Er, sort of. As of yesterday, my lease at the Brunswick Business Center was up and although they very graciously offered to extend me a few days, I needed to get the servers and other equipment out and ready for transfer back to Denver so I’m now entirely virtual and will be for the next week.
The coffee shop phenomenon is a fascinating one for me to watch, because in many geographies - Bath included - they become virtual hubs of the communities they occupy. They’re also excellent illustrations of how offering value added services at minimal cost - wifi, in this case - can bring in entirely new streams of revenue. I don’t drink coffee, and yet I’m willing to spend money on Fiji water (I’m addicted) and the like in return for a place to get an hour’s worth of work done.
This business strategy is not without downsides, of course, as there are those that partake of the wireless and take up valuable space in the establishment while buying nothing in return. I see that as more of an evolving etiquette problem, however, than critical issue, but maybe I’m just being optimistic.
Anyhow, I’ve got a couple of things to write up, so will see if I can get those down this afternoon. Use the cell/IM/etc if you need me.
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its driving me nuts we’re not seeing this drop dead obvious idea percelating into a latter stage. coffee shops are great, but its basically a store used like a living room. someone needs to change the scenery, change the setup and make em into living rooms. i really think it’d be a viable buisness model, even in non urban centers (outskirts of cities, inside neighborhoods), but more than that it would be community.
when i went to school at UMD, there was a great coffee house called college perk ( http://www.collegeperk.org ). it was an old house covered in sofas open ungodly late (all night on weekends of course): the forum could hardly have been more perfect for creating community. to this day, its the only locale i know of in the world that mixes living room with public space, and thats a bloody shame.
someone needs to lace brunswick with wifi and wire the sunken garden with power. where’s the Bath coffee shops? /long time ago Boothbay kid.
I actually spoke with a coffee-shop owner once about feeling guilty the times when I didn’t buy anything. He said he still would rather I was there than not, because having customers inside draws in more customers. Of course the natural limit is when you’re taking up a seat that a paying customer would otherwise use.
I tend to soak up a lot of time at coffee places, too. When I’m on my work connection, I just go somewhere that has a T-Mobile hotspot, and then don’t feel guilty. I’m paying for it, so why not camp out?
For places that offer free access (which is where I tend to work on my masters thesis), I tend to buy something else if I end up staying longer than a couple of hours. Even if it’s just a $1, it’s something.
rektide: ditto, although things are getting better. more and more coffee shops are taking this approach - cafe creme in bath being exhibit a. sooner or later people will figure it out.
bath coffee shop is right on the corner of front/centre streets - right on the first corner of the downtown area. great location, and across from city hall.
Donnie: that is absolutely the problem - wasn’t there a coffee shop somewhere that accused a guy of theft b/c he religiously came in and didn’t buy anything? i think it just comes down to common courtesy. there are many occasions where i’ve looked around a coffee shop filling up quickly and decided to head elsewhere b/c i’m not buying enough, but clearly there’s an etiquette that needs to be established here.
Michael: pretty much my approach exactly. i’ll almost always get a water, or bagel, or something. the only place, however, that i’ll go and not feel guilty about buying something is Starbucks b/c it’s a chain. if it was a neighborhood coffee shop, even if they charged i’d feel obligated to buy something.
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