There’s getting cozy at a Starbucks to sip a latte and catch up on emails, and then there’s lugging your printer and desktop to the coffee chain to clock into work.
Starbucks South Korea is experiencing this exact phenomenon and is now banning patrons from bringing in large pieces of work equipment, treating the cafes like their own amenity-stuffed office space.
“Starbucks Korea has updated its policy so all customers can have a pleasant and accessible store experience. While laptops and smaller personal devices are welcome, customers are asked to refrain from bringing desktop computers, printers, or other bulky items that may limit seating and impact the shared space,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Fortune in a statement.
“It’s quite a cheap way to work really,” Elfving-Hwang told Fortune. “You can just go and have a cup of coffee, work there—but people are taking it a little bit to the extreme nowadays.”
Korea has a strong tea-room culture, Young-Key Kim-Renaud, professor emeritus of Korean language and culture and international affairs at the George Washington University, told Fortune.
“Even when they were dirt poor, people gathered in the tea rooms to discuss things [like] literature, art, politics, or whatever, and felt that they were civilized,” she said.
Korean companies failing to find or afford office spaces has led some to let employees work in third-party co-working spaces or remotely, Elfving-Hwang said, leaving many to flock to cafes.
“People just started working from home more, and [businesses] discovered that they didn’t necessarily need a space in the same way,” she said. “Part of the reason is that it’s become more of a practice that just a lot of companies discovered that they didn’t necessarily need an office of their own.”
While the rise of remote workers in cafes marks the shift of coffee shops from a place of leisure to a place of work, Elfving-Hwang said, she said she believed it was only a matter of time before coffee shops itched to shift the balance back toward reputations of relaxation.
“I was surprised it took so long,” she said.
