There have been several recent articles on coffee shops and cafes rethinking their growing role as workspaces. The New York Times article The New Coffee Bars: Unplug, Drink, Go is one example.
Some coffee shop and cafe owners are taking out WiFi, or at least limiting it during peak hours, to cut down on people taking up space. These coffee shop owners feel a shop full of heads down workers takes away from human interactions and hurts their community.
There is also a view that people working at coffee shops take up way too much space - especially during peak traffic times - and discourage non-working customers from visiting.
We do an informal poll whenever we visit a coffee shop. We count the number of people who appear to be working. We consistently find 25-40% of the people sitting in coffee shops are working.
We don't think there will be a broad trend against working at coffee shops. Many, including Starbucks, are working to attract even more workers to their shops. But in most growth markets segmentation occurs, new niches are created, and customer choice broadened.
The new "workless" coffee shops are an example of this process and provide an alternative to the roaming offices many coffee shops have become.
I read the same NY Times article, and similar thoughts. You beat me to the punch by writing about it.
The concept of working solo in a very productive way, but away from the isolation of home office and side by side with others to bounce ideas off each other and to collaborate is: PRICELESS!
Coworking rocks!
Ky Ekinci
CoFounder | Office Divvy
http://www.OfficeDivvy.com
Posted by: Florida Coworking | 08/28/2010 at 02:53 PM