Open letter to café owners
We’ve recently moved into a new neighbourhood, and I’ve been checking out the local spots. I love the record store here (apparently there’s a better website on the way) – and our local pub is a fantastic venue for all sorts of great live gigs – the sort of international calibre stuff you wouldn’t expect at a local pub.
One great thing about Kings Heath is that there are also some cool cafés around, and I thought I’d check one or two of them out. The one above looked really promising – nice coffee, and the menu’s pretty good… but unfortunately – no wireless internet.
I spoke to the woman behind the counter, and she said that the boss wasn’t keen to install it, as it would only encourage people to just hang out with a single cup of coffee for ages – instead of eating and then leaving.
I do get the thinking behind that, but I just don’t think it makes good business sense anymore. I told her that their competitor just a couple of blocks away does have wifi, and on that basis alone, that’s where I would always choose to go.
She suggested I tell that to the boss.
So… I was going to write them a note to make the case for installing free, open wireless internet – but then it occurred to me that this is a broader issue. There are lots of good cafés not providing wifi, and potentially losing out because of it. So I wrote a more generic, general purpose letter that anyone can use.
Feel free to copy and paste the letter below, amend as required – and give it to the people at your local café. Not having wifi in a café should be as unusual as not having sugar.
