Instead of charging for food or drink, and then letting you have the space for free, how about switching the two? Charge for the table by the hour (or with a monthly subscription), and then have free little snacks and drinks to go along with the seat.
4 points by noonespecial 7 days ago | link | parent | flag
Seems like there's a market for a place full of private cozy nooks where $20 buys a bottomless cup of coffee, an all day wifi pass and a plug at every table.
The problem is that street-level storefront space is expensive. Street-level shops - including coffeeshops - rely on continuous flow of customer traffic. A people-storage business model does not work at street-level. It might work if the space to be rented were not at street-level.
This was suggested 7 days ago by noonespecial: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449914
4 points by noonespecial 7 days ago | link | parent | flag
Seems like there's a market for a place full of private cozy nooks where $20 buys a bottomless cup of coffee, an all day wifi pass and a plug at every table.
The problem is that street-level storefront space is expensive. Street-level shops - including coffeeshops - rely on continuous flow of customer traffic. A people-storage business model does not work at street-level. It might work if the space to be rented were not at street-level.