffee Shack IS the office.
Instead of fighting the tide by ditching wifi, the smart thing to do would be to encourage more places to turn it on. Then a single shop in town won't be overwhelmed by the patrons that "camp".
Mark my words, these mobile knowledge workers are not people you want to alienate. If for no other reason than they are the ones tweeting about your establishment. (And I don't think readers of this particular blog need to be convinced of the power of a well-placed tweet.) But the larger picture here is even simpler: the numbers of these people are growing.
P.S. I'm one of 'em.
It's a good lure to get people into your establishment, but frankly our manners as a society hasn't caught up with our strides in technology.
A few weeks back our neighbors had some family staying with them. We noticed they were parked directly in front of our house - turns out they were leaching our wi-fi (We have since secured it better). But there was literally a van full of 4 people on laptops using our internet AND parked in front of our house. Needless to say I went out and told them to get off our internet. (after I pulled the plug, of course).
You're always going to have people who want something for nothing. These are the same people who are stocking their homes with plastic-ware, sugar packets and creamers. If you're an independant business, you simply establish a policy that internet use over one hour requires a small fee. Your employees are smart and knows who has been sitting there for hours using the internet. Don't punish the people who actually follow the rules.
ESPN Sports Columnist said it best...
"There are four acceptable public Wi-Fi usages in a restaurant or coffee house and only four: checking e-mail; reading columns, blogs or news stories; changing a fantasy team; Googling a hot waitress or barista. That's it. I can't condone anything else. It's just not fair to the servers or the customers walking by your table. I don't want to be headed to the men's room and see that the dude three tables down is looking at children's beauty pageant photos or bidding on guns on eBay. No thanks."