Beans For Hope – Hope in Every Cup

How many times have you set up a meeting with a colleague, client or friend at your local coffee shop? Coffee shops offer a relatively cheap and quiet meeting place away from the monotony of the regular office. In the past years, coffee shops around the country, and the world, have stepped up and are beginning to turn their shops into work-friendly environments for today’s technically-savvy worker.

In addition to free refills to encourage lingering and secluded areas, many coffee shops are now offering free wireless internet and even rooms that you can reserve for your next meeting. Other food industries are seeing the success of the coffee shop “workplace” and have begun to offer wireless options and a more meeting-friendly environment to attract the workers.
In St. Louis, wireless internet can be found in sandwich shops like St. Louis Bread Company, sports bars like Buffalo Wild Wings, restaurants like TGIFridays and even fast food joints like Dairy Queen. Although convenient, these shops don’t offer quite the same atmosphere and cheap deal as the coffee house.
I mean, where else is it acceptable for you to set up camp for 5 hours, use unlimited free wireless, meet with others in a relatively quiet environment for a measly $2 for a single cup of coffee?

Coffee shops may be facing a dilemma in the coming years, will they be able to continue to offer the ideal meeting place while keeping prices low? Perhaps the next time you plan on meeting at a local coffee shop, consider purchasing the $3.50 specialty drink or a bagel to accompany your beverage. Or maybe meet in a park with a thermos of Beans For Hope coffee and two mugs.

Or possibly, you are okay with taking advantage of the shops willingness to cater to the consumer’s every need… after all, you do have a lot of work to get done.