The laptop ban: more coffee shops going screen-free
You may love your laptop or tablet, but your local coffee shop doesnt: More and more coffee shops are creating screen-free zones or hours to…
When was the last time you saw friendly conversation going on at your local coffee house? If laptops are taking over, there might be a solution. (Shutterstock)
You may love your laptop or tablet, but your local coffee shop doesnt: More and more coffee shops are creating screen-free zones or hours to dissuade customers from using their laptops in the store.
Coffee shops and cafés from Vermont, to New York, to San Francisco are deliberately foregoing Wifi, covering electrical outlets and posting signs to ban laptop use. Owners cite reasons including loss of revenue from customers who sit and work for hours, without buying more than a coffee, and the somber, non-conversational atmosphere thats created when everyones plugged in and tuned out.
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While its unlikely that your local Starbucks is going to impose a laptop ban, the movement is on the rise among independent cafés. Whether you love or hate the idea, its an interesting counterpoint to technologys pervasiveness in many aspects of our lives.
Conversations, Not Chatrooms
Jodi Whalen, owner of August First Bakery & Café, says that going screen-free rekindled a sense of community in her establishment.
To walk into a place and see people looking at their screens with a blank stare, it takes away just kind of the community aspect of itof you being in a place with other people, she said in an interview with NPR. In addition, sales at her Burlington, Vermont café are doing better than ever.
Lulu de Carrone, who runs a coffee shop in New Haven, had a similar experience. According to the New Haven Register, the shop owner decided that she needed a laptop ban in order to help customers connect again: Lulus, to me, is about interaction. Its about conversing, connecting and community.
Taking a stance more extreme than many business owners, de Carrone said that people who bring a laptop into a coffee shop are borderline arrogant: Who do they think they are? she asked. They think they can take up a table and not buy anything except when they have to. And they want everybody else to keep quiet so they can work! I didnt sign up for this.
File photo-You might not be seeing a laptop ban anytime soon at your local Starbucks, but independent coffee houses might be going screen-free. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Shops in San Francisco and New York are dropping Wifi service and covering up electrical outlets, too. Some, like San Franciscos Coffee Bar, designate screen-free hours just during the lunch rush; Coupa Café, in the heart of Silicon Valley, bans Wifi on the weekend to discourage laptop users from staying for hours.
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Again, its partly about community and partly about sales. Owners of The Grove, in the Bay Area, explained to the Huffington Post that the increasing number of laptops in their cafes began to dull the ambience, drive away new guests, cause tensionswell, the opposite of the signature experience we endeavor to provide.
Good for Business
Though it might seem that a laptop ban would drive away business, many coffee shop owners actually see an upturn in sales after prohibiting screens. Of course, some customers find a new favorite shopone that welcomes laptopsbut theyre often replaced by brunch- or lunch-goers who fill the vacated tables.
Whalen, for instance, says her shops sales increased noticeably, and Coffee Bar owner Luigi Di Ruocco estimated that his sales increased by 15 to 20 percent after making the shop screen-free. Similarly, de Carrone said that Lulus is busier than ever.
The reasoning is that without offering Wifi or electrical outlets, or by banning screens entirely, coffee shops encourage much higher turnover. Owners dont have to deal with customers who spend three, four or five hours hunched over a computer while only buying a 12-ounce latté, thereby keeping other people from using a table.
Rather than watching potential customers walk in and leave before buying anythingbecause all tables are taken up by laptop usersowners are seeing more friends and couples spend fifteen or thirty minutes talking at a table.
Not For Everyone
Of course, the screen-free movement isnt universally loved, and its extremely unlikely that were going to see a sweeping change to coffee shops across the country: technology is simply too integral to our lives for that. And thats not a bad thing, given the ability to connect and communicate that weve gained.
But maybejust maybelaptop bans will remind us that looking up, logging off, and having a face-to-face conversation isnt such a bad idea once in a while.
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