Austin Starbucks now charges for wi-fi
Recently, Starbucks, the world-dominating coffee house chain, decided to have their Austin, TX shops join the rest of their national locations and charge for wi-fi access. For a mere $9.99, wireless access can be purchased for 24 hours through T-Mobile (it's free if you are already a T-Mobile user).
For y'all in other cities where there isn't a citywide free wi-fi initiative, it may seem like a good idea. But in Austin, where free wi-fi is available in almost every coffee shop (except Starbucks, of course), library branch, bar, Dairy Queen and over 300 other locations, it's a terrible idea. Hell, I often catch free wi-fi within my own house.
While Starbucks coffee is supposedly some of the best around, it's far more expensive and they don't offer free wi-fi. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on their Austin business. Or how this might affect some of the local free wi-fi offering coffee shops. I hope Austin institutions such as Flight Path and Quack's see a jump in sales. Probably not, but a boy can hope.
posted by Rick Klaw at
4:14 PM
4 Comments:
The question from California is: What is Peet's coffee going to do, in response?
Dude, this does seem like a bad move in Austin. I don't get out do the coffee shop writing as much as I used to these days, but I sure won't be doing it at Starbucks now.
Well since Peet's closed their Austin locations, I imagine not a whole hell of a lot.
I suppose, then, it's going to remain Left Coast speculation only, then... ;-)
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