Coffee Shop Starts Charging Customers Using Laptops A $10 Daily 'Membership' Fee
The best things in life aren't free.
Kateryna Onyshchuk | Shutterstock New York is known for its pizza, its buzzy energy, and the fact that people pay an average of $3,821 to live in a one-bedroom, 600-square-foot apartment.
Manhattan was built on wringing out any possible economic opportunity, and life in the concrete jungle just got spendier.
A coffee shop is charging customers using laptops a $10 daily ‘membership’ fee.
One woman, Sidnye Nikole, posted her very strong reaction to the policy, saying, “If you felt like living in New York City was expensive, now, we must pay to take our laptops out at coffee shops.”
“That’s not free anymore,” she continued. “That’s not a free right in our community.”
Nikole doesn’t seem to distinguish between rights and privileges — with rights tending more toward women having autonomy over their own bodies or gay people being able to marry their partners, as opposed to the privilege of ordering a latte and sending emails from a café — but that is neither here nor there.
The woman took issue with being charged extra money “to be able to use your laptop that you pay for, and sit there in their cafe to use their Wi-Fi.”
She acknowledged that taking up precious real estate at a coffee shop didn’t come without any cost, saying, “I totally get buying something at the cafe to sit there and do your work." The problem, according to Nikole, is that "on top of the drink that was $9, you have to pay one of these prices to be able to use your laptop.”
The coffee shop in question charges customers $10 a day, $30 a month, and $300 a year to work from their tables.
“You have to become a member,” the woman reiterated. “I did not know the local coffee shop was turning into Soho House, but I guess this is just your PSA that that is happening now.”
The comments were fairly divided, with some people in favor of the policy and some adamantly against it.
Mikhail Nilov | Pexels
One person called the coffee shop’s policy to charge for laptop use “Subscription-based sitting,” which accurately sums up what a person would be paying for.
“We can’t exist without paying,” another person wrote, making another incredibly accurate statement about what it feels like to be alive during late-stage capitalism’s ongoing death rattle.
Life is expensive, especially in New York, and people there deserve to access space outside of their shoebox-sized apartments.
People should absolutely utilize places like coffee shops — those vital third spaces that our country lacks that provide a sense of community outside of work and home.
Yet some commenters brought up the other side of the argument, which is that cafés aren’t actually offices, and many remote workers take advantage of them by staying too long, buying one coffee, and holding meetings where they talk as though they were alone in their apartments.
“I think the culture of working from a café needs to die down a bit,” one person said. “It should be a revolving third space, not your office for 8 hours.”
A café manager chimed in, saying, “It’s because people take up space for hours and only buy a couple [of] things. Unfortunately, in this economy, all the coffee shops can’t afford rent.”
Ketut Subiyanto | Pexels
Someone else shared a practical solution to this issue, suggesting that establishments set a time limit on laptop use so that workers only take up tables for a couple of hours at a time.
“If you want to use Wifi for free in public spaces, then support your local libraries,” another person suggested. “Rent in New York City is insane for small businesses, too. Paying $7 for a coffee to take up a table for 2 to 3 hours is entitled.”
Entitlements aside, the root of the issue seems to revolve around how expensive life is for everyone and how deeply we need accessible gathering places.
The tenor of American work life has shifted in a way that means more people are working from home despite the continued existence of return-to-office mandates that aim to do away with the balanced lifestyle remote work offers.
While charging money for laptop use might not seem right or fair, neither is sitting at a cafe all day like it's your personal corner office.
There’s probably a more equitable solution than forcing people to pay for sitting, but the hollow gasps of capitalism wait for no one, leading cafe owners to get theirs while the getting is good.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture and all things to do with the entertainment industry.