[groundhog]

This looks really useful! This isn't meant to be a criticism, but I was wondering how your website will overcome the issue of people not wanting to publicize their favorite work spot to prevent overcrowding? Also, from your experiences so far, are cafes happy to have people sit in their shop for extended periods? My impressions are that while some places (cough, nice people in Portland) encourage such behavior, others may not take to campers so nicely.

[jakejake]

I would think that places who have wait staff would not appreciate people taking up tables without ordering since it would directly affect their pay. But a coffee shop that does mostly take-out business may not mind so much having the appearance of a busy, popular cafe.

I do think it's good to be mindful that you are utilizing a business's space and facilities, and they are able to provide these to you by selling food and drinks. So you should try to be a courteous customer and support their business.

[darrenbuckner]

We've gotten a lot of feedback from business owners that the average patron staying to get some work done is a good steward of their space and spends money often. We hear stories of people staying for hours and hours, not buying anything - but we've found this is just not the norm. With that said, we do encourage our community to support businesses with their evangelism AND money.

[jakejake]

That's nice to hear, I've always wondered about that. I grew up in a small town where every business for young people to hang out would fail. It was partially because we didn't have much money to spend, but I realized later in life that we didn't feel any responsibility for supporting the businesses in return. It's not that we were selfish necessarily, we just didn't understand how things work. Then when a business would shut down we would all complain about how we had nowhere to go, but failed to consider the fact that we had utilized the place to the fullest extent without making many financial purchases. As I recall this happened with an arcade, a couple of coffee shops, a skating rink and various other businesses.

Now that I'm older I do see a lot more clearly that when you find a business that you like, you should make a point to support them and help them to stick around.

[mgkimsal]

Local coffee shop owner here in town echoed that to me last year. The teens hanging out rarely buy anything. Adults 'hanging out' are often working (or studying) and are far more spendy(?). He counted me in that 'spendy' lot, but I'd rarely spend more than a couple bucks every hour ($4 coffee, then a few hours later a coke, banana or $2 tea). So... the 'non-spenders' really are not spending (I feel like a cheapskate half the time I was there).

[prawn]

If you're not there during peak times, then your presence potentially serves as some social proof that the place is worth visiting too. Probably better to have one customer on their laptop than a completely empty café.

[darrenbuckner]

We've heard this point quite a bit.

[cnp]

Totally. I work from coffeeshops all the time and find it a form of good patronage to buy something every few hours and leave a tip. Most people I know do the same.

[seanmcdirmid]

I tend to pick low periods in which to work out of my favorite cafe (mornings in China, because no one drinks coffee before noon here; also pervasive take out is an American thing), and I'm a reliable 52 RMB a day, so I'm pretty welcome.

[notatoad]

i think this is one of those self-solving problems: if a place is busy enough that they don't want people working there, it's probably too busy to be a good place to work. If it's a good quiet place to work, they're probably grateful for your business.

But of course, don't be a dick. If you're taking over a table for a couple hours you should buy some stuff.

[qzxvwt]

I've tried to work out of a coffee shops in my hood from time to time and find that, at least on weekends, you have to wake up really early to score a spot in any of the several within reasonable distance. If I ever find my "secret spot" it wouldn't make sense to tell everyone about it, but then again maybe this kind of system could help dissipate that kind of congestion?

[darrenbuckner]

Thanks! We've found that people are very willing to share their favorite places in an effort to promote the business. Business owners have welcomed our showcase of their businesses. Most coffee shops and cafes have long periods of slow traffic. Having people come to stay for awhile helps to keep a place busy. We've been told over and over that a "busy shop" is a "good shop".