UF students can now have free Internet with their grande, triple-espresso, non-fat, extra hot chai tea lattes when they go to an off-campus Starbucks.
Although the Starbucks on UF's campus offers free wireless Internet to students through the university's network, off-campus franchises have charged $3.99 for two hours of access.
Free Wi-Fi or not, Brittany Loftus, an education graduate student at UF, said she does not plan to become a regular Starbucks customer. Loftus said Coffee Culture on Northwest 13th Street has been her favorite study spot for the past two years.
"I come here because it's a local business, and I would rather support a local business than support a national chain," she said.
In the fall, Starbucks will also offer in-store access to The Wall Street Journal, but that won't entice Loftus to make the switch.
The Wall Street Journal is a good newspaper, but there are plenty of other free newspapers online, she said.
Coffee Culture owner Alisa Rowe Kenney said she struggled to compete with Starbucks when she opened her first store in 2003. But she, like other coffee shop owners, found a niche. People who like the "slick" atmosphere prefer Starbucks, while people who like an "eclectic" atmosphere prefer Coffee Culture, she said.
Wireless Internet put Coffee Culture on the cutting edge when the store first offered it in 2004. But these days, it's the standard, she added.
"I don't feel threatened at all," she said. "We built a foundation, and the people who come to us are going to continue to come to us."
Anthony Rue, who owns Volta Coffee, Tea & Chocolate in downtown Gainesville, said he thinks the move will hurt Starbucks because they won't serve customers as quickly. Volta has more room for people to lounge than Starbucks does, so if people camp out at Starbucks, there won't be a place to sit, he said.
Kristin Allukian, an English graduate student at UF and a regular Starbucks customer, said Starbucks offers benefits that some of the locally-owned shops don't. Because Starbucks operates on such a large scale, they aren't as dependent on customer turnover, she said.
"I feel like I could stay here all day and have free refills and unlimited parking, and nobody would notice," she said.
Wesley Kokomoor, a UF nuclear engineering graduate student, said he has long accessed Internet at Starbucks by buying gift cards for items he would have ordered anyway. Previously, customers who bought a gift card for more than $5 could get online for two hours.
Starbucks is simply catching up to the rest of the industry and the rest of the world, UF Economics Chair Jonathan Hamilton said. Starbucks has offered free wireless in Europe for years, he said.
The decision to offer free Internet in the United States could be a response to McDonald's attempt to capture some of the coffee market, he said.
McDonald's launched its McCafe campaign in May of 2009, and began to offer free wireless Internet in January of this year.
