Comments on: Starbucks Begins "Complimentary" Wi-Fi

By: Lawrence Salberg

Lawrence Salberg — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:07:05 +0000

Pointless. And a sure sign that they are losing ground (no pun intended) to independent coffee houses.

Wi-Fi should *never* cost anything, either in terms of a sale, or some rigorous steps to follow. Hey, quite frankly, their stuff aint’ that good.

Businesses did this forty years ago with restrooms. You had to buy something to use the restroom. They worried and fretted that if they just let people use the restroom for free, there would be a line around the corner. Dumb.

Like most wifi users, I always buy something. Half the time, it’s a full meal and or chef’s salad. I get hungry when I work. Delicious smelling food and drinks nearby does the trick. But to require a sale upfront is dumb. Sometimes, I’ve just come from a lunch meeting and it’s 2:00pm and I don’t want to eat or drink anything quite yet. Maybe in an hour or so I’ll get something to drink – even if it’s just a bottled water. By 5 or 6pm, I’m starved and I get some real food.

I suppose there are a few scoundrels who take advantage of this, although I hardly see what for. If you want to save money, just subscribe to broadband – it’s only $40/month for 8Mb/s here and with gas at $4/gal, it’s far cheaper to stay home – with faster internet, too.

Starbucks will *explode* if they ever offered free wifi. I’d go there at least 2 days a week. I haven’t gone there in six months.

By: Grey

Grey — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:51:03 +0000

Know if this is valid in the UK? I haven’t seen and ads for this and the Starbucks here use T-Mobile.

By: Jeremiah Staes

Jeremiah Staes — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:59:10 +0000

Another thing I learned with the new AT&T support is that I have AT&T DSL at home – you can log in for free as long as you want with that login if you have their services.

By: michael

michael — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:06:16 +0000

Starbucks is the *only* coffee shop — out of many — in my area that hasn’t had free wifi for years. Now it’s the only one with strings attached.

By: Julie

Julie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:55:20 +0000

Hmm… sounds like a Microsoft “deal”. Why limit it to 2 hours?

A few problems with this. There are plenty of coffees shops in the US that offer free unlimited Wi-fi to customers, and most of them have much better coffee than Starbucks.

By: Joel Falconer

Joel Falconer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:27:32 +0000

Good deal, but only if you’re already a Starbucks customer. Doesn’t seem to offer any incentives to switch from better and cheaper cafes, considering the hoops involved.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:43:12 +0000

It’s a lot of hoops to jump through, but it is still likely to be successful. Some people like the Starbucks brand; even if it is more expensive and impractical.

By: Jim Wolff

Jim Wolff — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 08:32:02 +0000

While this may sound like a deal, there are 100s of places to have coffee in the UK which have completely free wifi, without having to jump through any hoops.

If Starbucks can’t monopolize coffee-drinking, they can’t monopolize web access on the move either..

By: Complimentary Wi-Fi at The Cape Cod Farm

Complimentary Wi-Fi at The Cape Cod Farm — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:51:48 +0000

[...] Starbucks rolls out complimentary Wi-Fi. « Next meeting: June 11 [...]