Cafe Owner

[Garmin1746]

I dropped my partner at a cafe today to meet an old school friend & her baby. 30mins away from where we’re staying at 2:30, Cafe closed at 4. (Pointless going home as I’d be coming right back)

The next nearest Cafe (other than what we were at) was around 15mins away too.

I took a call from the car till 2:50 & Decided to head inside the cafe, only 1 table was occupied out of about 10. Most people were sat outside as it was sunny. (Including my partner, friend & both babies)

Bought a large coffee, waitress said she’d bring it over.
I sat down plugging my laptop in. Few mins later, Waitress brought over my coffee, all was good.

Then manager comes over 30seconds after & says ‘Sorry we don’t give away free electric’ & told me to unplug.

Between the 3 adults, we’d spent £15 on 3 coffees. Electric cost of a laptop til close (1 hour 10 mins) is less than 4p.

What’s more annoying is they’d seen me on the laptop before the coffee came.
Had 6% battery by this point, had to neck the coffee & drive 20mins to McDonald’s.

Id maybe have understood if I’d arrived at 9am & wanted to work there the whole day. Or if I was hogging tables which needed to be used.

Truth is I hadn’t had lunch so probably would have had a panini too, anyway I enjoyed my Big Mac

It’s no wonder some independents fail when they look so shortterm & why chains take over every high street.
The cafe had SUP boarding, wild swimming & saunas which is right up our street. So much lost opportunity costs over 4p of electric

Perhaps they don’t want the vibe of people working there, and it’s easier to just set a blanket rule.

I wouldn’t just assume I could plug my laptop in unless it’s a space that’s clearly set up for it. There are enough coffee shops that do allow people to work from there - go to one of those if you’re not organised enough to have a power bank with you,

They might not like the vibe working people give off.

They weren't to know your partner was outside. Instead you are one person buying one coffee to occupy a table for an hour, which isn't great for business.

If that is their rule, they can't only enforce it some of the time.

Commercial rates for electricity are different to domestic.

I'd expect a cafe with a policy of no plugging in to have a sign of sorts saying so because it is so much the norm now for people to work from cafes.

I'd also expect a manager in a hospitality setting to be a bit more, well, hospitable and tactful.

Unless it was well signposted I think they were rude

I’d have likely left after my coffee too, whereas like yourself would have no doubt bought lunch and another drink.

Instead, you found a McDonalds, but could have been a Costa/starbucks who independents worry about taking the market, yet not one would stop you plugging in.

From my experience, luckily never been told to unplug. I have been to one cafe that says no laptops, which I thought was strange, but they were very busy and clearly wanted quick turn around.

I wouldnt plug in a a random cafe without permission. You should have asked.

I'm the opposite. I think it's rude to just plug in without asking.

It's rude to assume you can just help yourself.

I don't know why this post needed such a detailed backstory?

You plugged your laptop in without asking and that was the problem.

The 'free electric' response was rude though, they could've been more polite.

Electronic devices like laptop and phone chargers that haven't been PAT tested can pose a real problem for some places.

They should've gone with that.

'I'm annoyed that a business owner wouldn't provide me with electric.'

Ok. The owner can do what they want.
I don't care about independent businesses choosing to fail. Having worked for an independent cafe type place for a decade I wouldn't set foot in one.

I plug in my laptop / phone frequently. I’ve never been told I couldn’t. I do tend to stick to chains as they don’t tend to care if you go in and charge up / work for an hour. That said there are a couple of independents that I go to and it’s really common to see people working.

I think they should have a sign up tbh. There is one place I’ve been to that doesn’t allow charging and they’ve glued those socket covers you get for babies into the sockets. Plugs they need to keep are labelled for staff use only.