Best Posts in Thread: The intolerance of "charging" for charging laptop and smartphone in coffee shops in Dumaguete

As always it's a matter of supply and demand - if you don't want to pay for their electricity, you don't have to buy it, just charge your stuff at home. In case of emergency PHP 10 is still a small price to pay for the convenience vs. going back home... I also guess they don't really do that for earning money, but to prevent people from taking up a whole table for hours while sipping a single coffee for PHP 80 or so. If you're a small place with just a few tables, a few laptop workers that occupy all your seating space while not consuming much can quickly hurt your business.

I could be considered what you call "Digital Nomad" and as such, I do not rely on power outlets in coffee shops as a rule. I come with a charged notebook that lasts more hours than I care to work in a single day, and can even charge my phone from that if need be. Having that said I wouldn't be sad either if the local coffee shops finally would get some competition from Starbucks While their coffee is prohibitively expensive, I've yet to see one where they charge for electricity...

 

I am not sure I sit comfortably with this type of comment - it can be said in another way (e.g. "So maybe have a chat with her about this") without labelling a member's child. None of us has ever learned everything, even at age 100, certainly not at age 19. There is always room for a caring parent (as from reading here I am sure Mr P is) to help guide a developing adult.

 

The coffee shops or any other business should be allowed to conduct their business as they see fit! It is private property. Public property being streets, sidewalks, parks etc which are owned and maintained by gov.
It is private property and open to the public. If you don’t like the way they do business then don’t go there, vote with your feet. For you to make a derogatory post about this establishment is just wrong IMO.

 

Sorry, I don't understand it can be a problem to pay for charging, but if I'm denied charging I see it as unfriendly customer service. I try that as a regular customer in a coffee shop in BQ mall in Tagbilaran groundfloor, I never went back, the idiot went bankrupt soon after, that was probably not because of me lol. I agree in the proposal for 1 hour working on a laptop, these people don't benefit to a business and either to the atmosphere/good vibes in a place. People who work online know exactly where to go and who allowed them to stay all day with a water or coffee, MacDonalds is one place. When I'm traveling I always bring a power bank same size as a cellphone

 

Consider the profit margin many of these coffee shops and small places work on is very small even some of the big names because of franchise costs and cuts where volume is the key. Having someone come in and charge their laptop for an hour could consume the profit margin of that cheaper cup of coffee they bought. Not only that but they are consuming *free* wifi the business pays for.

The bigger thing though in my mind which I've seen many times is these people sitting charging their laptops and using the free wifi who sit in their all day long while only ever ordering one drink. I've left many establishments because there was NO seating because of these people who you can tell have been there for hours which means they lost my business which is likely larger to cater to someone who gives barely any business and even less profit if not actually costing them. One place that often comes to mind is Rolling Pin where I like to grab a pannini sometimes but often find all the seating taken up by college kids on laptops all day long but I've seen it Bo's Coffee as well among other places.

The one hope the business has is that the laptop battery will die and they will then free up the table. But if they got free charging they would never leave so charge for that to discourage the freeloaders.

I remember as well when I had my mini resto in Bacong a few years back offering free wifi. I found out quickly I had to change the password daily sometimes multiple times a day because someone would come in and buy a soda and get the wifi password and an hour later there were 3-4 sitting across the street where the signal still reached loading off my wifi.

 

Maybe that is so for you BUT there are many that will sit all day and only ever buy 1 or 2 coffees Just to Add I have a 19 year old daughter that does it often with Friends