Finding a café offering free wi-fi without a time or data limit, and without signing up for anything, is always somewhat of a revelation. One that serves decent coffee, and freely offers up a plug to charge up my laptop? Shangri-La!
When I find a spot where the wi-fi is dependable and free, I'm sold, and I quickly become a recognizable regular. This week I've been in Toronto staying with a friend who also happens to be a skilled barista at Toronto's very eclectic espresso bar Dark Horse. I've had a sort of carte blanche to sit at the bar sucking back macchiato and enjoying free wi-fi, but it has got me thinking. What is the best etiquette for enjoying free wi-fi at a local café?
After talking it out with friends who work the industry, and many a fellow patron, here are some dos and don'ts to help you avoid overstaying your welcome when your enjoying hours of free wi-fi:
Do: Tip your barista well.
A barista is like a bartender, plain and simple. 15% should be your starting point for a tip when the service is good. Impressed with the latté art or their willingness to cater to your unique order? 20%-25% tip goes a long way in what is often a decently skilled, but low paying field.
Make your barista feel like you appreciate the work they do, and they are likely to even bring you a glass of water, or a free dessert here and there, even on your 5th hour of sitting in their café.
Don't: Order off the menu, especially during peak hours.
You might have some unique dietary concerns, or maybe you're just very particular, but that really unique coffee order of your's is the bain of your local baristas existence.
It's often that the chemistry of certain drinks just doesn't work out, making a unique drink order something that is impossible to really pull off cleanly, and during busy hours, an awkwardly placed drink order can really slow things down.
You don't really want to be the person who baristas make fun of when they're off hours, so build a good relationship with your barista and consider asking their opinion about what works. Doing so your helping to build a shared atmosphere of respect that makes the difference between a place you are welcome to stop by, and one you are welcome to stay at.
Do: Order something every 2 hours.
A single coffee followed by 4 hours of free wi-fi? I'm a bit of a coffee fiend, and I easily cut through even the smoothest cappuccino in mere minutes. While often café's offer water, that doesn't mean that one coffee is all you need to buy to spend hours lounging about.
I like to order something at least once every 2 hours, if not something on the hour. It could be expensive to do so depending on the prices, but think about what you spend at a bar. $8 pints or cocktails (without the free wi-fi) seems perfectly reasonable at 11:00pm. If a place is offering free wi-fi, it's with the hope of drawing in business. Take advantage of that and you risk ruining a good thing for everyone.
Don't: Download torrents or large files.
Every once and a while you find a café with an un-throttled top tier internet connection, which is really the holy grail to a remote worker like myself. While the promise of free and abundant wi-fi is certainly glorious its best to not abuse the power it comes with.
If you happen to stumble upon an ideal open high speed network, respect that the owner spent the extra dough for you and don't overdo it. Don't download torrents, or large app updates, and if you're a developer (like me) save those really big pushes for your home network.
Do: Get to know your barista.
Finally, and I think this might be the most important way to ensure you never overstay your welcome; get to know your barista by name. Ask them about their life, they're relationships, if they're going to school, what they recommend from the menu.
The best way to always be welcome somewhere is to just be friendly, kind, and genuine with the people who serve you. Nail that, and always be welcome to enjoy hours of free wi-fi at your nearest café without scornful looks from overworked and under appreciated baristas.
(images: Sean Rioux)
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This sounds like it was written by a barista.
ooh - i might even get a glass of water? wow.
and, i'm sorry if this sounds elitist but being 'the person who baristas make fun of when they're off hours' is really low on my list of worries.
FYI, There is GPS data in that image. If anyone cares.
The only people sadder than those actually working from a Starbucks are the complete losers who are there "working on a screenplay/novel". And the start-up companies meeting at a Starbucks? Really? Don't bank on those IPO bucks yet...
I'd rather be forced to sit in a Greyhound bus terminal in the bad part of town. The people are less revolting.
Hold up, everybody! Just to toss this out there- not every cafe is a Starbucks (note the "bucks" part of that name). Many cafes that offer free wi-fi are small independent businesses struggling to compete with Starbucks. Imagine the unending costs of keeping a coffee shop running. Now imagine that they are trying to pay all those bills (not to mention payroll expenses, unemployment, workers comp, etc) with customers who are taking up hours of real estate after purchasing only a cup of coffee.
My daughter has been managing an independent coffee house for the past 5 years & has bucket loads of horror stories of people who come in, order a small coffee, followed by endless glasses of water, flop their stuff all over a table for 2 or 4 people, because they don't want to sit at the counter, & then camp out for hours with their faces buried in their laptops completely ignoring the poor souls who are desperately looking for a table. They'll charge their phones, laptops, video cameras, electric razors (yes, you read that right) ignorantly believing that the electric is free (well, for them it is, but the owner of the cafe has to pay the electric bill). She told me about the guy she found at a back table who had brought in his own single serving coffee maker & had it plugged in & was brewing his own coffee while using their water, electric, real estate...! Or the ones (always women) who bring in their own tea bags & want a cup of hot water (but don't want to pay for it) & then grab handfuls of sugar packets which they shove into their pockets. How about the ones who buy a takeout coffee, but insist or having the paper cup doubled only to turn around & pour half the coffee into the empty cup for their friend! Oh, the list of human rudeness is endless. Meanwhile, people can't understand why so many mom & pops go out of business!
This piece wasn't written by a barista. It was written by a person who actually has public manners!