[Vince Ferrer]

When I worked in restaurants during my college years, various people would use the restaurant as a homeless shelter, buying a cup of coffee and getting free refills for hours. Once they came in , your income tanked as their seat became dead, revenueless space.

Perhaps it is not the device itself, but using the device for hours which is what the coffee shops don't want.

[hinckley buzzard]

Perhaps it is not the device itself, but using the device for hours which is what the coffee shops don't want.

Exactly. Cofee shops are for paying customers, like any other establishment. Why let a bunch of nonpaying selfish freeloaders take up all their seats and table space? If they want to sit and read their kindl all day they should go home or find a park bench.

NYawk. Figures.

[rockinqsranch]

Exactly. That’s what the article tells us if we think beyond the words of the author.

FTA: “Evidently, too many coffee shops in town have had their ambience wrecked when itinerant word processors with laptops turn the tables into office space.”

[BenKenobi]

Stop talking sense!

[Oatka]

Perhaps it is not the device itself, but using the device for hours which is what the coffee shops don't want.
and
I have to assume that this is because someone using an e-reader sits for a long time sipping on a cup of coffee and taking up a table?

Those are my feelings. All these people getting upset because they can't loiter in a cafe for hours after buying a $2.00 coffee? I don't frequent these places so maybe I'm off base but it seems to me the coffeeshop is there to sell coffee and a tad of ambiance - not to serve as a home away from home. Borders lets you sip a coffee and read a free book - and they're losing their shirts.

To me, a Kindle, etc is a time killer to use on a long journey, waiting at the Drs. office or an airport and not to use in tying up a money-generating space for hours.