Starbucks and WiFi
So I'm standing in line this morning at the local Starbucks on Manchester rd, just east of 141, to get my morning fix of coffee. While standing in line I notice a gentleman sitting in a booth with his Dell laptop reading Yahoo Finance. My first thought was poor fellow, what a shitty laptop. My second thought was about Starbucks finally having WiFi in St. Louis. About 3 years ago, I used to write Starbucks on a monthly basis pleading that they needed to try out WiFi here in St. Louis. At this time, hotspots were few and far between. Also at this time, I would have paid a nominal fee for WiFi while drinking coffee. Shortly thereafter, Panera bread trumped Starbucks and offered free WiFi to customers in virtually every store in St Louis. So not only did they beat them to the punch, they pushed the envelope further by making it free. Thank you Panera for being the ambassador of free wifi. You have received hundreds of dollars of patronage from me because of this. Anyway, back to my point. After I left Starbucks, I was curious what the fee was to use their Wifi(provided by T-Mobile). After surfing to the website, I was blown away by the cost. Here is the breakdown.
- $29.99 per month for Unlimited National - Annual(1yr contract)
- $39.99 per month for Unlimited National - Month to Month
- Pay as you go - $6.00 minimum charge for 60 minutes plus $.10 for each additional minute
- DayPass - $9.99 for 24hrs of service
Is it just me or is this a complete rip off? I'm thinking something along the lines of free would be appropriate. After all you are paying for a pricey cup of joe while you are there.