Places for Work

I was at a Starbucks outlet recently. It was not for just a simple coffee break. I was going to sit there for several hours to get some work done with a colleague. We could have gone back to office, but it was the weekend, and I thought it would be nicer to just meet somewhere outside the office. The only thing we really needed as a computer, Internet access, and a bunch of documents I had packed with me.

So I was going to be like one of those many people who hog dining places or other public areas to study or do whatever it is apart from what that place was really intended to serve. Usually, I would be somewhat annoyed with those people hogging the dining places, particularly when I’m unable to find an empty seat, and that the place is mostly filled with people studying.

To qualify as a patron of a dining place, these people would just order one drink. With that one drink, they would sit there for several hours. The drink is their ticket to hog the table.

I’ve even seen people in a group, say 4 persons, and each one occupies a separate table. But you know they are clearly in a group because they seen to be discussing stuffs with each other.

But here I am doing almost about the same thing. I say “almost”, because I wasn’t really there for all that many hours, and also because between me and my colleague, we did really order quite a number of food and drinks. (Furthermore, the Starbucks outlet was never full while I was there.)

I had a thought. Is there a demand and a market for customers who want to spend extended time to “hog” the place, who wouldn’t mind paying for that, and at the same time be able to get a drink or a bite to eat?

Does this sound somewhat like what an Internet cafe is? Well, I suppose there are some similarities. The target audience could be quite different, though. I’m thinking, here, something that is more business oriented, something that facilitates meetings and collaboration.

For me, I had needed to work with a colleague. I would need just a few hours. A nice place for us to work with our notebooks would be nice. Power points are not absolutely essential, but they would be nice to have. Internet access too.

I imagine other possible users could be insurance agents, bank loan officers, sales people, etc, who might want to meet with their clients.

The tricky thing, of course, is how much to charge? Too much, and people would just go camp out at Starbucks. I’m curious if this could be a workable business idea.