Fecking internet cafes!

BLITZ_Molloy

Why do half of them have these big padded chairs that when you sit back any little bit the chair nearly goes into full recline. So you have to perch on the edge of them if you want to stay anyway upright.

And the shelf the keyboard is sat on is usually really ****ing high, so even with the chair set to full height (assuming the the adjustor isn't broken, a rare thing) you end up with a typing position more suited to conducting a symphony orchestra. I'm 5ft11, these set ups seemed to be geared exclusively towards people of 6ft2 and upwards.

I'd vent some more but typing on this machine is annoying so I'll leave it open to the floor. I'm sure ye can think of plenty more things that make not having access to your own computer/internet really frustrating.

the dee

insane rates. €1 miniumum, even you're only there for 10 minutes. 20c per page printing etc. The random CVs in the my documents folder.

Creamy Goodness

seating at internet cafes always put me off tbh, DNC was the only internet cafe to get it right tbh, you could spend hours in there.

Pyr0

Ah good ole DNC...

stepbar

@ a €1 an hour you can't expect much. I don't know how some internet cafes make a profit at all.

Blisterman

Yeah, I was in an internet cafe in London which was a small room with 6 computers. Assuming they were all used at once, the max they'd be getting in was £6 an hour. And there were 2 people working there.

I don't think they fully worked out their business plan.

Cionnfhaolaidh

Anyone remember Cyber Café when is used to be in the Arthouse, Temple Bar? Those were the days. 5 pounds for one hour!

Dave!

Prices all over Europe.... especially Berlin..... are ridiculously low..... like 3/4 hours for maybe €1.50.

I also was wondering how on earth they make a profit.

Creamy Goodness

most of them make their money on the printing/photocopying and or the international phone calls.

stepbar

I think a lot of them are fronts for illegal activity. There used to be an EasyCafe down the quays, with a decent enough trade through it. If EasyCafe couldn't make a profit (a legit company) what does that say for the rest?

someuser90

i hate when the person next to you starts babbling

MagicMarker

I joined the library a couple of days ago, they have computers with free internet access, you're only allowed 60 minutes a day though. However i borrowed my girlfriends laptop and now i'm enjoying unlimited free wi-fi in the very same library. HUZZAH!!!

thelordofcheese

Cremo wrote: »

most of them make their money on the printing/photocopying and or the international phone calls.

^ what he said, the internet access is basically to get people in there so as to get them to print stuff or whatever.
And international phone calls have been a great source of money since we started to have a large foreign community.

CodeMonkey

It costs nothing to run an internet cafe. A smallish one with 30 comps that're always occupied for at least 10 hrs of the day works out to be:
30 x 10hr x €1 x 365 days = €109,500

It costs next to nothing to run unlike a restaurant and 2 minimum wage staff is like what? €40000 a year maybe plus say another €10k for expenses? Selling drinks, food, printing service, phone calls will more than cover other costs. So at least €50k profit for just setting the place up?

They make a small fortune especially those big automated self service ones like the one on the quays.

January

Leisureplex Blanchardstown - 2 euro for 20 minutes. 6 euro an hour

AARRRGH

Yep DNC in temple bar was great.

I was unemployed for a few months after the dot com bubble burst so would spend all night in there playing counter strike...

Was a really relaxed, happy, comfortable place.

The Internet cafes now are all fairly manky, with **** slow computers, filthy keyboards and as pointed out above, ****ed chairs and weirdly positioned keyboards!!

I reckon they're on their way out with WIFI and all that jazz on the way...

stepbar

CodeMonkey wrote: »

It costs nothing to run an internet cafe. A smallish one with 30 comps that're always occupied for at least 10 hrs of the day works out to be:
30 x 10hr x €1 x 365 days = €109,500

It costs next to nothing to run unlike a restaurant and 2 minimum wage staff is like what? €40000 a year maybe plus say another €10k for expenses? Selling drinks, food, printing service, phone calls will more than cover other costs. So at least €50k profit for just setting the place up?

They make a small fortune especially those big automated self service ones like the one on the quays.

What about rent, rates, light and heat, depreciation, annual leave, loan / leasing repayments? Minimum wage for 2 staff would cost min of 32k not taking into account employers prsi etc.

Occupancy rates are highly optimistic IMO.

Still think a lot of them are fronts for money laundering.

AARRRGH

stepbar wrote: »

What about rent, rates, light and heat, depreciation, annual leave, loan / leasing repayments? Minimum wage for 2 staff would cost min of 32k not taking into account employers prsi etc.

Occupancy rates are highly optimistic IMO.

Don't forget insurance... that stuff ain't cheap!

stepbar

dublindude wrote: »

Don't forget insurance... that stuff ain't cheap!

O yeah and insurance :eek:

Joe Cool

I used to work in one. Company owned a few and made most of there money from two or three but always felt the prices were too high myself, so were the drinks and the coffee/teas.

Gave the cheaper rate to most people, mainly regulars. Company made a fair bit off international phone calls and by paying the staff very little. No lunch breaks and using the jacks was fairly tricky. To be fair though, the whole day was like a lunch break but customers used to keep getting in the way.

Most of the shops are now closed or sold on and the business isn't a patch on what it used to be. Some may point to the above paragraphs and say 'of course it went downhill, you were giving discounts.' and this is true but really it was bad decisions by upper management that ruined it.

I honestly dont know how any internet cafe makes money these days, the market looks fairly saturated but I can only assume there is a demand or else we wouldn't have so many.

That is all.

Latchy

Internet usuage is free all uk libarys and internet cafes usualy work out about £1 an hr .Some shopping centres also have internet use at about £1 an hr to .

Peared

I was in an internet cafe bout year and a half ago before I got broadband looking up stuff for holiers. It was a cheap sh*t room in sections with none of yer padded seats, paint falling off walls, dodgy walk up, the whole shebang.

There was 2 spanish young lads a few rows back making lots of noise (we would have had our backs to each other) I could see that they were looking at some kinda live porn feed thingy. After a while the annoying voices turned less voice, more grunt. The two of them were sitting there, having a good oul marvin with not a care in the world. They concluded their business within seconds of each other and then one of them, I sh*t you not, ran into the nearby toilet for toilet roll. Then off they went.

I dont like internet cafes.