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Coffee Shops Grow Weary of Laptop Users

Drink-nursing users told to make way for bigger spenders

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 6, 2009 9:57 AM CDT

(Newser) – The longstanding love affair between coffee shops and laptop users is starting to go off the boil, the Wall Street Journal reports. Big chains still let computer users linger, but a growing number of independent shops, sick of customers nursing a cup of coffee all day when seats are in short supply, have started restricting the use of laptops in peak hours, blocking power outlets or even ordering customers to power down.

Shop owners say things have gotten worse with the recession, with some customers even bringing in their own teabags to settle in for a day of using the shops' WiFi and hot water. Laptop users gripe that it's getting harder to find places to work, though some are sympathetic. "I used to be one of the abusers," one customer says, "sipping a $2 cup of coffee in a to-go cup for hours." Now, he says, he's started spending more cash and restricting his laptop use to off-peak hours.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

A customer works on his laptop as his iPhone lays beside it at a coffee shop in Columbia, Mo. (AP Photo/L.G. Patterson, File)

A customer works on her laptop in a Seattle Starbucks. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

A graduate student at Virginia Tech works on his laptop at a coffee shop in Blacksburg. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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We lower the light, and it's chocolate, wine and couples holding hands. What's the guy with the laptop doing here?
- Bahman Soltani, owner of a coffee shop that bans laptops after 8pm

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 13 comments

oldgoat

Aug 7, 2009 10:09 AM CDT

I can't blame the business. Afterall these people are costing them customers while spending nothing themselves. I'd give them a time limit and then turn off the outlet.

Snarfeh

Aug 7, 2009 3:29 AM CDT

The only bullies are those who wish to ban anyone. Short of a physical threat being made by one person to another, I see no reason to ban anyone. I do not like censorship, period. I am an adult and if I read a comment I don't like, I either reply with my position or my sarcasm or I ignore it and move on. Why, I'm even able to ignore without an ignore button! Fancy that!

Spudsy

Aug 7, 2009 3:27 AM CDT

There is some evil in my soul that makes me want to grab an expresso pot and beat those dudes I see cruising the internet at coffee shops. Maybe I am just judgemental. I blame it on my religious upbringing. Recipe for disaster that stuff.

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Technology • Money

coffee • recession • WiFi • laptop • cafes • coffee shop

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Coffee Shops Grow Weary of Laptop Users