Coffee Shops

Coffee Plantation Locks Down WIFI

I recently wrote an article about Coffee Plantation because it’s where I typically go when I need to get out of the house and get on the internet. Today, I purchased my $2.00 coffee (amazing profit margin) and was asked by the Barrista if I had a code?

Me: A code?

Barrista: Yeah, for the internet.

Me: (setting my witty comments aside) No, I don’t. When did you start doing that?

Barrista: Today.

Me: Was there a particular reason you decided to lock the network down? (Thinking it probably makes sense)

Barrista: Well, there were too many people just sitting around using the internet without purchasing anything and it slows down the internet for everyone who is a paying customer.

Me: (thinking initially, That’s not very cool. Coffee shops are supposed to have free internet.) Oh, okay.

The Barrista handed me a little piece of paper with a 10-digit code on it, then clarified that the zero was a zero and not an “O”. Do people really not know the difference between an O and a zero? Anyway…

…so I got my code and I got on the internet, and then I started thinking about the new security measures, and I recalled a few conversations I had recently about how these store-front coffee shops in high rent areas stay in business when the majority of their patrons sit around and cruise the net all day. Prior to today, I could simply sit here, not buy anything, and use the internet. I don’t do that, but it was possible.

(on a side note, Coffee Plantation finally added a flavored coffee of the day since the new owner took over. I like it. Today it’s Irish Creme. Yesterday it was Creme Brulee)

Problem 1

How does the coffee shop police the code that they just gave me? I can post it here, on twitter, and I can staple it to my forehead.

Problem 2

When the code changes, who’s going to let me know about it? It seems like a decision that includes too much high maintenance to actually be effective.

Solution

Here’s where my innovative mind kicks in. Design a wireless router that works in tandem with a networked cash register, yet works like a Guest Gate access point securing the internal network from the patrons. Every day, the wireless router generates a new code after closing. When a patron purchases something, the cash register accesses the router and looks up that code, then delivers the code on the receipt.

Now, that brings up the problem of receipts, which nobody needs to be printing any more. So how would the code get from the cash register to the patron without printing? How about text messaging? How do we get the phone number to the cash register? Not sure, but it can happen.

All in all, I think I’m okay with the network being locked down for patrons only. It makes me feel a bit more important. Now they just need to make it cooler.

Coffee Plantation: Outdated, Old, Boring

“More Than Just Great Coffee.”

That’s the claim that I read when I walk into Coffee Plantation at Shea Blvd and Scottsdale Road in the Harkin’s Shea 14 plaza.  What I haven’t yet figured out is, what more?  What more than coffee do they offer besides free WI-FI?

You can typically find me at this Coffee Plantation on most weekdays for one simple reason, and it isn’t the coffee.

Free internet.  That’s the real reason I’m here.  There is no other draw.  Not the food, not the coffee, and definitely not the service.

My overall experience at the Coffee Plantation began in the late 80’s on Mill Avenue in Tempe, Arizona.  It was a hip, up and coming place to hang out with my friends between high school and college, and provided a very eclectic atmosphere for various artistic types of which I was anxious to become.

Today, that shop is gone, but some of the other locations are still open.  I’m not sure why.  If this location closed down, I wouldn’t be heartbroken.  Inza Coffee, which was located at Loop 101 and Shea Blvd closed down last year, and most of the people who went there migrated to the next best choice which is where I sit and write today.  I’ve spent a vast majority of my working hours here because I get free internet and it’s close, and primarily because we don’t have much of a choice in this neck of the woods.  So, as a result, lots of business meetings occur here.

So what’s wrong with it, you ask?

Well, there are a list of things that just annoy the crap out of me about this place.  The decor feels like an old McDonalds.  The employees are more interested in socializing with each other rather than tending to the clientele.  There have been too many changes of ownership and too much behind-the-counter drama.  Half of the establishment has a poor WI-FI signal.  The other half is too cold.  People smoke outside the doors and nobody says anything.  They still require a signature for a $2.00 credit card purchase.  The lunch menu is expensive and not worth the price.  They play CD’s and their CD player is ancient, skipping on at least one if not more of each song on each CD.  Ever heard of an iPod?  Tables aren’t bussed.  Every day it seems the owner is meeting with someone about the business, which gives me the impression that they’re hurting.  The wait staff, oh wait, did I go there already?  They’re all nice people, but they’re more concerned with who’s getting more hours than who’s paying their bills…that would be me, the customer.

I honestly have no idea how coffee shops stay in business short of the $4.00 blended drinks which are of no value to me.  Coffee Plantation has a direct walk-through door to the G-Spot, where you can get overpriced Italian ice-cream, and another door down is Pita Jungle, which seems to be doing it all right.  If it weren’t for the traffic that these other businesses generated, I’m not so sure CP would still be here.

If something better comes along, I’m sure you’ll find me there rather than here, cause this place is getting old.  Even with recent attempts to make it more “cozy” by adding a sofa, large cushy chairs, and a divan, it’s still the same old grungy, wicker-chair wielding, cold feet, no-power-outside, coffee shop that feels like a fast food restaurant.