.png)
by Kate Lewis for fluxo
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a coffee shop dilemma occurring in New York City right now. Laptops have taken over tables and patrons sit nursing one black coffee for hours on end. Signs that state two-hour laptop rules go ignored.
Here’s the issue—where else should the remote workers go? They flock to coffee shops because they need to get out of the house—so unbelievably fair—and there’s not a lot of other easily accessible third spaces that are open during the day and have the few but very important things you need for work: wifi (preferably free), outlets, a table with enough space to comfortably fit your laptop and other work materials, and coffee and/or other provisions to keep you fueled for the day.
But when you think about it, these things you need for work aren’t actually that big of an ask. There’s a clear solution that lies in the third spaces of New York City.
Think about bars, breweries, and restaurants. They all have wifi, plenty of tables and seating, outlets, and probably a coffee maker of some kind. So why not open their doors a bit earlier so remote workers have somewhere to work and these businesses get a little more foot traffic? They wouldn’t even need to have a bartender there during the “working” hours, just someone to hold down the fort and maybe brew some coffee while people tap away on their laptops.
Not only would this help the bars, restaurants, and breweries, but it would help the coffee shops, too. Perhaps if some of the remote workers who took up their tables went elsewhere, they would be able to serve even more customers.
Enter fluxo…
