Dearth of Power Sockets
October 21st, 2007
I’m sitting at McDonalds. It’s been nearly a year since Wireless@SG was introduced. I was lucky to find a power socket. Looks like life hasn’t changed much in terms of the availability of power sockets for the laptop toting population.
I last wrote about how cafes could attract more people by encouraging them to stay. For outlets like McDonalds which open for 24hours, the late hours can be quiet and one way to boost business is to bring in the laptop crowd. Even coin-operated power sockets would be welcome and turn this into a good business case for these companies.
Maybe somebody could start a community awareness programme to improve the lot of the laptop crowd?
Filed under Technology |7 Responses to “Dearth of Power Sockets”
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Heh I had the exact same problem. We need Power@SG.
yeah Power@SG
maybe this should be a project we can start?
I’m sure if we do it right lots of people will rally to the cause
This is a short term problem. Soon, laptop batteries will last 10 or more hours (some already do, eg. HP2710p) and you will be able to use your laptops without charging for the whole day.
wow! nice to hear from you Lsuen. 10hrs that’s amazing. i’d love to get one of those.
it’s been very frustrating for me because after a few yrs the batteries lose their memory.
It’s quite definitely a useful project. The comments I’ve received though, are that providing power to customers (or not) is more likely a business/profit concern since they’re the ones bearing the power costs.
Pay-per-use might be an option too, but I’m not sure the consumers will take to that favourably. At least I know I won’t anyway =D
It’s common sense, but there has to be an incentive for the locations to provide (free?) power. More consumers perhaps? But that also means seats lost.
And yup, while we’re all hoping for the 10hr laptop battery, it’ll probably still take a longer while before those are commonplace?
there’s the pay per use model. which if decently priced, people will use
there is also the ‘code of honor’ model in which there should be a minium expenditure of $X per hour of sitting there.
the other way is to specify utilization hours. for breakfast, lunch and dinner times, it’s best that customers dont stay. however, the afternoon hours and the late nights are usually slow for business and providing power during particular times can be a great way to draw customers back.
for any restaurant, it’s always better to have some people inside than have nobody because people are naturally drawn to crowds and queues
hM.. I really like the ‘code-of-honour’ model there. Appeal to people’s sense of responsibility instead of trying to force it upon them. Let them be willing to pay instead of forcing them to.
Agreed. Having a customer sit and slack during the lull periods is still better than facing an empty shop. What’s more, it makes the place look more lively and appealing =)
Actually Geek Terminal’s concept is pretty neat in the way that sockets are available only upon request, so the customer feels that he should first order something before asking for a socket.