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If its just revenue, then I think the alternative is to charge for wifi, for time-in-seat.

e.g. here is your table. its yours for $8/hour. House coffee free. Anything else, go to the front.

There's a place like this in SF: http://www.workshopcafe.com/ . Their location in the Financial District (I imagine the rent is high) is only $2/hr. So, it doesn't have to be much.

The other model I found interesting is the Capital One Cafe. It's a Peet's inside, but they offer banking services and ATMs as well. They have plenty of space and outlets at every table, seemingly at the cost of your eyeballs on their materials. Obviously not every coffee shop wants to be corporate, but for workers it's pretty nice.

I came to the comments to recommend a subscription model as well. If it's a great place, I would mind doing this at all.

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