An Appointment With Joe

So okay, the guys at SGF have some good reasons for wanting to stake out a table at their favorite caffeine joint. But why is it that shop owners not only allow but encourage them to do it? It can’t be good for sales to let someone tie up a table for two or three hours at a time, all the while freeloading on a Wi-Fi connection and nursing a $4 latte, never mind a $1.50 cup of the regular brew.

Some coffee shop owners explain it in terms of ambiance, as part of why they like the business they’re in. “I want this to be a community gathering place, not just a place I go to analyze the profit margin,” says Lou Bavaro, who, with his wife, Jennifer Mattson, owns and operates Brewberry’s Coffee in St. Paul’s Macalester-Groveland neighborhood.

But virtual office workers do tend to be a conscientious bunch, he adds: “Most of them feel a responsibility to spend some money while they’re here.” Not a lot, he says, but the economics aren’t as bleak as a casual glance would suggest. “People might come in the morning and spend $4 on a latte, stay long enough to buy an $8 lunch, and maybe refill their coffee.”

As counterintuitive as it might seem, customers who come in to do their own business are an important piece of business for local coffee houses. That’s true both because of the charges they ring up at the register and because of the caffeinated buzz they generate—a steady hum of commerce that makes the atmosphere as stimulating as another cup of joe.

Pull Up a Desk—er, Table

Bavaro was already familiar with Brewberry’s customer traffic patterns and coffee line-up when he bought the 12-year-old business last August. He was an 18-month regular at the shop, where he’d been using a table as a desk for his private marketing-consulting company, working solo on his laptop or holding one-on-one meetings with clients.

So he has no trouble understanding why people like to work in coffee shops—and why they feel productive doing so. “I need stimulation, and I need little breaks,” he says. In a coffee shop, “I could work hard for half an hour, then look up and people-watch for five minutes. I felt like I got a lot done.”