It seems that the growth in the coffee shop has followed the growth in laptop ownership, but now the two seem to be party company as consumers find that buying an expensive coffee is less important than it used to be. This means that the coffee shop is struggling and so those customers who buy a coffee and spend all day using the free Wi-Fi are not to be encouraged any more in some establishments.
One popular coffee shop is Naidre in Brooklyn, NY; they have decided that because of the economic downturn that laptops and netbooks will be banned during certain times like lunchtime and evenings. These are busy times for the coffee shops and they simply cannot afford to have table space, Wi-Fi and electricity wasted on a customer that is not buying anything, oh how times have changed.
Source [Think Laptops]
