Social IssuesJUL 13, 2024

American Can’t Understand Why European Cafes Are Banning Laptops, Gets A Reality Check

Viktorija Ošikaitė and Rokas Laurinavičius

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We see coffee shops as social hubs where people reconnect with friends, go on dates, and discuss potential business opportunities.

But recently these spaces have been filling up with another group of customers — remote workers.

Whether they don't have the means to complete their responsibilities at home, or just want a change of scenery, these individuals have been transforming cafe tables into makeshift offices.

But from the owner's perspective, this might not be entirely beneficial, as these customers can cut into revenue and increase bills.

Coffee shops can struggle to keep a flow of customers due to remote workers taking up valuable space throughout the day

Image credits: cottonbro studio / pexels (not the actual photo)

So when this X user learned that some European establishments are banning laptops, they couldn't believe it

Image credits: levelsio

For coffee shop owners and staff, this has become a real concern

Diving into the discussion, one needs to remember that Europe consists of dozens of countries, all of which have vast cultural differences. Because of this, the continent's coffee culture is incredibly difficult to generalize.

With that being said, there have been instances when coffee shops took aggressive stands against the use of technology within the establishment.

For example, the owners of Fringe + Ginge in Canterbury, United Kingdom, noticed so many people were working on laptops at their cafe that they believed it was starting to ruin the atmosphere.

The final straw came when customers began asking staff to keep the noise down so they could hear their video call meetings.

"I think what has changed massively is the dynamic and the way that people work," Alfie Edwards, who co-owns the business with his partner Olivia Walsh, said. "We had some really bad experiences with people, like asking us to turn music off so they could do Zoom meetings, like Teams meetings."

"We were asked to be quiet, we were making too much noise. Then we just sort of figured out this is not what (a cafe) is about."

Edwards and Walsh believe that there are many places you can go and rent desk space, not to mention that you can also work in libraries.

"There are loads of places where they're dedicated to people working – and they have cafes as well," he said. "Here, we just realized we wanted to take hospitality back, have it dedicated to just serving people and letting them have a nice experience."

There have been reports about places in other countries, including Spain, Portugal, France, and Germany, that also do not want remote workers and their laptops.

But this isn't exclusive to the Old Continent. While we do not have the exact numbers about the prevalence of the practice, there's a number of "unplugged" cafes in the US too.