Some LA Coffee Shops Are Taking Wi-Fi Off the Menu

As New York is putting Wi-Fi on wheels, reader Hugh Pickens notes a counter trend in Los Angeles coffee shops. (We remarked on a similar backlash in Seattle in 2005.) "Coffee shops were the retail pioneers of Wi-Fi, but Jessica Guynn reports in the LA Times that now some owners are pulling the plug after finding that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line. Other owners strive to preserve a friendly vibe and keep their establishments from turning into 'Matrix'-like zombie shacks where people type and don't talk. 'There is now a market niche for not having Wi-Fi,' says Bryant Simon. After Dan and Nathalie Drozdenko turned off the Wi-Fi at their Los Angeles cafe, the complaints poured in, but so did the compliments: Lots of customers appreciated a wireless cup of joe at the Downbeat Cafe, a popular lunch spot in Echo Park. 'People come here because we don't offer it. They know they can get their work done and not get distracted.'"

Comments

Re:They just need to treat it like it's a privileg

[DavidTC]

No. No coffee place does table service. Coffee places in American are like fast food places that don't serve food. I think you're probably thinking they're more like 'cafes', which also exist, are a different thing, and they often will do table service and have actual food.

If you think it's insane to have fast food restaurants that exist solely to serve coffee, and that's it, a lot of us agree with you, especially as someone decided we needed them everywhere. But, they exist, you stand in line and get extremely overpriced coffee, and leave.

Although, although they have no table service, for some reason some of them apparently think you should tip them.

Um, no. When I go up to the counter and order there and carry stuff away, you don't get a damn tip. I tip people who wait on me.