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« My Involuntary Intel Transition | Main | Monorail Service To Resume » July 30, 2006Tully's: Grande Americanos ... And Free WiFiFriday's PI had a blurb about Tully's Coffee - turns out they're going to start offering free Wi-Fi in their 79 stores, effective immediately. Why are they doing it? Oh, because it's a good competitive weapon: "Free Wi-Fi will bring more people into the stores," said Tom O'Keefe, Tully's founder. "Will there be people who sit in the corner and get a cup of water? Yes. But most will come in and drink our coffee, and I want more customers. Once I get them in, I get them in." Now, I don't want to rain on Mr. O'Keefe's parade, but it turns out that most of the coffee shops near my place on Cap Hill - Victrola and Fuel being two of my favorites - already offer free WiFi. So while I agree with Tully's reasoning and business decision, I feel like they're a bit late to the game. That said, it does seem that this might be a good marketing move for free WiFi overall. Tully's caters to the mass-market gourmet-coffee-n-pastry crowd. These folks are Starbucks' core customers, and are likely not buying from the indie coffee place down the block. For those people, free WiFi might be something of a novelty, or at least a talking point that gets them buzzing about how neat it is. So. Who knows? This might be the start of something good. It's one thing for your local bookshop, restaurant or coffee joint to give up the free WiFi love, and quite another for a larger business to make it part of their competitive arsenal. If it takes business from Starbucks - or at least makes them a little uncomfortable - we might see something similar from our green-logoed friends. And that would be great. (In the meantime - check out Seattle Wireless for up-to-date hotspots!) Posted by Gavin Shearer at July 30, 2006 3:36 PM. Posted to Geek. CommentsRegardless, their new bus ads are hi-fuckin-larious: Posted by: Marnie at July 30, 2006 5:19 PM Do you think Tully's will turn off the WiFi on weekends ala Victrola? Not sure how T-Mobile would feel about SBUX going free WiFi...and what would that mean for your next trip to UK? Posted by: Ben at August 1, 2006 9:44 AM Post a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)« My Involuntary Intel Transition | Main | Monorail Service To Resume » |