To ban phones and other technology from my coffee shop?

[WingsOnMyBoots]

I actually don't HAVE a coffee shop or any other business but I just wondered - hypothetically speaking, if it was a great place, with fabulous coffee and cakes etc. would you still go if NO technology at all was allowed to be used in there?

It's a great idea! Instead of coming in to sit and read their phones or kindles they can sit and read a book. That's far more sociable.

Or they could stare at their coffee.

Interesting.

Your ban on tech cant be policed anyway.

They could still defy you and use it.

They arent breaking the law

Only if you want your coffee shop to fail.

No. Sorry but I need my phone when in a cafe. If my DDs are at home I need to be contactable by the babysitter or my DH if he's the one looking after them. And if you're meeting up with a group of friends you need to be able to receive texts if people are running late.

Y E S. I would love your cafe.

Nice music instead of beeping, silly ring tones and other peoples flaming videos at full blast!!!

Always makes me laugh when I see groups of people sat together, not talking, all on their phones.

You could ask them to leave if they broke your no tech rule.
I think it's a brilliant idea and if your hypothetical coffee shop had a usp could well be a welcome break from all the same old same old type shop.
Lots of people find the department store coffee areas so bland, beige and usually with no windows quite unappealing.
I think if you added something different, maybe themed it would work well.
Look at The Cat cafe in Manchester, I'm sure some people avoid it who don't like cats, or find them unhygienic with food, but they are always busy and the last time my dd went it was about £30 per head, as you pay for time not the food/drink.
Being unique can really make a business.

here
catcafe.co.uk/

No, because it's always accompanied by some sort of smug hipster chalkboard proclaiming that 'you could always talk to people instead' or something equally pompous.

I wouldn't pay someone who patronises their customers.

'you could always talk to people instead

And if I'm in a coffeeshop, I'm on my own. Not going to sit there and chat with some people I don't know either. I like my own company plenty.

@zeetek and noisy people too. You know the ones who shout at each other as if they were on another continent.

Exactly! As if the cafes of the past were filled with convivial conversations between strangers.

I'm sat in a coffee shop at present using internet on my phone

If anyone called I'd just press cancel.

Can't see the problem.

It's a great idea! Instead of coming in to sit and read their phones or kindles they can sit and read a book. That's far more sociable

Game of Thrones books are about 4-5 inches thick and weigh a good chunk. I've got all of them on my kindle which is less than 1/2 an inch and weighs next to nothing. Reading on a kindle isn't any less sociable than dragging a paperback around with me.

katyMac
Where I used to work had this up

I be seen that sign in loads of places. The first time I came across DP and I.had left home at 07.30 in the morning and arrived at Skye at 21.00hrs. I was glad that I had 4G and didn't need their sodding wifi code! We had run out of things to talk about by the time we left Lancashire!

Just a load of sanctimonious twaddle!

I think it would be reasonable to ban loud phone conversations, but can't see the problem with people using phones/tablets generally.

And people might be using their tablet to read a Kindle book. I can't see why that should be disallowed when reading a paper book would be encouraged.

There was a news story a while back about a coffee shop (in Russia) that made it pretty clear that in reality, what most people - and certainly the people who do use wi-fi etc - are paying for is time and space, rather than coffee per se.

The did this by changing per half hour, with free tea/coffee/nibbles thrown in.

Which is why a 50p coffee at (say) Starbucks is charged at £3.00 (or whatever).

For myself, because I love history, I enjoy the circular nature of life in that 300 years ago, almost all City of London business was conducted in coffee houses, where people could go to read a shared newspaper (because they were expensive) and do deals.

Wasn't Lloyds of London started in a coffee-shop.

So in reality, we've just gone full circle . Instead of (or generally as well as) shared newspapers, we get free wi-fi so we can check news, and engage beyond the shop doors.

Plus ca change ?