March 2, 2007
Whisk whacks free Internet — a trend?
We love WiFi — Shanghaiists are sociable folk, and this Shanghaiist in particular has fallen into an easy Sunday routine of catching up on news and email with a cappu and sandwich at local cafés. We like having a “third space” — a local hangout where we can meet up with friends, have the occasional coffee, and wile away the hours. We’ve already mentioned a few recent faves, and celebrate the expansion of free internet across our city as evidence of an emerging café culture beyond the ubiquitous Starbucks.
Yet several recent developments have led us to wonder whether the trend will last. We learned today from Shanghai blog sushipanda that local favorite Whisk has axed its WiFi. Sushipanda (who called us “venerable Shanghai taste-makers” — he's obviously intelligent and well-informed) put forth this reasoning for Whisk's wireless-less state: "the behavior of visitors to camp inside for hours while purchasing slight amounts of food and drink." Whisk confirmed that they had given up their WiFi, but said the move was the result of the effort involved in maintaining a reliable connection. A friend who visited Whisk on Monday and inquired about its offline status was told it was shut down because of technical difficulties. Hmmmm.
Whisk's move comes on the heels of Element Fresh curtailing free wireless internet at two locations, ending it completely at Shanghai Center in favor of paid access (we believe this happened some time ago), and at K Wah Centre, nearby the old Xiangyang Market, restricting access during the busy lunch hour.
As an evil capitalistic businessman, Shanghaiist understands the need to maximize profit, especially in a competitive market like Shanghai. Café goers with laptops use lots of space but provide little revenue, buying a drink and then lingering for hours. Yet we can’t help but be disappointed — isn't lingering what café culture is all about? — and hope this trend doesn’t spread to our other local haunts.
We assume some of your reading this are doing so from WiFi hotspots throughout Shanghai. If that is the case, please share: What are your favorite WiFi hangouts in the city?
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Sad to hear about the loss of Wi-Fi at Whisk. In that case, I'll be spending more time at Coffee Bean.
No Wifi at Whisk? and they never have any cupcakes either. Why, why, why do Shanghai establishments get a good thing going and then ruin it...
Every heard of 'cover charge'? Decent cover charge would work well for both patrons and owners.
Perhaps have cake and NOT eat it too? :-)
Actually, I visited Whisk more than two weeks ago, with the waitresses saying the exact same thing: "We have technical difficulties with our connection."
If what shanghaiist reports is correct, this is an excellent way of losing your customers. Sure, I'm a greedy capitalist myself, but I also believe in customer service. I only visited Whisk a couple of times before this was changed, but during those times, I spent more than 70RMB per time. That would, in my opinion, cover their expenses and still let them maintain a hefty profit margin if you consider the cheap labor and rent costs in this city compared with other Metropolies. Ah well, it's their loss. I was never that much into chocolate either way, but I liked their service-minded staff.
Places I recommend?
- Wagas
- Arch
I really like Whisk and the absence of losers using it as a place to surf the web makes it an even more appealing place.
Shanghai maybe winning in the so-cool-city stakes but Hong Kong just announced HK$210m to install wi-fi networks in majority of public places over the the next two years.
Singapore beat them to it - you can now surf wirelessly for free in many of the hotspots in town.
I have been to some cafe's in Beijing that offer free WiFi but they have a password which changes often. When you sit down and order some stuff they tell you the password. No one's claiming this is an ironclad solution, but in a way it lets you know that they are willing to provide something of value in return for your patronage.
Ryan, c'mon over to Boonna
I can understand this one - the Coffee Bean nearest me is full of people using WiFi. It seems like these people get one coffee and then park there for several hours. In the meantime, there's no tables left, and I end up going somewhere else.
Wifi is great, I just don't think it makes business sense at locations that would be busy anyway. Ideally, Shanghai would have free city-wide or downtown-wide WiFi. Don't hold your breath...
City D still wins hands down for me. Food and drink options, comfy seats, friendly staff. HK, hats off to you.
New'ish place I learnt of recently with wifi and comfy lounges is Labella Cafe. Nice & bright inside too.
http://www.labella.com.cn/
Photos c/o flickr...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chongqing/sets/72157594266685260/
I'm a fan of WiFi in cafes, but I have sympathy for places like Whisk that rethink their free policy--it does seem to encourage people to camp out and take up space more paying customers might otherwise occupy. The food service business is all about turnover.
Boonna is a good place, but my experience yesterday was typical: I arrived with two friends, and there were no tables available, so we sat in the armchairs. Two of the four-person tables were occupied by individual customers, both with laptops... and one drink. Over the next hour or so, several groups of people came and were turned away.
Maybe a minimum charge to sit at a table? I can't imagine places like Boonna will be around too long if they are harboring customers that take 2 hours to spend 20 kuai, and turning away other customers to do so.
Somehow there are plenty of other cafes in the world who have figured out how to manage this issue without taking away WiFi access completely. Just another reason for me to swear off subpar food and atmosphere for greener pastures.
No Wifi... just another reason for me to avoid their dry cupcakes, banal hot chocolate and the ever popular, but common, pizza, pasta and panini combo served at most western cafes.
i don't care about the free wifi, but on a recent trip to whisk i noticed something else that was no longer free — water! there is a sign on each table that says they no longer serve filtered water. only mineral water at 3 rmb per small glass. my friend ordered water and i didn't. they still brought us two glasses and charged us for two glasses. why charge for water? it's so cheap. just seems like a bad move image-wise.
Damn boycottbegun.. you're a poor bastard if you can't even afford 3 RMB