This doesn't surprise me. I recently read a thread (could have been on HN but I'm not positive) and I was surprised at the number of people that think it's fine to spend a few dollars on a cup of coffee and then take up a seat and use the free wifi for 8 hours. Most coffee shops (excluding the higher priced places like Starbucks) rely on a high turnover of customers to make a decent profit. There is quite a high markup on coffee but as it's usually so cheap ($1-3) they need to serve a lot of customers. In my experience coffee shops also tend to be quite small and finding a seat is difficult. When I see a place like this I usually go somewhere else. I can understand why they get annoyed at 'laptop hobos'. If you're going to take over a seat in the coffee shop for a day at least buy something every couple of hours.
I have been wondering for a long time why Starbucks and other coffee shops don't simply charge for wifi. 5 USD/3 hours seems like an absolutely great deal. Whenever I do work at Starbucks it's very productive and would be happy to pay for the right to be there. In fact, I wish there were a way to pay for the wifi so I didn't feel this guilt of whether to buy more items.
The people who aren't happy to pay for being there are the ones you don't want. Get this: There's a Starbucks near where I live that literally has a homeless guy in the same chair every day with a laptop. Guess how long he's been doing it? 3 years! It's insane. Have people pay, charge as much as the market will bear, problem solved. How are we even talking about this?
