Thursday, August 10, 2006

What brings people to coffee shops?

I'm sick of the news today. I'm sick of hearing about Iraq, Israel-Lebanon, and already very sick of hearing about the foiled terrorist plot (face it, they know very little more than they did early (like 5am) this morning so all news is boring news)... So I certainly don't want to post a news-related post here... so how about something personal?

I like to hang around my apartment from breakfast until lunch to get a little work done and ingest enough eats so that I can leave the apartment to get work done elsewhere for long enough that I won't need to eat any more than the few snacks I brought with me (three clementines today, but usually an apple and two clementines). This not only gives me control over what I'm eating, but it keeps me from spending $5-$10 a day on coffee and other coffee-shop-related eats.

So today after lunch I struggled figuring out where to go. Stauf's is always a good choice. They have plastic cups available and self-serve water that makes them especially appealing. Plus, it's a nice atmosphere. It's large, but not too large, and has a nice window view of Grandview Ave. If it's quiet in the shop and it's raining outside, you can put on headphones and listen to something soothing (like José González) and look out across the few other people in the shop out at the falling rain. It's relaxing and somehow makes for a productive mind.

However, yesterday at Stauf's around 3pm (the day I ran into Tom and Craig) the place was packed and loud. It was hardly ideal. And it scared me away from the idea of going to Stauf's today. So I thought of going to Cup o' Joe by the Lennox. Both shops are close enough to the girlfriend's so that when she calls me I can run over (tonight's softball night, if it doesn't get rained out, and she'll be gone all weekend with the family). I usually am pretty productive at Cup o' Joe, but it's a tiny place and does not provide water with as easy access. Plus, it's harder to smuggle in the aforementioned fruit snacks.

So after much in-car deliberation, I ended up at Stauf's. I'm very happy I came. Today is one of those rainy days with few people and a quiet atmosphere (they aren't even piping in music (crap, they just started!) which makes for a much niftier atmosphere for work and my headphones).

So that got me thinking... What brings a crapload of people to a coffee shop at 3pm on a Tuesday but basically no people at 3pm on a Thursday? Both days had relatively similar temperatures. It wasn't raining earlier today, so I don't think the rain kept people in today.

So what gives? What's the deal?

Any thoughts?

3 comments:

Jenn Onofrio said...

Mmmm... Tuesday was the eve of the Full Moon, and Thursday was the day after?

Anonymous said...

My coffeehouse used to have large amounts of people on random days at random times when groups would decide to meet there to talk business or for school stuff. We also had a knitting group that would meet there on certain afternoons. Maybe all the people were somehow affiliated with one another, even if they weren't doing tons of talking together.

Ted Pavlic said...

That's possible. They all could have been in a knitting group. I didn't think of that.