Vermont Coffee Shop Bans Laptops & Their Business Booms

If you’ve been inside of any kind of a coffee shop within the past few years, you’ve probably noticed they all have something in common – and I’m not talking about the coffee. It seems like wherever you go, at whatever time of the day or night, people are always using their smartphones, laptops, and tablets. And their power supply is never in question, either, as everyone just plugs their cords into whatever outlets are available near their table(s). And that’s where they stay – sometimes for hours at a time, and quite often (if they decide to buy anything at all) they opt for something on the cheap. A coffee shop and bakery in Vermont known as August First was noticing that more and more people were coming into their shop and using the Wi-Fi, but they were spending less and less. And to top things off, the people weren’t really even interacting with one another. So, they decided to take a drastic step – they turned off their Wi-Fi signal and outlawed laptops and tablets inside of their shop. You can probably guess what happened next – their business started booming.

When people were free of their technology, they were more free with the use of their money, and people actually began to interact with one another once again. Their sales seem to be growing by 10% each year since they’ve put the ban in place.

Surprisingly, customers are still allowed to use their smartphones while in the shop – I guess you can’t ask people to completely disconnect from their technology. (The owners have said they’ll be reconsidering this in the future).

What do you think? Is this a coffee shop you’d like to visit? Let us know your thoughts regarding this story in the comments section below!

[Image via The Guardian]

SOURCE: CNET