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.

A new cafe near us opened and it took us about 3 attempts to try it out because about half the tables were single people on their laptops…

When we finally did get a table on attempt 4 they’d put signs up saying 45 mins max for laptop users

So you have an office as a working space. What's the problem?

I think it is cheeky when one person spreads out their laptop and other work paraphenalia across a four-seater table.

But the sheer entitlement of telling cafe staff to be quiet for Zoom calls is off the scale.

I feel that if you work from a cafe then you should buy with the same frequency as separate consecutive customers would.

I sympathise with your circumstances, but that still doesn’t make it okay to use a cafe as an office space—that’s not its purpose. Plus, you must be spending at least some money on food and drinks at the cafe that’s costing you more than £4. I’m also assuming these “low-paid” workers who are writing their home visit client notes at cafes are social workers, community nurses or in similar professions (I used to be in one of them). They really ought not to be writing up sensitive client notes in cafes or using NHS or Local Authority portals to be uploading them in public places.

Never said people who WFH are unhappy - just that they would like a change of scenery every once in a while in the absence of having an actual office to go to.

Do you know how much office space actually costs to rent? Clearly not, or you wouldn't make such a clueless remark?

Great that you can 'nip out' for coffee/lunch and back again. It would be a 50 minute walk (round-trip) for me to do the same so, unless I take my laptop to pitch up and drink said coffee it's hardly worth me bothering to go out.

Not really sure why I'm having to explain any of this, though, to be honest. How I organise my day is frankly none if your business!

I would happily keep laptops and ban all the dogs that are in EVERY cafe now.

Hyperbole. Dogs are not in every cafe at all. Lots of cafes don't allow them at all...Costa for starters.

As is totally their right. But ban me with my laptop, then they won't see me when I'm without it. We can all vote with our feet.

Like I said upthread, if they devise a way for people to buy subsequent drinks, this wouldn't even be a conversation. What difference does it make if someone is sat, with a drink, typing something on their phone - or sat with a drink typing something on their laptop?

Just go to weatherspoons. There are nice ones. And the staff do not care how long you sit there. You even get free refills on hot drinks.

The thing the pisses me off is less the dogs themselves but the dog is barking and the idiot owner refuses to step outside.

If my child is screaming in an enclosed environment, the get pulled aside and hushed or taken out altogether. Yet their dog gets special treatment and is allowed to bark in everyone's ears and frighten people.

This kind of shit makes people hate dogs, but really it's entitled owners.

if they devise a way for people to buy subsequent drinks

what, like walking up to the counter and buying another drink?

I think it very much depends on the time, place and how many tables the cafe has.

If it is a quiet large cafe then people being on laptops (although not meetings) seems fine.

But if the cafe is busy, it seems incredibly entitled to think that £3.50 buys you more than an hour of time plus electricity plus wifi.

Of course, cafes can do what they want, it is a business after all, but I don’t see how allowing it is sensible economically and how they can’t expect it to annoy other customers.

Was in Pret on Thursday and someone was being interviewed (and someone else waiting to be)... not for a job in Pret, but for an agency position. The agency had no office space, they used a public cafe to interview people, was gobsmacked.

A couple of places near me switch the WiFi off at 11:30am and switch it back on at 2:30pm. The laptoppers get cross though (there are signs up saying this will happen).

Yes there are three library/hubs within a couple of miles of me.

And they are also quite quiet during office hours usually.

You don’t think that it’s wrong to, on a regular basis, hours on end, be using their free wi-fi, electricity, heating (not to mention bathroom facilities if you’re availing yourself of their free, hot drink refills), without contributing to them or supporting them financially in a proportionate way?

What difference does it make if someone is sat, with a drink, typing something on their phone - or sat with a drink typing something on their laptop?

A phone doesn't take up any space on the table. Someone else can sit there, if the cafe is busy and there are no other tables free. A laptop can take up most of the space on a small table.

And you know that someone with a phone is in all probability not going to be there for several hours.

It's a spoons

I go to Wetherspoons specifically to sit in and work, they are fantastic as they have table service, it's cheap and you get endless refills on your tea/coffee. I do always eat there in one session, though, so I'll have a drink and meal, and then perhaps a refillable drink after that. So, for one person, that seems reasonable. This is in a huge place, though, where there's students, mums, couples, the local bikers meet there on Sundays, it's rarely out of tables. The staff are extremely pleasant as well. I often sit there, work, and a friend or family member joins me, and they eat too. I don't think there's ever been a suggestion I might like to 'move on', they have some almost resident day drinkers who nurse one beer, so I suspect their model of profit is different to others; volume, lots of offers, anyone can go. No music anyway, it can get loud.

Spoons make that calculation when they decide to give that offer. It works for them, hence the offer

I also occasionally go to a local cafe, usually not with my laptop, but other people work there, but it's pretty good at accepting all-comers- it's full of babies (mums and toddlers group meets there), dogs, people with mobility scooters/wheelchairs, families, so one quiet person with a laptop on a table for two isn't going to bother anyone! It's a cafe, though, so people have a cuppa and a cake anyway, it's not like you are preventing someone eating a three course meal by sitting there for an hour.

Good move by the cafe. It's not profitable to have a table hogged for hours at a time by a single person who isn't spending much money.

They could consider a more flexible rule such as, this is a laptop friendly space when not busy but if your table is needed or you are making too much noise you may be asked to leave.

But to be honest if I went to a cafe in the middle of the morning to chill out with a coffee I'd be irritated if someone was making a work call.

Nope. I do not give a fuck about Tim Martin's profits.
And the staff are always nice and do not care how long you sit there getting free refills.
I do not go there to work, but I do cheap meet ups with friends where we will sit there all morning.
Some food banks over the winter even advised people to spend cold evenings in weatherspoons. Cost £1.25 for a refillable cup of hot drink.