Starbucks pulling plug on laptop users?
Starbucks is well-known for coffee, but laptop users love their juice — electrical juice.
After 4 days and only 3 Cafe Americanos, the Starbucks manager had a bad feeling about this guy.
Now, a rumor is floating amongst the Interwebs that New York City Starbucks locations are replacing electrical sockets with blank faceplates, effectively pulling the plug on laptop (ab)users plagued with poor battery performance.
The Seattle-based caffeine pusher did not immediately return a request for comment.
I can see the need to DC AC hogs, but I know a lot of folks, including some of my favorite reporters I never see anymore, use Starbucks as a transient office.
Starbucks Gossip provides the following jolt:
If you are one of those people who uses Starbucks as their office, sits in a store for 8+ hours a day, putting all your files on a table, using a separate chair for your laptop case/ suitcase enjoying unlimited free refills with your Starbucks card, asking for cups of water and refuse to to move until you are good and ready all for the $1.85 you pay as “rent,” then perhaps your actions will answer your questions [about covering the outlets].
An AJC reporter who shall remain nameless tells me she recently lost her connection after 30 minutes at another local coffee shop, so it looks likes Starbucks is not alone in trying to prevent prolonged PC parking.
Starbucks seems to go out of their way to be friendly, so this is a perilous PR path, if true. After all, we can get coffee and electricity at work, if it comes to that.
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211 comments Add your comment
BW
August 5th, 2011
1:18 pm
Good. I hate those hipsters that are a drain on society. Send all those beatnick freeloaders elsewhere. Just as long as they don’t migrate over to the Dunkin’ Donuts. Then I would have to run over their feet in the parking lot.
James
August 5th, 2011
1:25 pm
are you kidding? You don’t know this is true but you publish anyway. The ajc is a tabloid……
YFI
August 5th, 2011
1:26 pm
Power to the People, you are pathetic with your “I was there first”. You sound like what you probably are a whining geek. The hurried business people with their disapproving stares are there to actually BUY something, rather than to free ride on a business’s utilities and take up space. If you need to get work done, do it at home, at school or at an office. Starbuck’s like Panera, is an eating establishment – not a branch office for you.
Pat
August 5th, 2011
1:29 pm
pull the plug on the moochers.
tom
August 5th, 2011
1:41 pm
I must admit, I used to visit Starbucks for this purpose. But it was maybe for an hour at a time. We’ve all seen these people in starbucks before, it gets annoying b/c you know they aren’t buying anything.
Peachy Pie
August 5th, 2011
1:41 pm
I am an almost daily visitor to Starbucks, I purchase, tip and verbalize my appreciation to the employees.
Can someone tell the guy who sits plugged in for hours, buys nothing, demands unlimited cups of water, and expects his outdoor table to be free of pollen and other debris to take his parasitic behaviors elsewhere. In addition, for the fellow with the iMac, printer and 23″ monitor, get a dolly and wheel your mobile office to a more appropriate location. And tell the artist that he can pack up the canvas, brushes, paints and water cups and ride on to the SW Arts Ctr on New Hope Rd. And to the freeloaders who came in with a Pizza Hut pizza, why did you come in, purchased nothing but left with 4 free cups of water? OMG! Moreover, to the obnoxious, free loading chess players, across the street you will find the nice gazebo courtesy of Fulton Co. And ma’am, the McDonald’s supersized lunch bag, may I take one of the two tables you are occupying?
Bucks can go back to the old days of two hrs free wifi per day for paying card holding customers
Real Estate Dudw
August 5th, 2011
1:42 pm
I use Starbuck’s to meet clients at since where I show property is no were near our office and I may get the laptop out some, BUT….I normally spend $20 for my clients and myself on coffee and we are normally gone in 20 or 30 mins…..
I think that is what they indented the wifi service to be used for.
Jon
August 5th, 2011
1:42 pm
There is a solution: Coworking. Think of it as like working in Starbucks, without the overpriced burnt coffee and the freeloading. Co-working spaces are tailor-made for people like me who by choice or necessity work remotely but dislike the isolation of working at home.
There are several fantastic co-working spaces in Atlanta, like Strongbox West and Ignition Alley – check one out!
Hmmmmmm
August 5th, 2011
1:42 pm
Anybody Stupid enough to pay 4 dollars for a cup of coffee needs to be able to use their AC….. Jim, don’t let the little things bother you…… Good Grief, get a LIFE!
Karin
August 5th, 2011
1:42 pm
Wow- i have used Starbucks and Panera Bread for internet connection (no more 10 mins)
Did not know ppl were using coffee shops as offices.