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Comment by hugh3 | Hacker News Reader

My logic is that I can stay as long as it takes me to finish what I'm eating and drinking, and maybe a few minutes longer. If I'm working on my laptop or reading a book then I'll stretch it out a bit, but it's not really possible to make a cup of coffee last more than twenty minutes.

I can't possibly imagine eating and drinking enough to justify my presence in a cafe for an entire day.

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What leads you to that logic? Why do you need to justify your presence?

Because Hugh would be denying the café revenue if he occupied the table without a purchase or 'nursed' a coffee for an unreasonably long period of time.

Each table needs to earn $n each hour to keep the place in business. If you enjoy your neighbourhood café, you should do your part to add to that revenue as much as possible while you enjoy their services.

A coffee shop isn't a sit down restaurant so $/table/hour isn't a very good metric. A friend of mine owns a coffee shop and he's told me that most of his business is walk in and outs. He doesn't mind if people buy a single drink and hang out for a few hours (IIRC he said 1 drink/2 hours and he comes out ahead). He even has one room that groups can 'reserve' for an hour or two if they want to meet in a more private setting. Keep in mind this is a very local shop with great coffee, and he runs it with 2 other employees.

His biggest complaint/cost/profit issue is the price of milk and how much is used in a latte.

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