7 ms·
It's not just about buying things. These places aren't selling workspaces, they're selling drinks, often to people in their immediate community and often with a
by starkparker 3y ago
It's not just about buying things. These places aren't selling workspaces, they're selling drinks, often to people in their immediate community and often with a goal of being part of the community.
So if the community can't get a table, they stop coming at all, and that's a bigger existential threat to the owners than just the money.
> The problem became so severe that the bar began to lose its regulars. Esten and his wife would bump into former customers around the neighbourhood and they told him that they could never get a seat at the bar because there were laptops everywhere, so they started going to other coffee shops instead.
> “That was breaking our hearts,” he said.
These people don't want to babysit tech workers. Even if it's financially sustainable to do, that's not what they opened a small coffee shop or bar to do.
- theoldlove 3y agoDon’t most coffee shops sell to the “immediate community?” I don’t think many people travel long distances for coffee. Maybe I’m just a miserable misanthrope, but despite all the rhetoric I’ve never had a “community” experience at a coffee shop. In my experience it’s just cash for drinks and a place to sit. I’ve had much better experiences getting to know people in explicitly non-commercial settings (dog parks, playgrounds, classes, etc.)
- dharmab 3y agoThe idea of a coffee shop being a place where people mingled comes from centuries past. Wikipedia has a decent article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_the_17th_and_18th_centuries https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_the_17...
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]