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01/23/2005: "Why Should You Pay for WiFi when You're Spending Money?"

I tried to logon to the net via WiFi at Barnes and Noble. Well, it was easy enough. If I wanted to pay out of the nose. Same thing at another place where I was shopping. Now had I been allowed to logon without paying for it, I would have stayed longer and bought more. If you have to pay to use WiFi at several places where you want Internet access, you're not going to spend as much in the stores.

I happened to go to Watermark Books for a sandwich and to look around and discovered they had WiFi. Guess what? It was FREE!

Now that's GOOD BUSINESS. And that's where I spent my book money for the week. And that's where I'll return. It's not that I want things for free. I'm a capitalist and I expect to pay for what I get. But if you pay every store for WiFi, you'll soon be broke. And it seems to me that WiFi in a store should be a perk to get and keep customers.

It works for Watermark.