On Wi-Fi Hotspots and McDonald’s
If you’re a small business owner like me .. you likely have days where you’re running around all over the place. After all, you don’t have a subordinate to send to meetings! One development over the past few years that’s been a blessing on those days is wireless Internet. I have a WiFi enabled laptop and a WiFi enabled hand held organizer, and I love them both like children. About 75% of the time I’m able to find a hotspot either at random or by stopping at someplace like Panera Bread Company (love ya, Panera). In my travels, however, I’ve found one national chain that has hotspots but doesn’t seem to want people to actually use them. McDonald’s advertises that if offers wireless Internet access in its restaurants, but have you ever checked how much it costs? I have. It’s $2.99 for two hours. This doesn’t sound so bad until you find out that you HAVE to use those two hours as soon as you purchase them!
- People like me don’t like to pay $3 to do a quick email check. I’m sure if you look at research, you’ll find that’s what free wireless web access like what’s offered at Panera is used for.
- If you’re going to make me pay, at least let me use what I’ve paid for. Who the heck spends TWO HOURS at McDonald’s? They need to change the system so that you can use it over a matter of weeks or whenever.
- Free web access, or at least a system like I described above, would open McDonald’s to an entirely different set of customers. If you walk into a Panera Bread Company store in the middle of the day, you’ll see that it’s crawling with business people who are eating and getting a little work done. McDonald’s could combine cheaper food with free Internet, and draw a bunch of those businesspeople in. Parents could even get some work done while their kids catch syphilis from those hamster tube play areas.
Now, I know someone out there is screaming that I need a Blackberry or something like it. Sorry … I hate monthly fees! Besides, I’m not whining about finding hotspots. I simply don’t understand the McDonald’s WiFi plan. Fire away if you do.
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Where I live, McDonalds doesn’t offer WiFi at all. And number of hotspots is quite low in general.
…But they’re mostly free! :)
I’m still using EDGE from my PDA-phone. It works anywhere, and I can hook it to the notebook too. Nifty.
Steve,
I couldn’t agree more! I’m not about to pay $2.95 just to check my mail or take a quick peek inside my online classrooms to see if students need anything. I’d frequent McDonalds more often if they had free or more reasonably priced Wifi.
Here in Hawaii, most of the restaurants are being remodeled with multiple drive though lanes and much less interior seating. So I suppose they aren’t looking for much more ‘dine-in’ business. If they want to attract the StarBucks crowd to their McCafe, they need to rethink this model.
I am going to La Esperanza Honduras and I would like to find a hot spot. Do you know of one?
Thanks
Tom