The Business Blog at Intuitive.com

Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 and is widely recognized as an expert on both technical and business issues. He has been published over a thousand times, launched four Internet-related startup companies, has written twenty business and technical books and holds both an MBA and MS Ed. Dave maintains three weblogs, The Business Blog at Intuitive.com, focused on business and industry analysis, the eponymous Ask Dave Taylor devoted to tech and business Q&A and The Attachment Parenting Blog, discussing topics of interest to parents. Dave is an award-winning speaker, sought after conference and workshop participant and frequent guest on radio and podcast programs.

Starbucks gets a belated clue: free wifi coming soon!

Rather amazing news coming out of Seattle today, after years of losing business and alienating us so-called digital nomads with its stupid T-Mobile partnership, Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) has announced it's switching to AT&T (NYSE: T) for wifi and that

"it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card two hours of free wireless access per day."

Well, duh, Starbucks. Even the cook from the Pequod should have figured this one out by now (*).

The next big challenge is for Peet's (Nasdaq: PEET) to have any wifi connectivity at all. Much to my amazement, I've talked with the manager of the Peet's here in Boulder, Colorado and he says his hands are tied, he cannot offer wifi due to corporate policy. This is the same Peet's that watched its business stolen by Starbucks while it refused to offer seats and tables in its cafes. I mean, people don't want to actually spend time in a cafe, do they?

Tip o' the hat to my Twitter pal Janet Meiners for bringing this story to my attention too.

(*) This is pretty convoluted trivia. Anyone get it? :-)

Posted by Dave Taylor at February 11, 2008 11:55 AM

Comments

Wasnt the cook on the Pequod named Starbucks (from Moby Dick)?

Posted by: Micah Baldwin on February 11, 2008 7:55 PM

Frank Starbuck is the first mate on the Pequod. The cook is actually named Fleece. An explanation of how Stabucks came by it's name can be found here http://productnames.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-was-starbucks-named.html

Posted by: Simon Hibbott on February 27, 2008 5:10 AM

Dazbog Coffee (a Colorado company!) has free wifi, and good beverages besides.

The catch? There is no catch. Okay, you do have to ask the barista for the WPA password, and they consider it bad manners for a person to walk in, sit down and use their wifi without making a purchase.

Their website (http://www.dazbog.com/stores.html)shows a location near you at ... umm ... well, [insert mild expletive, indicating frustration and disappointment]. Nothing in Boulder. nevermind.

Posted by: Ray on May 13, 2008 5:03 PM

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