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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.

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Posted by Mike Shoemaker on February 15, 2005 12:52:43 PM CST #


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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Amit on February 15, 2005 1:20:07 PM CST #
Well, First let me start out by saying I agree their prices are a TOTAL rip off... But TMobile is targeting travelers/people who are constantly on the road. Having a Tmobile account has made things so much easier for me. For example, Tmobile has hotspots in most airports, several hotels, every kinkos, most starbucks, etc. So, just being that starbucks and kinkos have about 10 to 100 locations in any major downtown I can get online from pretty much anywhere, even my car (not saying that checking email and driving is safe, but hey i've done it, and i'm sure you have too). St. Louis is nice though, they offer free wifi downtown. I wish other cities could be like that. Starbucks actually f'd up by choosing to go with Tmobile... Anybody living in non-downtown areas, who would just stop by for a cup of joe is not going to dish out the money, especially when they can go to almost any other coffee shop and get online for free. Btw, I'm fortunate my company pays for my Tmobile, so I shouldnt be bitching.
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Brad Shuler on February 15, 2005 2:06:16 PM CST #
I was going to post that there are probably people who just expense their T-Mobile cost -- but the previous guy beat me to it.

I used to be able to use my Nokia 3650 and T-Mobile GPRS T-Zones service to access the web anywhere using Bluetooth to my PowerBook. It was sweet. I think they shut me out since I haven't successfully got a connection in months.

Anyway.. Panera WiFi is great. A few of the newer Panera's have been built on property owned by Dierbergs. Starbucks also wanted to build nearby. Dierbergs forced them to share the same outlot/building. At HWY94 & Mid Rivers Mall Dr in St. Charles county you see the result -- both Panera and Starbucks sharing a wall. I am told that this Dierbergs-forced situation also exists in Fairview Heights and was supposed to be coming soon to O'Fallon. I have sat in Starbucks and surfed Panera. Kinda of makes you feel like a criminal as you wipe off your "cappuccino mustach" with a wry smile..

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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Mike Shoemaker on February 15, 2005 4:09:26 PM CST #
Considering that probably less than 1% of Starbucks business comes from travelers, I have a hard time buying that. I guess my point is that it may make sense for your company to pay your monthly service charge, but it doesn't make sense for Starbucks to "sell" WiFi in this manner. Too many customers will go elsewhere.
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Amit on February 15, 2005 4:15:06 PM CST #
I said the majority of TMobile's hotspot business comes from travelers... So, like I said, I think its stupid that starbucks chose Tmobile as their provider. Oh, btw, Starbucks does get a cut of money for every person that signs up for tmobile at a starbucks location, and each starbucks branch is "rewarded" on how many people sign up at each branch. Makes ya think...
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Matthew Porter on March 13, 2005 11:23:52 AM CST #

Starbucks really seems to have changed their business philosophy in the past 5 years. They seemed to be moving (or have moved) to the fast food model- Get In and Get Out. For them, free wifi doesn't make sense. For example, most of the newer stores are smaller and have drive-thrus. They seem to have abandoned the Third Place model that tey pioneered.

That being said, the Starbucks off Highway K sits right next to Panera Bread Company. A thin wall separates free wifi and T-Mobile. Yes, one can sit in Starbucks and surf off Panera's wifi. I would feel guilty in Panera's coffee was at least decent.

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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Mike Shoemaker on March 13, 2005 12:12:36 PM CST #
I agree with you Matthew. They put up a closet sized starbucks around the corner from me(Ries and Manchester) and there are probably only 3 small tables to sit at. There is, of course, a drive through to get you out of their hair in a hurry. Although I think Panera's coffee is decent, it isn't Starbucks. My panacea would be for a small mom and pop coffee shop to open near my house. I prefer to spend my money at these kinds of places. I would even be willing to drive further if such a place existed. Who knows, maybe it does. I know of no way to efficiently find out what hotspots exist in the St. Louis area. I found numerous sites that claim to have this info, but they all seem to miss one or two that others have so it's hard to trust any of them.
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Scott on September 14, 2005 9:16:04 PM CDT #
Starbucks coffee is terrible - very bitter - Panera coffee is much better, even better than Dunkin Donuts IMO. It is much smoother and tastes fresher than Starbucks. Don't know how people can say Starbucks coffee is good...must be the name although their coffee shops are very inviting and warm and is a nice place to hang out. And their Frapachinos are good.
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from David H Dennis on June 25, 2006 5:59:18 PM CDT #
I'm not a coffee drinker, so I don't know about that, but Panera does do great pasteries. Their Giant Cinnamon Rolls are great, and I also like their cinnamon bagel. Their hot chocolate is also very good.

Alas, their food isn't. It all appears to be microwaved junk prepared in some massive central place. Service is pretty friendly, which is rare for the Pittsburgh area.

I'd certainly rather use it than for-pay Starbucks.

D

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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Anonymous on July 23, 2006 2:43:33 PM CDT #
of course it's a ripoff -- mom and pop stores share their wifi for free(at somehwat insignificant expense) but this mega-funded Starbucks partners with another telecom corporation to charge us $30-40 a month? or $10 a pop? i mean $3-$5 mmmmaybe but cmon.... they do it because they can, because they're corporate minded (totally contrary to the founder's BS about europoean community blah blah), and i imagine they get enough business without laptop campers so they don't really care. So now to be proACTIVE, would anyone professionals / responsible / trustworthy parties out there be interested in brainstorming how to share an account with me? i think it would be pretty easy to avoid logging on at the same time, and we could have the convenience of jumping on if we needed to without paying for it like its our home utility bill. get in touch if you think it's a good idea, hopefully tmobile has bigger fish to fry than scanning this blog to prosecute us.
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Re: Starbucks and WiFi

Comment from Anonymous on July 23, 2007 7:14:37 AM CDT #
I foolishly assumed Starbucks had free WiFi. I don't know where I got that idea. I bought an expensive cup of coffee and I tried to use it for 5 minutes to check emai last week while on holiday. It cost £5 ($10) an hour. A few days before, I used a cybercafe for 15 minutes. It cost 50p, ie. 10 times less - with no other purchase. To my mind, it's like I bought an expensive cup of coffee, and then when I asked for a glass of water, Starbucks wanted me to pay them £5 (and fill out a form to open an account with their municipal water company to pay for it.) That's why I won't ever go to Starbucks again.

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