Are coffee shops really cutting off laptop users?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting on an emerging trend of coffee shops covering up outlets, banning laptops, or pushing out people who sit for too long. Although the article suggests this might be a bigger phenomenon in New York than, say, San Francisco, the conclusion seems to be based entirely on anecdotal evidence. Sources include a couple of coffee shop owners in NYC and a laptop user who wrote a negative Yelp review after being asked to leave a café.

Without statistics, it's hard to determine the size and scope of this trend. It makes sense to keep customers rotating and not occupying seating all day, especially during a recession, but how many shops are actually doing it? Let's see if we can get to the bottom of this with a poll, Download Squad readers. Let us know whether your local coffee shops have become more hostile toward laptop use, and leave any good stories on the subject in the comments.

Tags: coffee-shops, laptops, news, wall-street-journal, wifi, wsj