The Starbucks chain in South Korea is introducing “tough” measures against people who spend hours studying or working in coffee shops. From now on, it is forbidden to bring PCs, printers, table partitions and other devices that somehow allow you to set up “mini-offices” in the cafes.
According to the new policy, which was sent to all Starbucks coffee shops across the country last week, employees will verbally inform customers about the requirement to remove the equipment if they see it on the tables.
The trend of “cafe work” has intensified in recent years with the proliferation of freelance work, causing complaints from other customers who lacked seats in the establishments at the time.
- The Korea Food Industry Research Institute estimated in 2019 that a 4100 won ($3) coffee covers only 1 hour and 42 minutes of time spent at the table before it becomes unprofitable. In 2024, this figure dropped to 1 hour and 31 minutes.
Some chains have set limits on stays of more than 2 hours or disabling access to outlets, while Starbucks has taken a more categorical approach.
Recently, in one of the Starbucks coffee shops, a customer was spotted with a screen and keyboard behind a partition on a table, thus setting up a personal workspace. Another went a step further and brought a printer into the establishment. In general, there are many such funny examples on the web.
“Following a series of complaints, we have reviewed the issue internally and issued new guidelines for all coffee shops starting Thursday,” said a Starbucks Korea spokesperson. “This is to provide our customers with a more comfortable experience and to reduce the risk of equipment theft when locations are left unattended for long periods of time.”
It should be noted that the ban does not apply to ordinary laptops.
Earlier, ITC talked about a new trend among San Francisco workers who AI voice recorders are carried everywhere to record conversationsas well as about the boss of Cognition, who does not believe in work-life balance and has given his employees an ultimatum: leave with 9 salaries or work 80+ hours a week
Source: KoreaJoongAngDaily, KoreaHerald
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