According to this: <a href="http://calvertjournal.com/articles/show/1845/ziferblat-russian-anti-cafe-opens-in-london" rel="nofollow">http://calvertjournal.com/articles/show/1845/ziferblat-russi...</a> it's £1.80 an hour, or £9 to stay as long as you want. A nearby coworking space, Google Campus, is £90 for 30 hours a month with coffee and tea paid for separately.<p>Of course, it would be easy to create an environment that deterred laptop users if that's not compatible with what they're hoping to achieve.
I really think all coffee shops should start charging people for loitering long after they have finish their coffee.<p>I live in Toronto and I can't remember when was the last time my wife and I were able to enjoy a latte while sitting at a Starbucks or Timothys. Nowadays, it seems all coffee shops are overrun with kids doing their homework or whatever. The worst part is that the laptop/tablet people barely make eye contact with others; they are so engrossed in their screen !<p>Thankfully,we found a smaller coffee shop which does not offer Wifi and where the owners discourage loitering / homeworks.
So for 15p I can go in, make my own four-or-five shot latte, spill the milk everywhere because I'm hurrying, stuff my mouth full of biscuits, and walk out again?<p>Do they expect profit..? Or is the rest of the service industry just gouging us silly?<p>[edit: typo]
I'm surprised to find out that it's first of it's kind in London. In Moscow these place became quite common in the recent years; it's a great place to chat with friends, or gather big companies. They usually have a selection of available board games and other company-oriented entertainment.
sounds brilliant. I always feel guilty/uncomfortable sitting too long, but with this kind of place you never feel guilty.<p>1.80 per hour and includes everything (coffee?) sounds like a bargain in London standards. That won't buy you a cup of coffee in most other places as far as I remember, let alone fruit, vegetables, biscuits etc... Even cheaper than co-working spaces(?), especially for casual use.
Clearly the idea has worked in Russia, but I find it hard to see how charging a flat rate can be financially viable. The pricing seems like such a fine line to make it cheap enough for its intended usage (people hanging around and such) but expensive enough to cover the food. As other commenters pointed out already, you could walk in, take a bunch of food and expensive coffee and leave.<p>I think one way of attacking this problem would be similar to taxi-cab pricing (X for the first mile and Y (where Y<<X) for every subseqeunt one. Essentially adding a flat fee of a few bucks just for walking in, then charging a small amount per minute to hang around.
Workshop Cafe in SF does it by the hour, seems to work pretty well. You get 10 hours free to start, it's worth your time to stop by for those hours at least.
There are probably more than 10 "anticafes" in Saint-Petersburg(as "Ziferblat" had great success after opening in early 2012). Some of them are profitable, AIK. Ziferblat is the good place for hanging out, but too noisy to work(many students playing table games around). If you want to work, better choices are "3rd place"("tretje mesto"), me4ta.tv(far away from center, but best choice probably if you're staying in northern districts of the city) or even IMarussia.<p>P.S. In Saint-Petersburg's Ziferblat, you can take coffee-to-go for free but donations are highly welcomed.
So, I run some numbers.<p>First, all back in Euro, the a 20%VAT gives us:<p>1.73 per hour<p>Considering this place is a cafe and runs only during day starting very early, it can run at 12 hrs day. Let's also take the normal accounting standard of 30days per month.<p>This gives us:<p>Monthly income: 1.73 x 12 x 30 x X<p>Where X is the avg hourly nr of people in the cafe'.<p>Say X is 15 --> Monthly revenue: Eur 9400<p>Considering 1 waiter at a cost of 4000, rent at a cost of 2000, utilities at a cost of 500, food/coffee at 1000, we have about EUR 2000 of profits for 1 cafe'. Excluding amortizations and other overhead I probably forgot to consider.<p>But I think 15 hourly is a bit optimistic, how big is this place?
I'm very fond of anticafes as an idea. We usually gather there to play board games or for birthday parties. AMA :)<p>You can drink tea and coffee with cookies or you can bring your own cake or you can order pizza/sushi delivery.<p>We've visited a Ziferblat/Ziferburg in SpB and it's amazing, they're sitting on the top floor of a historic building just opposite Gostinyy Dvor (and near the jealousy-inspiring VK office btw), they even have a piano there.
Coffee in other places is expensive precisely because the price is a stand-in for table-space and queuing rent. The cafe charges for the opportunity cost of someone peeking in seeing the line too long or the tables too full and running out. Same thing with corkage charges—wine-drinkers longer longer.<p>The person who runs into a place like this, grabs food and a latte, and runs out is not doin them economic harm.
The opposite concept can also work: free work space but no outside food or drink.<p>Next Door in Chicago offers a good work environment (tables, some cubicles and private rooms with excellent internet), and is completely free. Using it for work is encouraged. A cafe inside does very good business from the people who are otherwise there to work (no outside food or drink is allowed) . It's sponsored (by State Farm), so it's possible the cafe might not be able to support the space on it's own, but the fact that an environment where work is explicitly free brings substantial revenue for the cafe suggests that model might be viable.
In Japan, see also <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_cafe" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_cafe</a><p>Paying per minute reminds me of paying per minute for virtual servers.
I live in Mykolayiv, small city in Ukraine and we have similar venue here called "Moloko" (milk in ukrainian). It's not snacks or tea/coffee that matters, it's community and events that happen there.<p>Owners actively encourage socialising, there are events almost every day and it hosts several clubs. In fact I just returned a few hours from Mafia club meeting there.<p>Also, they encourage to host your own events there, for free. I. e. they get paid from visitors and you get venue. You can also take higher price for your event if needed.
There is the pretty much the same concept in Paris, except that you pay per hour.
<a href="http://anticafe.fr/en" rel="nofollow">http://anticafe.fr/en</a><p>They have plugs all over the place and the wifi is much better than in any other cafe, which makes it a really nice place for working.
While there are comments that mention getting drinks to go, I think 1.80 pounds are extremely cheap for spending time at a place, drinks and snacks included. I'd go.
> It's funny to see people queueing here to wash their dishes. It's not obligatory, but it's appreciated. They even wash each other's dishes. It's very social.<p>I don't understand why pay-per-minute would lead to this. Doesn't that mean people are paying to wash other peoples' dishes?
Kiev's Ziferblat is a really amazing place: it became a real centre for the city's creative youth with a good selection of free international press (doesn't happen much in Ukraine), nice workshops, movie nights and other stuff. Let's see if Londoners can be as open as Ukrainians.
Interesting. Moscow has had these for quite a while.<p>From the owner side, it seems like the way to keep people from buying the cheapest thing and occupying a table.<p>From the consumption side, is seems like another way to squeeze more money out of people and give another reason to exclude people on basis of economics.
Genius idea! Long thought that about a space you could turn up, surf the web, chill out. If they have set this up as they describe could feel move like your home away from home. Surf the web, grab a drink, make some new friends etc. Going to check it out soon!