Home Working Henry

When Working From A Coffee Shop How Often Should You Buy Drinks?

This is an interesting question and ethical dilemma for anyone working in a coffee shop. However, it is something that you will need to figure out. How often are you going to buy a coffee or a mocka-frapplapal-chino whilst working from a coffee shop?

Now, the drinks and tasty cakes that you eat at the coffee shop are the rent you pay to use their Wifi, take up the space in the coffee shop.

Indeed, there is an acceptable level of spend that people seem to forget is part of the process.

The bad customer

We have all seen people in a coffee shop, nurse one drink for hours, charge their laptop, iPhone, and take up four seats during the busiest times of the day and then leave for half an hour to go get lunch.

It is one of those questions that becomes a real issue if you are visiting often or working in a location for a long period.

How to approach this?

How I would appoeahc this is thinking about what the purchasing of a drink means in a coffee shop if you are going to work from a coffee shop.

When you are working in a coffee shop, your drink is purchasing both the drink, plus also the space and time within the coffee shop. Which is amazing value for money when you think about it.

If you are taking up a table that seats 4 people and the coffee shop is empty, then your drink is fine.

However, you also have to think about how it is when it is busy.

If you are taking up a table for four people and the coffee shop is rammed, you are potentially damaging their takings. Those takings that pay for the rent, lights, Wifi and coffee.

So there is a balance when coming into a coffee shop for a coffee & a chat and working in a coffee shop.

So how often should you buy a drink?

My feeling is one drink an hour is appropriate compensation. Especially if you are on a one/two person table.

However, I also feel that three hours is the maximum that you should spend in any single coffee shop.

So there we have it, one drink an hour. Nice and simple.


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