Earlier today, JJ Bean published an article on their site explaining their decision keep their cafe’s wifi-free. In short, the article explained that they believe in face-to-face interaction. Rather than entering a cafe littered with laptops and smartphones, hearing only typing and the occasional “ding” of an incoming email, they prefer their customers to be greeted by good friends and conversation. 

Photo Credit: INeedCoffee

While it does sound like a beautiful concept, I immediately thought it was a fluffy attempt to explain a cost-saving strategy. Internet can be expensive, and outfitting all stores with routers and enough bandwidth to satisfy your average wifi user is a large undertaking.

Of course, JJ Bean will argue that they really do believe in their vision and that cost has nothing to do with it. 

While I am now actually inclined to believe JJ Bean, it is irrelevant. What matters is that JJ Bean has taken advantage of a market without many differentiating factors and created one of their own. A while back, cafe’s with wifi were rare. The locations that had it did quite well and attracted a certain niche of people. Then, that increased traffic interested other coffee shops. Before long, almost every cafe in Vancouver had wifi of some sort.

But JJ Bean is on to something. They are not “that cafe without wifi,” they are “that wifi-free cafe.” By framing their decision as a positive rather than a negative they are targeting a forgotten market - cafe goers that are there for the environment and the people. I don’t care if they are trying to save money or if they truly believe in the original cafe environment (or both). They are differentiating themselves through what the market would consider a deficit, and in such a saturated market, this innovative approach is commendable.

I think there is a huge opportunity for JJ Bean to become an industry leader in a very unexpected way. Now, it is up to the marketing department! And, of course, keep the good coffee coming …