Coffee Shop Seeks Advice on "How to Encourage Long-Staying Customers to Leave" - Sparks Heated Debate!

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the private WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: qjcoffeex

The Intense Study Culture of Korean Students

How intense is the study culture for Korean students? Anyone who watches Korean dramas probably knows that whenever there's a scene about students studying, they're either on their way to tutoring centers, at tutoring centers, studying in study rooms, or studying at home until their nose bleeds.

Regardless of age group, students have very high caffeine needs. Some younger students choose caffeine drinks from convenience stores daily, while those in high school and university visit coffee shops daily for a cup of coffee.

- Screenshot of dialogue from the TV drama "Strange Lawyer Woo Young-woo"

For older students who need to concentrate more on their studies, nowhere is more conducive to focus than a coffee shop. Compared to study rooms and home, the coffee shop environment helps people relax while remaining quiet. For a long time, social media platforms have seen topics about "study coffee shops," specifically recommending suitable coffee shops for other students to study in.

However, this practice has given many coffee shop owners a major headache! Recently, many coffee shop owners have posted on forums asking, "Is there a way to politely make students who stay for 7-8 hours with just one cup of coffee leave the shop?"

Initially, only a few people posted about this, but it quickly sparked heated discussion among many coffee shop owners with similar experiences. While many owners complain, they also express understanding of these students' difficulties, as they went through the same experience themselves.

However, with rising utility costs and raw material prices in recent years, operating coffee shops has become increasingly difficult. These students buy the cheapest iced Americano or even just a glass of water, then take out their laptops and sit for 7-8 hours. Moreover, it's not just one or two students - a group of such customers comes every day.

Running a coffee shop isn't easy these days. Many coffee shops don't have large spaces with limited seating. When these students arrive, they occupy more than half the seats, resulting in extremely low table turnover. At the same time, customers who genuinely want to drink coffee see limited seating inside and lose interest in entering and spending money - truly heartbreaking.

But when these students come and spend money, even if it's just for a glass of water, we can't ask them to leave because it would affect the shop's reputation. Therefore, we hope everyone can provide some methods to limit their staying time.

Besides students, some private tutors are even worse - one person orders an iced Americano, and with four students, they can occupy a table for an entire day of classes, not only taking up tables but also affecting other customers.

Solutions for Managing Student Occupancy

For such situations, many coffee shops that have successfully reduced student seat occupation have shared their prevention methods. The best approach is to post clear notices indicating limited seating in the shop, providing designated spaces for customers who need to study, with time-based fees.

Some directly attach notes to tables stating, "If you use the space for more than a few hours, you must order additional drinks/food." When too many students occupy seats, some owners turn off the air conditioning/heating or play fast-paced music.

Although student seat occupation really affects table turnover, some coffee shop owners admit that business is tough these days, and their presence somehow increases the popularity of the coffee shop. However, if they just consume one drink and stay for over 6 hours, with many such students coming daily, it's really difficult for us - after all, we're losing money on utilities...

International Perspectives on Time Limits

Seeing this topic reminded me of a customer from Hong Kong I served yesterday. Since the shop had limited seating and many customers at that time, he asked if there were time restrictions. Initially, I couldn't quite understand his question - after all, customers have paid and thus have the right to use the space, so why limit their time?

Later, he explained that in Hong Kong coffee shops, many office workers bring their laptops and sit all day. However, many coffee shops become very crowded during lunchtime or afternoon tea time. Because shops are always filled with office workers, many customers have no seats to rest. Therefore, many shops require everyone to leave within 2 hours, and those who want to continue sitting need to make additional purchases.

Regarding such regulations, we can really see how difficult it is to run a business. Just as many coffee shops have come up with various creative solutions to prevent social media influencers from taking photos and affecting other customers' experiences. There are shops that charge admission fees for in-store photography, and shops that require a minimum purchase amount to take photos...

To further prevent those who buy just one cup of coffee and occupy the space for several hours of shooting, some shops have stipulated that venue fees and usage time limits apply - one cup of coffee doesn't grant unlimited use of the space or allow disturbance of other customers.

Business is tough, and shop owners aren't running charities. It's so difficult, truly so difficult.

Image source: Internet

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473