Closed for Business

By | December 5, 2007

051220071273
Originally uploaded by Loose Wire.

I’m amazed by how many restaurants, cafes and bars scare away business by not allowing patrons to use their power outlets.
In Hong Kong, the manager at Dan Ryans in Pacific Place said they were worried that people recharging phones or running laptops off their outlets would damage the circuitry or, somewhat less plausibly, interfere with the train set that runs above the tables and bar.
In coffee club in Singapore, I noticed the above: tape over all the power outlets.
Sorry, but this kind of thing is lame, especially when the place is empty. If they’re scared folk are just going to buy one drink and lounge all day, so be it, but I don’t see many people doing that, to be honest. Better would be an approach that said, here, use our power, just don’t do it when we’ve got a restaurant full and people waiting. Instead, I found myself sitting in an empty cafe save a woman complaining to a man about how hard it was for a beautiful woman to grow old.

3 thoughts on “Closed for Business

  1. Rani

    the short circuit is exactly the reason why NUH forbid me to use their power outlet while waiting for my pregnancy check up.

    Reply
  2. Eagle

    This is one of my main gripes with airports around the world! The one (positive) exception is Singapore Changi airport, where they make it easy for passengers to hook up to power, and even internet.

    Reply

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