Business & Tech

Are Tech Heads Taking Over Your Local Coffee Shop?

I'll confess to setting up camp in a coffee house from time to time. It's a part of what I do. I get a lot done, meet a lot of you and knock back a couple of lattes while pounding out a story or three. Is that so wrong? Some may think so.

We're known as Energy Suckers, Cyber-Squatters, and TechStools ('cause we tend to sprout up in dark, woodsy places). Our love of technology is exceeded only by our need for an AC/DC current and a working WiFi hub.

In our mind's eye we're an inoffensive bunch, pulling in our elbows and making sure our power cords don't interfere with traffic. And yet, some patrons regard us as ill-mannered and, apparently, some shop owners regard our camping habits as anti-business.

Now, we haven't noticed this at any of the tony boits Lamorinda Patch has been known to frequent on its home turf, and we feel welcome at most if not all. But we're hearing we may be wearing out that welcome. We want to know what you think about the situation, and if the laissez-faire approach to tech heads who use the local coffee houses as their second office is in any danger of becoming a thing of the past.

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The owner of Four Barrel Coffee in oh-so-liberal San Francisco recently pulled the plug on his tech-head invaders, literally removing all the power outlets at his store and painting a trompe l'oeil replacement on the wall. Store employees laugh at frustrated gearheads who repeatedly jam their plugs into the wall in a desperate search for power.

In Lamorinda, at least, the Laptop Warriors among us are welcomed.

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"No, really, as long as you're friendly and come in and buy a cup of coffee you can stay as long as you like," says barista Michael Flinn at Moraga's Si Si Cafe. "We have some customers who come, stay five or six hours and it's cool... they're nice people. Everyone gets along here."

Miguel Duarte, a software salesman from Orinda, says he camps often at the Theater Square Starbucks store.

"I mean, it's like I should put up a tent over my table and hang my little address sign outside," he smiles. "I've never had a problem with them about it. I did hear that Starbucks was going to cut back on their WiFi service some time ago but that seems to have gone away."

One thing that some NetJammers do that Miguel disapproves of: "They'll use the handicapped table. It's roomy and usually abandoned but they'll move in and stay. That ticks me off."


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