Comment by DanielStraight | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielStraight | Hacker News Reader

I always thought that allowing customers to sit around was the coffee shop business model.

It's like Barnes & Noble versus previous bookstores. Barnes & Noble encourages you to sit down and read books you have no intention of buying. They're smart enough to know that if you're in the store for 2 hours at a time on a regular basis, you're going to buy SOMETHING. I buy a lot of stuff at Barnes & Noble even though Amazon is generally cheaper. I go there all the time because it's such a cool place to shop, and I buy stuff because I see it and I'm like, "I WANT!"

Anyway, my impression was always that Starbucks and others had the same idea. If you let customers chill for a few hours, they're going to buy stuff. I know I do. If I'm going to sit and read or sit and use a laptop, I'll buy a good drink and some kind of snack. If I want to stay after I finish that, I'll buy something else.

I guess the problem is now customers aren't buying stuff, which sadly coffee shops are fighting in less-than-optimal ways. The problem is, I think, that there is no optimal way that coffee shop owners can do anything. Customers need to be reasonable and support the businesses that are giving them such a nice place to hang out and get online.

> Barnes & Noble encourages you to sit down and read books

Don't know about BN, but I noticed recently that their Canadian version called Chapters now have substantially fewer chairs than they did a year ago. In smaller stores chairs are gone completely. There's also virtually no wall space to lean against, and they generally discourage from sitting on the floor.

> If you let customers chill for a few hours, they're going to buy stuff.

Let's say you sit for 4 hours and buy two cups of coffee. If the shop is packed, your chair could instead serve 5-6 lunch customers in a matter of just two hours, each spending considerably more than you. On the other hand if the shop is half-empty, it's nice to have people sitting around, because it creates crowd.

So if you add 1 and 1, you will arrive at the exact policy described in the article - no idlers during the lunch hours.

I wouldn't like to spend few hours in a packed shop, would you?

I live in Queens, NY and the B&N in my neighborhood has basically zero seating. It's actually the only B&N store I've ever seen like that, and I emailed them to ask why. The response:

"As our stores and selections have expanded over the years, we have had to reduce the seating in some locations to make room for additional inventory. However, I have shared your feedback regarding our Forest Hills store with the appropriate department who will certainly keep your feedback in mind."

I guess I just expect a sort of cooperation between customers and businesses. If I noticed that the place was crowded and people couldn't sit for lunch, I'd either buy lunch or head out if I was just drinking coffee. Now if I was drinking coffee and eating snacks and such, I'd figure I was spending as much as a lunch customer, so I wouldn't worry about it, but really, I try to be a good customer to good businesses.

Chapters is actually owned by Indigo, and they're known as Chatpers-Indigo now I think.

In any case, they barely have chairs in the Indigo stores. You'll have to go to the Starbucks that's inside the place, sit on the floor or sit on the curb near a window. It's not a very welcoming place (they're also a monopoly) and I've switched to ordering books online whenever I can.

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