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‘Screen-Free’ Café and Coffee Shop Bans Laptops

‘Screen-Free’ Café and Coffee Shop Bans Laptops

NPR has posted this look at a café and coffee shop in Vermont that could be on the verge of setting a new trend: banning laptops. The owner of August First Bakery & Café said that she first had to shut down the building’s Wi-Fi, because so many people were coming in and taking up table space all day. But recently, she’s gone even further by implementing a “screen-free” policy, at first only at lunchtime, but now, for the entire day. Though the move was initially a way of freeing up space for more paying customers, owner Jodi Whalen says the policy has another benefit: actual community. “To walk into a place and see people looking at their screens with a blank stare, it takes away just kind of the community aspect of it—of you being in a place with other people.” Since the new policy went into place, sales at August First Bakery & Café have increased …

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