Who’d like to invest in a coffee shop in Surfside Beach that is designed purely as a place for people to take their laptops and connect via wi-fi?
There’s a real gap in the market there. And the public library that was my refuge last week has its limitations. For instance, my son-in-law, who is a economist/consultant, needed wi-fi in a place where he could simultaneously talk on the phone — so he ended up going to a Starbucks way up in Myrtle Beach. (Even there, I don’t know how welcome he was, talking into his cell phone in a public place, which suggests the need for a better place that is all ABOUT connectivity.)
OK, maybe “bradwarthen.coffee” is a goofy name for the place — maybe I should get my fellow ad wizards at ADCO to work on it — but I was thinking that it needs a name that tells people it exists for bloggers (like Tim Kelly, who also vacations there and has to go to McDonald’s of all places to get connected) and others who can’t get through their vacations without a reliable place to connect.
This is a bit of a throwback — a decade or two — to the old “Internet cafes” that existed before access was widespread. But I think that in a vacation spot like that that lacks a Starbucks or a Panera, it would have a real chance to catch on.
The money would be made from coffee and snacks, as one certain source of revenue, but they would not be the main attraction. And while my first instincts are that the wi-fi must be free, if it were inviting and accommodating enough (with amenities like LOTS of electrical outlets so you don’t have to jockey for those spaces, and maybe soundproof booths for those needing to teleconference and such) perhaps the market would bear a small fee for the access. I don’t know. This is just the beginning of an idea…
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I think you need to get a place with wi-fi next time. Every beach rental we get has wi-fi, as a necessary feature.
Most beach rentals where we go (Kiawah is first choice, but Seabrook is great, too) have wi-fi, and one would assume owners who desire it, have it.
I agree with Kathryn — our beach rental (in North Litchfield) started supplying us with wi-fi this year after we requested it last year. We all would have been in serious withdrawal without it. (I think the bookstore in Litchfield has wi-fi, too — not sure).
You just keep thinkin’ Butch. That’s what you’re good at.
There’s an Atlanta Bread with WiFi in the Surfside area, but it’s well off the beach, at the intersection of Hwy 544 and 17. It’s on 544, to the right on the Socastee side of 17, next to – gack – Bob Evans.
Believe it or not, after 5 years of spending one or two days a week in the Myrtle Beach area, that’s the only other Wifi I know in the Surfside area.