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Cafes ban wifi to make money

Published: 2026-02-23 Author: World Gafei

Last Updated: 2026/02/23, Jodi Whalen and Phil Merrick, who run a bakery and coffee shop in Vermont, finally decided to cut off Wi-Fi because they couldn't stand the fact that customers scrubbed on the Internet as soon as they entered the store and neglected to communicate with others. The name of the store is August First. When the owner tried to cut off the Internet for three hours at lunchtime, he was surprised.

Jodi Whalen and Phil Merrick, who run a bakery and coffee shop in Vermont, finally decided to cut off Wi-Fi because they couldn't stand the fact that customers scrubbed on the Internet as soon as they entered the store and neglected to communicate with others. The store, named August First, was surprised to find that the store was full of laughter again and sales were up 10 per cent from the same period last year, three hours after the store was offline at lunchtime.

"I think our success lies in banning customers from using laptops and tablets, and even cutting off the wireless Internet," the shopkeeper said on his Facebook page.

Of course, this move also drove out a lot of low-consumption "hold this to rub the net" people, the shopkeeper also ended up at leisure. The good news is that turnover and profits have increased rather than declined. It is not known whether Starbucks will also learn from this policy.