Schlotzky's is a deli chain that gives away free WiFi — they were among the first to do so, in a bold expeeriment at one of their flagship restaurants on the main drag in Austin, TX, after Starbucks set up shop directly across the street (Schlotsky's also took the incredibly canny step of renaming their coffee sizes Tall, Grande, and Venti and putting a starbusian combinatorial explosion of caffeine-delivery systems on the menu). The company has released new market research showing that free connectivity is a selection-factor for 40 percent of its customers.
Glenn writes,
I've met the CEO and the marketing director when I invited the CEO to speak at a panel I moderated at Wi-Fi Planet last year, and the most interesting aspect of the Wi-Fi is that they're not excited about the technology but its uses. There's a financial aspect to this, of course: the average purchase price of a Schlotzsky's customer is about $7.
But the CEO wasn't a geek; he liked seeing entire families or sports teams or groups of parents and kids come in and spent time using the high-speed connection. It's important to recall that a small but significant minority of Internet users have broadband; for the rest, Schlotzsky's offering is a profound (and free) pleasure.
(via WiFiNetNews)