Enquiring minds

Last week one of the Belleville Radio personalities regurgitated a Huffington Post online news article about a café owner in Germany who decided to charge the customers for the time spent in the café, not for the coffee consumed. Time is money, dont’cha know? Apparently, the first half-hour in the café costs the customer about $2.50, with a minute-byminute charge after that or an hourly fee, if the customer chooses. The good question to the local radio audience might have been, “Do you think that’s a smart way to make money?”or perhaps , “Would you patronize a café where the only charge was for the time spent enjoying a coffee? ” But nope, within mere moments, the Belleville Radio Personality had made it her personal rant about how much it cost for a “darn latte”(presumably in Belleville). Further, she added when she spends six dollars on a “darn latte”she had, somehow, paid to sit in the cafe for as long as she wanted. Indeed, all business owners, especially small business owners, know that’s exactly how it works. As the morning show moments dragged on, Radio Gal mentioned the cost of a latte far too many times and added she might even consider spending the whole day at a table, six dollar drink in hand, her laptop open (presumably plugged in to the café’s power source), her cellphone at the ready and a book, just to let the coffee shop owners know she’d spent six dollars on a “darn latte”and was somehow deserving of unlimited seat time. Harumph! I could only shake my head and wonder how a really good “audience poll”opportunity could have fallen apart, so completely and quickly? It could have been as simple as, “So audience, did the German cafe owner have a good idea or bad idea? The lines are open. Give me a call and let me know what you think.”Hey, don’t get me wrong, there were a few callers. Most of them complained about the cost of a specialty coffee. Unfortunately, like the Radio Gal, very few of them got the point of the original news item. They were the point.

So, what do I think? Well, I think the café in Wiesbaden might be onto something, if making a point about how much time one customer might spend in a coffee shop having purchased only one coffee is an actual point. You know and I know, if you’ve frequented any of the big business cafés, anywhere, the chance of finding a place to sit and enjoy your “darn latte”are slim to low-fat. In Belleville, one of the most popular places has seating for about 25 to 30 customers and I say, “good luck” if you think you’ll get a spot to perch with your afternoon caffeine fix. Most of the tables are populated by clerks-withoutcubicles and people who have staked their claim with their laptops, cellphones, novels and backpacks, along with the magazines foraged from the adjacent/companion bookstore. And by the look of many of those customers, they’re seated for the duration, sipping their “darn lattes”(which, by the way, don’t cost six dollars), most of them tweeting, Instagram’ing and updating their Facebook statuses, making their quad-shot point. Yeah, yeah, I know that particular corporation doesn’t seem to have a problem making money because that particular corporation re-invented the café culture by offering comfy seating, free wifi, chalkboard art and piped-in indie music.

I say “Poor “Belleville Radio Personality”. She seems to have missed the point of the online story, which essentially was one business’s reaction to the entitled culture of laptop loiterers/coffee shop hobos/clerks-without-cubicles. Good idea or bad idea? Enquiring minds still want to know.

theresa@wellingtontimes.ca