Laptops banned in cafe

[Pricklylikethecactus]

A cafe in Canterbury has banned laptops after people asked staff to be quiet when they were on zoom calls, asked for the music to be turned off and generally ruined the atmosphere. They also said that these customers blocked tables, that could be used by more profitable customers as many of these people would just by a £3 coffee and keep the table for several hours.

I’ve worked from cafes from time to time, but always try to make sure I spend a some money periodically-even if it is a cake to take home or an extra coffee to pay my way, but I do see others just paying for a single drink.

Is this cafe in Canterbury right, are these people taking the piss? And do you ever do this and find somewhere to work for several hours and only spend a tiny amount-and why is that ok? These places are trying to run a business after all.

This. You have to pay rent if you rent an office space and a cafe is doing essentially the same thing. I work from home and on occasion have lost internet, I do not have a mobile phone signal at home so I can't hotspot off my phone. When this happens lots of people tell me to go to a cafe but I can't bring myself to, I would be too embarrassed. I end up going to an area in my car to get a mobile signal and work from the car, not the best working environment but I just can't get my head round doing calls in a busy cafe.

Anyone with a laptop and wanting to treat the cafe as an office pays a fee of £20(?) per half-day or £35(?) for a full day. This includes two/four coffees. Any other orders above that is chargeable on top.

I suggested this to my local cafe and they are exploring the idea..

People using the cafe as an office space are getting a workspace and Wifi for a measly coffee! But the proprietor has to pay near-crippling Business Rates on top of all the other overheads.
No wonder many hospitality places have gone bust since Covid.

Well done to them for taking back control of their business - people are taking the piss using them as cheap work locations

i hope more follow suit

Cafe near us has taped over the plug sockets. You can only stay as long as you have charge on your laptop.

The café is B more than R.

We live in a big city. Some cafés here now have a coworking space, coworking rates, and coworking hours. Others ban laptops or ban them at lunchtime.

I wonder where people's common sense and manners have gone: how on earth can you make a videocall in full hearing of other people? Even in an office or at home, you would go into a private room! Also I wonder why their employers allow them to have client data etc. in full view of randoms in a coffee shop (or even work connected to public WiFi ?!)

This sort of entitled behaviour has been going on for eons. In the mid 90’s when the use of the internet was in its infancy, the tables at a near-by cafe would be choc-o-blocked with students sitting for hours on end, nursing a single cup of tea. There were quite a few who would bring their own teabag, and ask for hot water to be put in their flask, thereby essentially purchasing nothing from the cafe. This, too, when, there was one of the biggest libraries in the city less than a block away.

How funny! I live in Canterbury, and spend an awful lot of time in cafes, so I was interested to find out which one this was. I had to google this story - Fringe and Ginge - I’ve literally never heard of it 😂And I thought I knew every cafe in Canterbury.

I frequently go to cafes with a laptop, to work. Just writing, not conducting meetings. We’ve got loads of students in Canterbury who I always see with their laptops in cafes - they are quiet and never cause any bother.

Suffice to say I won’t be going to this cafe. Looks pretentious and shit anyway. Tiny and zero atmosphere, plus in a terrible location. We have so much choice for good cafes.

I remember going in a cafe in Shoreditch in 2021 that allowed you to rent tables to work from with free coffee/tea.
I went in around 9-ish on a weekday when it was quiet & about 50% of the tables had people working.
Didn't see any Zoom calls though & most people had big noise-cancelling headphones on.
Seemed a really sensible idea - you might not be able to afford it every day but if you were WFH in a shared flat then it would get you out & about.

I went to our local cafe with my niece, mid week, for 2 toasties and a couple of fancy coffee/hot chocolate and it came to around £25 and we were only there 45mins, there were people just leaving the table as we arrived and waiting for our table as we left.

Can't see that being a profitable working model unless the cafe is usually empty £20 is unsustainable for a cafe if someone is going to hog a table for hours when they could be turning it over and making money from. Charge any higher and noone will use it.

I know this cafe. It really is tiny and not at all appropriate for Zoom calls. The stupid thing is there's a huge cafe (Eleto), a 2 min walk up the road that's spread across two floors, and is often used by remote workers and students (it stays open til 11pm so particularly liked by the latter). I'm not sure why you'd decide to work and have zoom calls in Fringe when they basically have space for about 8 stools along benches inside, and four tiny tables outside.

There's also 2x wetherspoons in Canterbury where you'll fit right in with the bellowing drunks if you want to have a loud zoom conversation...

I like to work in cafes very occasionally, but it's out of order IMO to take up space in somewhere with hardly any covers as it is.

Bringing your own teabag is hilarious and terrible in equal measure. So bloody cheeky

God if they’ve been asked to keep quiet for zoom or had music on I can see why they would! And yes, as a writer I think it’s a good idea, I wrote in a cafe recently and the amount of other people in on laptops and sitting with a cup of coffee!(I felt guilty and bought, tea, a bun and a plate of chips!)

Okay, lots of very wrong people on this thread to pick from, but I’ll use this post as an example.

Most people work during working hours…. Mon-fri 9-5. Have you tried going to a cafe during this time? They’re usually half empty, if not fully empty. Because everyone is at work or school.

I’ve worked in cafes in the week before (broken wifi at home). There was maybe 5% occupancy of tables. I’ve stayed all day before and bought multiple drinks, cakes, and lunch.

I’d love to hear how paying customers with a laptop are losing cafes “thousands”.

Most people work during working hours…. Mon-fri 9-5. Have you tried going to a cafe during this time? They’re usually half empty, if not fully empty. Because everyone is at work or school.

Depends on the place. Canterbury is full of students, tourists, shoppers, people visiting for work or any other reason who want coffee or lunch. And there's a difference between a big pub or chain coffee shop, with accommodation over two floors, and a small independent, as this one is.

(I've given up on the Canterbury Waterstone's cafe because so many tables are taken up by students with laptops.)

Anyone who wants to hog a cafe table for more than an hour should pay table rent.

I’m so fascinated about these cafes which apparently have so many customers during mon-fri 9-5 that they don’t have multiple free tables, like….? How on earth is it “hogging” if the place is half-empty? Even at the weekend at lunchtime in Pret, costa, Nero etc in Canterbury, there are still multiple free tables always. Even more so in all the independents. It can’t be “hogging” unless it’s preventing someone else from getting a table.

@Badburyrings such martyr behaviour, next time just go to a cafe with available tables and support them by buying stuff.

It’s bonkers that it’s seen as more morally correct to hide in the back of your car with a laptop than go to a cafe. And it’s considered strange or selfish to go down your local cafe, have a chat with the staff and get some work done. Are we turning into a nation of reclusive weirdos?

I’m guessing there’s some overlap here with all the people who think children and dogs shouldn’t be allowed in public spaces either. You lot can all hide in your houses on the internet, feeling morally superior about made-up scenarios. Meanwhile, normal people are outside living their lives, connecting with others in public spaces. Only on mumsnet are people so tightly clenched about these things.

100% with them on this...I own a cafe, we have some big tables that customers often share, we actually have people who've made friends this way and continue to sit together on subsequent visits....anyway, one very busy day a woman refused anyone to share as she was waiting for a client, quite rudely. I pointed out that this was my business not her office, she said she'd bought a cappuccino so was entitled to sit for as long as she wanted. I told her no, that wasn't how it worked, she said I'll just go if my business isn't wanted so I said OK, great!

We do not encourage working from our premises in anyway, no free WiFi, no available sockets, we're very busy and it's often loud. A small business is not a suitable place to work from, one person alone will generally never spend as much as a table of 4, and we need people spending to stay in business.

IMO if you choose to work from a coffeeshop you go to Starbucks, Costa etc where they can absorb the loss, not a small business

I know. The worst perpetrator used to also take up two tables with her books spread all over them. I used to work there after school, and really ought to have said something, but was too young and unconfident to do so at the time, and didn’t want to deal with confrontation.

I live in Canterbury, so that is the example which I’m using.

Agreed about Waterstones cafe actually, that is the one exception I would say. It’s always rammed. But there are so many cafes in Canterbury, most of them have at least 50% free tables on weekdays.

This is the coffee shop. If someone is staying several hours and spending £3, then yes, the shop is losing potential money. They don't have much seating at all. A family of four is not going to come in and have coffee and cake with someone bellowing corporate jargon right next to them. But more importantly, how pig headed do you have to be to think this is an appropriate space to have a Zoomcall? And to have the nerve to tell staff to keep the noise down!

There are hundreds of cafes and coffee shops in Canterbury. Some are quiet and cosy and great for a chat with a friend, others are great to get some work done. I just don't get the arrogance to waltz in, spend a couple of quid and basically commandeer the entire tiny space.

Like any business, it's up to the cafe owners to make their own rules.

If customers don't like it, they can go elsewhere. Whether that's a customer who wants to work in the quiet who'd need to find an amenable/quiet cafe, or a customer who wants to go into a "normal" cafe with people eating/drinking rather than working.

Luckily, people have a choice in a free market and will continue to choose businesses that suit their needs.

The cafe owner is perfectly within their rights to discourage workers if they think they'll get more custom from others.

How do you know what the atmosphere might be like if you've literally never heard of it?

@Lovelynames123 That’s your individual business, not all small businesses though.

My local independent cafe (a small business), on the other hand, has their free wifi plastered everywhere, tons of sockets, and has a conference room type-space upstairs which is usually empty, but they try to get people to work from (I sometimes see language teachers use it).

My other nearest local cafe (a small local
chain) is actually attached to a school and gym, so set up for lots of teachers and PTs to work from there.

It obviously varies massively from cafe to cafe, so you can’t tarr it all with the same brush and say “oh people who work from independent cafes are selfish”. For what it’s worth, I absolutely hate shared tables, so I wouldn’t go in your cafe. But it’s different strokes for
different folks.

If they haven't much seating, and it's in a busy touristy area, I can see why they feel they are losing out on significant profit.
I think they could offer a time limit on tables, that way laptops could be used but only for an hour or whatever. I guess there must be tons of chain cafes or pubs where people can work from all day. But if they want silence they need to work from somewhere quiet, ie not a public food establishment! If my work involved calls I'd be embarrassed to do them in earshot of so many people anyway.

My cafe is very busy during the day, workmen coming for breakfast, pensioners, young mums...we're only open 9-5 so obviously not everyone is out at work, what a strange thing to say! Some cafes will of course be quiet, but many will not be, I couldn't afford to stay in business if we weren't busy!