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

Put a code on the receipt

[mlawrence]

Each code gets you so much time of wi-fi. If you want more, purchase a second cup of coffee. This would be very easy to implement.

Minimum coffee purchace per hour?

[RabbitWho]

This doesn't already exist in the states? If i tried to sit in a coffee shop (even one without wi-fi) for over an hour on a single cup of coffee they'd tell me to buy something or get out.