| This Will Hurt Tmobile I think this will certainly hurt TMobile because many people consider the free wi-fi and the lower prices and offset for TMobile only having EDGE. When you take Starbucks out of the equation, TMobile's offering shrinks in size.
Conversely, Starbucks isn't what it used to be. As Starbucks has been trying to drive up its bottom line, the newer stores seem smaller and less comfortable places to hang out and use your laptop. |
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| said by stufried:I think this will certainly hurt TMobile because many people consider the free wi-fi and the lower prices and offset for TMobile only having EDGE. When you take Starbucks out of the equation, TMobile's offering shrinks in size. Conversely, Starbucks isn't what it used to be. As Starbucks has been trying to drive up its bottom line, the newer stores seem smaller and less comfortable places to hang out and use your laptop. T-Mobile WiFi has never been "free". This will not hurt TMobile.
Starbucks was never meant to be a comfortable place to hang out. The overwhelming majority of SBUX business is takeout; the loungers are just there for effect. |
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| You are misreading my comment about "free." What I meant to say was that TMobile subscribers (and I should have said TMobile data subscribers) have justified their $19 a month unlimited internet plans (which use the slower EDGE network) as a great deal because it was: (a) cheaper than everyone else; and, (b) because TMobile tossed hotspot access in and if you needed to do something data intensive, "you could always drop by a hotspot." I never meant to imply that TMobile was giving their access away.
With respect to the hanging out nature of Starbucks, Starbucks was modeled off a European Coffee house and that is precisely what you do in a French or Austrian coffee house. You can easily kill half the afternoon over three espressos and an overpriced pastery.
Part of what you were paying for was the right to sit their and sip a coffee talking to friends without having a watress hovering over you and complaining that everyone just ordered a coffee.
I've seen many sales reps sitting in Starbucks, checking e-mails and returning calls. This was more two years ago than today. I think mobile data devices, 3g datacards, etc. may have cut into this. |
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