The internet has become a drain on business at Lulu Carpenter’s. According to cafe owner Manthri Srinath, patrons plug their laptops into wall outlets and then spend hours sitting at the tables, but this prevents other customers from finding a seat. As one customer explained, “If you spend $10 and sit for three hours, you are preventing three customers from each spending $10 and only sitting for one hour.” To avoid this, Srinath covered the outlets on one of the walls and turned off the power on the other walls.
Inevitably, some customers complained. Srinath, however, found another advantage to turning off the power. Coffee shops were once a place where people came to socialize, he explains, but with the rise of wifi and laptops, more and more people interact with their computers instead of with their neighbors. He is hoping that this radical step—from online to nonline—will help to restore the friendly, social atmosphere that his café that first made his café so popular. Read more at the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
