Though I may sound like I hold animosity towards wireless coffee shop goers, I don’t as I’ve taken my laptop to coffee shops myself. I just try to confine it to a time I know that (coffee shop X) will be quiet, or if I’m going with someone else and we’re using the laptop for a meeting.

But really, when it comes down to it, the reason for going to a coffee shop, be it Victrola or anywhere else shouldn’t be the wireless, it should be the quality of the product. And as long as you keep delivering on that I’ll keep stopping in when I make it up to 15th.

But its all good, for every McDonalds that stops serving breakfast at 11am there is a local diner that makes its mark by serving breakfast all day. Why throw a hissy fit in the McDonalds drive through claiming 20 years of patronage when I can just go down the road to Denny’s where they proudly serve pancakes all day.

For economic or aesthetic reasons Victrola’s owners have choose not to “serve” WIFI during certain hours. But being a former capital hill dweller I can vouch that less than a quarter mile from Victrola there are a half dozen other coffee shops with WIFI. I can think of two that cater heavily to laptop users. If Victrola can turn WIFI customers away, yet still fill their cash registers, and feel their business is livelier, good for them. This is also good for other shops looking for new weekend customers and would be happy to serve WIFI to woo them. There apparently are enough coffee lovers out there for many business models to work.

The point here is that there is no coffee shop or WIFI crisis! There will always be coffee shops that cater to the social, those that cater to book readers and writers, and those that cater to people looking for an office away from the office. Each of these business’ has a right to target whatever segment of coffee drinkers they wish to serve.

One suggestion I have heard to cheaply and easily deal with WIFI squatters is to lock/remove electrical outlets. Most modern laptops can’t go for more than 2 hours on battery. This sort of strikes a fair medium without too much effort involved. Sure some geeks have shelled out the big bucks for 2 or 3 batteries, but hopefully these are the types with big enough wallets to order lots of coffee.

I for one will continue to laptop at coffee shops now and again, obviously not Victrola on weekends. But I’m also going to continue to meet friends for social time at Victrola as it is lively for that. I simply will go where I need to accomplish what I want.

As a Starbucks user, I figure that the $29.99 (I am a T-mobile subscriber) I pay per month to some extent offsets the one to three hours that I spend per day at a coffeeshop. What do I buy while I am Starbucks sometimes for three hours? A $1.65 cent coffee (.45 cents for tips), and maybe one $.55 refill. I am student, so I am can’t spend money on a panini every hour, although I would say that the baristas where I normally go deserve that in tips/hour, so I am extra nice to them.

I recommend the following solution: as a sometimes off, sometimes on user of Victrola’s courtesy wireless connection (and I don’t go there but once a month or so, for the same reasons that have been stated above), I know for a fact that when an enormous number of people are logged into Victrola’s router, everyone’s connection slows down. How about having users pay to use a better wireless solution that provides consistent service? The bohemia may be lost (not everything can always be free), but its a little less alienating for the techies, I would think.

Daniel

Boots off a CD and needs a PC/intel box with two ethernet ports - it’s main benefit is the ease of setup & management of the config.

HTH

f

You said, “as a patron who spends a good amount of time weekly at coffee shops…” and then “I already pay for this at home and don’t want to have to pay for another service”… and then “I make a point to buy something each time I visit a shop…”

Let me ask you this. Do you pay for something *each hour* you’re at the shop taking up a table, surfing for free? Do you pay for something each two hours you’re there?

Or how about this. Let’s say you’ve bought your $1.50 drip coffee. You camp out at a four seater table cuz that’s the only one available because all the other tables are taken up by net surfer / buckfitty coffee drinkers. After an hour or so, your coffee is long gone, and you’re drinking water. You see a group of three people come in, look around, and see no tables available and start heading for the door. Do you take that time to realize that you’re camping out now and taking up tables that end up costing the café business, and do the right thing - stand up, tell the group “hey, do you want a table? I’ll give it up since I’m not having anything here at the moment.”?

Some how, I’m gonna bet that the answer to all three questions is no, you don’t.

The kind of customer that Victrola doesn’t need, and frankly should be “firing” is the type who comes in, buys a minimal drink (under $3 or $4 or even $5 worth of stuff) then decides that is their buy in to stay for hours, or even all day, taking up tables. Not to mention the complete and utter lusers who come in and don’t buy anything at all.

The mentality of far too many people (perhaps even you Scott) is that you think that $2 americano, or $3 latte buys you a day of free wifi. What you don’t realize is that in many cases, that $2 you spent + your hours of camping out can cost the company five, ten times that in lost sales. You are in a way stealing from this company. It’s rude. It’s inconsiderate. And it’s extremely greedy.

I love wifi in cafes. I use it all the time. But I have three golden rules. a) wifi and the internet don’t rule my cafe life - social comes first. b) I make a point to spend at least $4 to $5 per hour I plan to be there. If not all at once (gimme a couple of paninis, willya!) then everytime my beverage is finished. And c) if I see the cafe full and I know I’m not buying anything else, and people come in, I give up my spot. The free wifi provided was a pleasant gift from that cafe. I never take it as a given or a right.

respectfully,

Mark