How Starbucks And WiFi Are Like Movie Theaters And Air Conditioning
from the wifi-frappuccino-please dept
Ever since Starbucks launched its paid WiFi several years ago, plenty of people have questioned the business model for cafes and restaurants charging for internet access. Plenty of other places, both independent retailers and chains, have found free WiFi to be a boon to their businesses, drawing in more customers and getting them to stay longer and buy more stuff. Supposedly some Starbucks managers have even begged the company to let them offer WiFi for free, because they think they're losing customers to other outlets, while an examination of the financial details of the program a couple of years ago didn't make it look like much of a money-spinner for the company or its WiFi provider, T-Mobile. With that in mind, the NYT had an interesting story over the weekend comparing Starbucks to the movie theaters of yesteryear, which saw air-conditioning not as something to drive up prices, but an amenity to offer as a competitive advantage. The story quotes the president of Panera, a chain of sandwich shops and bakeries, who says that the company isn't concerned with making WiFi a profit center, and that it helps fill its locations up during off-peak hours -- a claim it has been making for a while. He then points out, though, that Starbucks are generally pretty busy, so he wonders why they'd make their WiFi free (though perhaps he's using a little bit of the Jedi Mind Trick to ward off competition). Free WiFi would seem to fit with Starbucks' "third space" concept, which is supposed to make its stores a comfortable place between work and home, where people can (and want to) hang out for a while. Free WiFi certainly seems to be helping out plenty of other businesses, but it's hard to argue with Starbucks' success over the years. Still, you'd think that offering free WiFi would help fill the company's stores with more people, particularly during off-peak hours.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Agreed
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YUP!
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Couldn't have said it any better
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Free wi-fi = bad idea
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Traffic
The first is that they're afraid people are going to be surfing for porn and that there could be an issue with offending other customers. While that could be a problem, you never see people going in, sitting down, and spreading Playboy's out on the table either.
The second is related to traffic. While WiFi can be be used to draw people in, many owners are concerned that it's going to be the wrong type, and that they'll "camp out", taking up space for little to no return.
As your article states, Starbucks is already pretty busy, and offering free WiFi could simply attract more people who'd nurse a single cup of coffee at a table while surfing the web all day, leaving no room at all for other paying customers.
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Starbucks - Don't Give It Away
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hate to admit...
I like the "off peak hours" argument but wouldnt these guys wind up hanging out during peak just as samel? thus making peak overly crowded, a worse situation that having slow off-peaks.
but the main reason i think they have it right - the dang places are always full anyway. I see small coffe shops open and close (despite my frequenting them) all the time, but SB's just keep adding new ones.. ive never seen one close. Read it here first - the next "big tobacco" will be SB- theres no normal explanation for that many people spending that much for that mid-range coffee, that frequently AND for that long (both up and down economies)... there MUST be some nicotine or some other addictive substance in those drinks! ;) ;)
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Re: Free = Better
If I get lost while driving, most anyplace with free Wi-Fi is likely to get my business while I access Google Maps.
When I travel, I will not stay in a hotel that doesn't have complimentary Wi-Fi. I am a sucker for free Internet.
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Precisely right...
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Re: hate to admit...
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Re: Starbucks - Don't Give It Away
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I can pay a little for a consistent experience
Have you ever tried these free wifi services? Sometimes they work, but sometimes they don't. There was one place I was trying to logon, and get to my email, and was failing miserably. I called the (non-1-800 helpline) on the table and the support guys said that I had to download a new driver from Dell's website. Only one problem though- I couldn't get to my email to get the URL for the WiFi driver I had to download.
I guess when you go with Starbucks/Hotspot/T-Mobile/Kinkos, or whatever the devil they are calling it these days, it's more of a standards-based approach, and I know it will work with my gear. And for me, who travels extensively, I'm willing to pay a little money for consistency.
I guess if I wasn't travelling so much, I may be willing to be teathered to one or two places.. But thats not the case for me.
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GOD I HATE POOR PEOPLE!
Sarcasm, folks, sarcasm.
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experiance says make it free
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Re: Re: hate to admit...
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Re: Starbucks - Don't Give It Away
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Plenty of places have free wifi
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Free coffee
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although at many Starbucks....
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Furthermore, in my eyes, the riffraff are the loud asshats on cell phones. A homeless artist guy I'm friends with does his work out of a Starbucks in Santa Monica. The staff love him and treat him very well, and understand that he just needs a little help to start earning a living from his work. When, one week, he made $500 on his art from a guy in France, one of the baristas let him use his PayPal account to get the cash, which he gave him immediately. A girl barista there let him store his birth certificate and driver's license in the trunk of her VW Bug for safekeeping. I find that Starbucks employees tend to be a cut above, like that. Or maybe I should say three cuts above, in the case of these people. Free Wifi at Panera? Yeah, whatever.
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Re: I can pay a little for a consistent experience
It is a free market society, and in the spirit of what Dosquatch said, the independents are going after a different customer than Starbucks. My needs are different than those who lounge around and are just looking to kill time. WiFi is a productivity tool for me, and consistency is key.
As a business professional, I am willing to pay $5 to get a powerpoint on-the-go which may save my company 10k. That's why I have an expense report.
Don't surf for porn and to everyone else, Man.. I wouldn't consider doing that anyway using any WiFi connection...
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THe solution to leaches would be to gradually throttle the connection, so if you stay for only 30 mins the connection is perfect, then speed decays at an increasing rate until you are cut off.
I agree about people on 'phones. Seriously, if someone came up to your table, took you outside and talked to you for however long, you would consider it rude, yet answering a 'phone is not. The other thing I hate is when people don't set thier 'phones up properly and shout into them. I think they should come by default set to thier loudest speech volume and quietest ringer volume.
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dont make it free
Free WiFi in an allready successful place would just increase the number of people that are driving away potential clients due to the lack of free space .
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Fon
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I'd rather pay
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Upstairs/Downstairs
Presumably, as applied to a coffee shop, you would have the main floor selling food, and an upstairs for those who want to camp out. If necessary, you could put down a layer of wire screen under the carpet of the upstairs, making a partial Faraday Cage. That way, the upstairs could have its own WiFi access, under different rules than the main floor.
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One thing they could do is offer free WiFi during off peak times when they are usually empty (if there is such a time). That way, they don't have people parking out during their busy times yet will draw in some when they are not busy. Seems pretty simple to me. Why do something to draw in even more people when they are full?
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Maybe not free...
I honestly prefer Panera anyway - the internet isn't always great (sometimes a little slow), but it's never been a hindrance; pages do load, I can get my email, even connect remotely to my computers. Plus, I can actually sit down and have a sandwich or a bowl of soup instead of just a coffee and a danish.
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What is the problem about??
It's absolutely about money. Starbucks. do not want to give nothing free to no one, thats it.
You can seat at cafe at Paris, drink one coffe and stay there for all day long, reading your newspaper and nobody will ask for you leave the place. C'mon, who do it? A very very small number of people. And, most of the places give you the newspaper, for free, to be read in cafe.
Internet acess must to be free also. As napkins, strollers, sugar, etc. One or two customers will camping on... What's the problem? They will became niot profitable ones?? That is the matter???
This kind of approach where all is profit related shames.
BTW, I do preffer Panera all way instead Starbucks.
Vive la Liberte
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Re: Traffic
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Gone Wifing
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pay for wi-fi is B.S.
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Re: Re: Starbucks - Don't Give It Away
You point please? And I hope your aren't being serious here. In the case you are serious, i have nothing to say. In the case you are kidding, I have nothing to say.
?
The Citizen
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Re: Re: I can pay a little for a consistent experi
Can Starbucks afford to be selective ?
One is not going to find THUGS at the coffee shop for the free wifi.
If you don't want College Kids.. then don't put one in a college town.
Paying for wifi .. is bad business .. period.
Starbucks will come around.
You "prefer to pay" people.. well I'm sure there will always be the option to pay. Call Verizon ... LOL
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Deaths
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newest jordan shoes
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