>I've never once been asked to leave a cafe after I've paid for __, and subsequently spent a few hours there.
I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left.
I guarantee the proprietor will be complaining as soon as you have left.
Once you find a place you like, it's not like most people are just anonymous singletons coming in and ordering a coffee and taking up a table for a whole day. You keep the place busy during slow periods, other people see the place has custom, and depending on what's there you'll invite friends or other people over or drop by at other times for meals.
On the weekends or during particular busy times, sure. But usually you need lunch or dinner during those times as well, or you'll invite people for those times.
The successful cafes around here got quite skilled at appealing to the different groups and swinging demands throughout the day. The after-work crowd is different from the workday crowd is different from the tourists and the weekenders is different from the locals, and you need to keep all of them happy to keep the place ticking over and remain profitable. It's not just a substitution between all types of customers...
If the place was busy and you were occupying a table without ordering anything, maybe. But if the place was otherwise fairly empty, they probably don't mind very much. It can even be a benefit to have a few tables occupied so that the place doesn't look completely dead.
This is a very nice system that I'm sure they do to attract laptop people during the day (it's otherwise always at least half empty during that time).
There is a sign on the wall that kindly tells people to put away the laptop after 21:00 which is when they get busy. I think it's a fair deal. You get office space for the price of a coffee and they get someone in an otherwise empty café during the day. (Who often order a bit more than just a coffee anyway).