A café in Vermont has seen a 15 percent increase in business since the owner turned off the wifi and banned laptops.
"It got to the point where college students were coming in and bringing Chinese takeout and setting up computers and books and staying for four or five hours," said Jody Whalen, owner of the café August First. "There were a couple of regular customers who came in every day and set up their offices basically, and put on headphones and just plugged into their computers all day long. It just got to the point where we realised we needed to make a big change to stay in business."
That change was a drastic one, but one being seen more and more frequently around the world as freelance work becomes the norm and coffeehouses become rent-free offices.
"The improvements were just overwhelming, it is so much better than we ever imagined," she said of the response. "It's a lively place now, when you walk in you hear people talking and laughing."
