Two cafes have restricted the use of laptops at lunchtime in an attempt to stop remote workers “hogging” tables.
Milk and Bean in Newbury has limited customers to using their laptops for an hour on weekdays but has implemented a complete ban on weekends.
The Collective, based in Caversham, has banned the devices between 11.30am and 1.30pm on weekdays and completely at weekends.
Alex Middleton, The Collective’s manager, told the BBC that the policy was about finding a “balance” which “doesn’t compromise us losing money”.
“We are a small independent business, so we need to keep those tables busy and turned around,” he explained. “We can’t have people hogging the tables and we don’t want to disrespect people that come in with laptops either.”