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Caribou Coffee Limits Access to Free WiFi
My commute was particularly horrendous on a morning earlier this week, so I broke up the trip with a stop into a Caribou Coffee coffee shop in Edina, MN where I figured I could wait things out while checking a few emails and enjoying a cappuccino.
Caribou was a little late to the caffeinated WiFi scene, but has since jumped in with a free WiFi offering. However, there's a twist. It's only free for one hour and one minute:
After selecting the network and logging in, the following screen pops up.
That seems reasonable to me. If you're not buying anything, get out. It is a business after all.
I haven't encountered this particularly policy on previous visits, so wonder if this was put in place after encountering too many WiFi squatters?
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2. Posted by: Ed Kohler on June 14, 2007 4:03 PM:
Alex, I could see workers giving away additional access codes, but the initial access and time limit didn't involve any intervention from workers in the store. That's different from previous visits, such as this one to a St. Paul location where there was no time limit.
Giving employees the final say makes sense. They'll know best how to treat their most loyal customers. However, having an automated time-out system takes the burden off employees of policing abusers.
3. Posted by: paul on June 16, 2007 9:45 AM:
Automatic time-out may be the only way free wi-fi works. I remember reading, in the last year, stories about coffeeshops in Seattle shutting down their wi-fi, especially on weekends or during busy times, because there were so many cyber-squatters that htere was no room for paying customers.
4. Posted by: Rachel Karnes on June 20, 2007 4:04 PM:
What if you purchased something initially?
5. Posted by: Stephanie on August 19, 2008 11:03 AM:
Does anyone know how they do this? I manage a coffee shop, and we want to start a system similar to this one because people come in and don't buy anything and then they overload the wireless so that other people, being some of our customers, can't get online.
6. Posted by: Tom on August 20, 2008 8:11 PM:
Yes - there is a free software - we are litterally setting it up tonight in our coffee shop.
email me and I'll provide specifics - pretty cool
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1. Posted by: Alex on June 14, 2007 3:34 PM:
nope, it's been that policy since day one. It's just most workers don't take the time to tell the guest the whole sh peal about the 1 hours free, then you must buy $1.50 worth of things to get a access code for an additional hour, and repeat cycle.
But most people don't enforce it and just give the code away for free.