{"id":17901,"date":"2014-07-12T12:44:39","date_gmt":"2014-07-12T16:44:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canadianbudgetbinder.com\/?p=17901"},"modified":"2025-01-31T05:47:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T05:47:04","slug":"free-wi-fi-establishments-eating-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalskyweb.co\/canadianbudgetbinder.com\/2014\/07\/12\/free-wi-fi-establishments-eating-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Would you spend money at a restaurant without free Wi-Fi? : The Saturday Weekend Review #80"},"content":{"rendered":"

TURN OFF THE TV AND EAT YOUR DINNER<\/span><\/h2>\n

When I was growing up nobody I know had heard of Wi-Fi (I’m showing my age). When we sat down to eat family dinner we enjoyed our food with no distractions except friendly conversations with each other.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today it seems the complete opposite where families have dinner with the television on while surfing the net on their smartphones, tablets or other devices that hook up to the internet.<\/p>\n

Family values certainly have changed and maybe if we just put our devices away we’d learn more about each other rather than what’s happening on Facebook.<\/p>\n

Same goes with dating and devices. If you want to meet someone forget about your darn smartphone while you are out and look up.<\/p>\n

No one will ever approach a face that is looking down. This is the reality though in many establishments in Canada and around the world.<\/p>\n

Is free Wi-Fi really in demand?<\/p>\n

What is Wi-Fi?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you don’t know what Wi-Fi is then you must be living under a rock, right? Well, not everyone knows and I’m betting that my parents who don’t even own a computer let alone a cell-phone couldn’t tell you what Wi-Fi was nor would they care about it.<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi <\/a>is simply a facility that allows you to connect to the internet on your device i.e: Smartphone, iPod, Tablet etc. wirelessly with-in a certain area.<\/p>\n

Wi-Fi hot spot<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you are someone like me who doesn’t own a smartphone with a data plan you likely won’t care about hot spots but for those that don’t have a data plan, internet access they might. A hot spot may be an area with free Wi-Fi although it might not be free for the taking.<\/p>\n

It simply may be the homeowner or business owner forgot to protect their internet connection and now everyone is using it because they are on the hunt to find free Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

There used to be a family in our neighbourhood who didn’t protect their internet so it was wide-open for the taking. Sure, it’s not right but people do it because they can. Now, there is a password but certainly something to watch out for because if someone spots your hot spot, they’ll come after you for it.<\/p>\n

If you rent a room in your house and there is no password on your internet be aware that your new roomies may be downloading movies and all sorts that might put you over your plan costing you big bucks too. Strong Passwords rule! Protect yourself.<\/p>\n

Businesses and Wi-Fi<\/span><\/h2>\n

How to get free Wi-Fi just about anywhere? That’s easy. These days all you need to do is visit a restaurant, coffee shop or fast-food joint and you can instantly hook up to their free Wi-Fi. Why? They want your business and they are in huge competition with other businesses who are offering free Wi-Fi to the customers. I’m just waiting for the day that grocery stores start offering free Wi-Fi. You watch and see!<\/p>\n

Just the other day I overheard a couple trying to decide where to go out and eat with the family and the wife said no to one restaurant because it didn’t have free Wi-Fi. I instantly thought about how I grew up and how it differs today.<\/p>\n

We try to teach our children manners at the table and here we have some parents who think nothing of pulling out their smartphone to roam the internet while waiting for dinner instead of chatting with the most important people, their family.<\/p>\n

It’s not uncommon, just look around next time you go out to eat and see how many people are buried in their devices and whether the business offers free Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n

Personally, I’d rather chat to my family, but that’s just me. We survived before without the internet at the dinner table and I’m pretty sure we will survive again.<\/p>\n

No more free Wi-Fi<\/span><\/h2>\n

I was reading an article on Yahoo about how Applebee’s in the USA is banning the use of devices on Tuesdays<\/a> which they will call “No Tech Tuesdays” which I thought was brilliant. I’m not sure how well that will go over with this generation of tech savvy customers but it might be a stepping stone to get back to the basics.<\/p>\n

I’ve been in many places that don’t have free Wi-Fi and probably never will. Some places are even ditching the Wi-Fi trying to get people to interact with each other.<\/p>\n

Many people like to just chill out alone at a coffee shop with their laptop to do work or homework rather than doing it at home or at the office so no Wi-Fi could be a disaster for them. The end of the world, really!!<\/p>\n

I suppose they could carry a Rogers rocket stick, Rocket Hub, Rocket Mobile Hot Spot or Rogers Express card (I don’t know what other providers have) with them but that costs money.<\/p>\n

If a business is willing to pay for their employees to work outside of the job site than maybe it’s an option to pay. If you are doing it just because you can and are paying the bill you might want to ask yourself, is it really worth it unless you can haggle a deal<\/a> from your provider?<\/p>\n

Sure not everyone has kids or a partner in tow when they go out to eat but what happened to good old-fashioned conversation with new people? Why do we have to let opportunities pass us by because we are suffocating ourselves with what’s happening in others’ lives that we likely could care less about?<\/p>\n

Table tablets<\/span><\/h2>\n

Then I read on to find out that the establishment was ordering tablets for all tables which sounds interesting…remember the jukebox? Well, this is the jazzed up version where you can listen to tunes, go shopping online and order more food.<\/p>\n

Yes, you can even order food, play video games, surf the net and spend money. The games and fun are great if you are at Chuck E. Cheese<\/strong> but for a sit down restaurant, maybe it’s a bit much? So, not only are you spending money eating out which is fine as long as you budget<\/a> the costs but now you are tempted with online shopping while eating and purchasing more even if your waitress isn’t around.<\/p>\n

I suppose you could do all the above on your own smartphone but what happens if they ban the use of devices, there’s no free Wi-Fi and if you want to use the tablets you have to PAY. Would you fork out the cash to eat a meal and surf the web then?<\/p>\n

When it comes time to pay your bill you don’t have to get frustrated if your server is missing in action, use the tablet to pay your bill. I wonder if servers will see tips go down because they are doing less in terms of service.<\/p>\n

Will the tablets replace the servers? Probably not unless they hire robots to bring you food and drinks to the table and greet you. Then again I wouldn’t put it past a restaurant who has a conveyor belt that ships out food to tables…ha ha…way too far ahead in our times I think.<\/p>\n

Then again there were servers on roller skates back in the day so never underestimate the power of the future. Look where we are at now. Scrambling to find a restaurant offering free Wi-Fi so we don’t have to use up data plans while eating a meal. That or maybe wireless providers should lower their rates so people don’t go nutty looking for free Wi-Fi. Just another reason I don’t own a cell phone in the first place.<\/p>\n

Would you go to an establishment if it didn’t offer free Wi-Fi? What do you think of the tablets at each table that Applebee’s in the US wants to bring in? Would you use it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

CBB at home and the blog<\/span><\/h2>\n

\"romaine-lettuce-and-butter-lettuce-from-garden\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What a week it was at home. We managed to get some small jobs completed around the house. We picked up a nice iron garden stand for $1.00 at a garage sale so I sanded it down and sprayed it black and back to new. I also did a few other bits like a peg board for the kitchen which I sprayed black around the edges as it was an ugly grey colour.<\/p>\n

The garden is looking really good out front still although I have to do some weeding in the back garden this week. I’m planning on bathroom renos to be in full-swing with-in the week.<\/p>\n

I have some over-time to do for work but that won’t put too much of a dent in my plans. I really need to get at least one bathroom done in the next month though so I’ll be working harder than ever but I’m particular so it has to be done right.<\/p>\n

The basil is looking amazing as well in the pots and my wife and I are planning on picking the lot and making a basil pesto<\/a> and freezing the cubes like last year. We could jar the pesto but it’s much easier for us to freeze them in muffin tins and put them in freezer bags to use during the winter months.<\/p>\n

I also made a black bean, chickpea, eggplant dip<\/strong> the other day and it turned out amazing. I used herbs from the garden to jazz up the flavour and then layered it with plain yogurt, homemade salsa and shredded cheddar cheese to bring to a backyard BBQ <\/a>with nachos. \ud83d\ude42 I’ll be posting the recipe in an upcoming Sunday blog post so watch out for that.<\/p>\n

We have some garlic scapes as well that we will toss in the food processor along with a suggestion of sunflower seeds from my online friend Aunt B. Brilliant idea if you don’t want to spend the money on paying for pine nuts which cost a fortune. You can also use almonds as well.<\/p>\n

Our apple tree will have no fruit this year as it’s taking the year off. That is perfectly fine with me though because I have more than my fair share of work to get done around here.<\/p>\n

I think I promised you last week I’d post a photo of the butter lettuce from my father-in-laws garden which we’ve been eating. It melts in your mouth. So forgive me but it’s up now.<\/p>\n

We tried growing lettuce a couple of years in a row but apparently he says you need to stagger the times which we didn’t. Probably why we were overwhelmed with so much lettuce. Next week I’ll post more photos of the garden so you can see how it’s coming along.<\/p>\n

\"Dairy-Queen-Treats\"<\/p>\n

Other than that I lost a bet with the wife (no it had nothing to do with the World Cup either) so off to Dairy Queen<\/strong> we went where I bought a Banana Cream Pie Blizzard<\/strong> (my first blizzard) and she had a Buster Bar<\/strong>. It was nice to get out and enjoy some time together even if it meant spending $8.00 of our entertainment budget.<\/p>\n

The blog……<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you remember me complaining about not getting emails with new blog posts from my fellow personal finance bloggers that I subscribed to, I’ve sorted that out. After I set up a new email account and started subscribing again to the blogs that I follow and had that email forwarded to my main email, I solved the problem.<\/p>\n

I guess in my old blogs dashboard somehow a check box was check mysteriously all of a sudden which stopped any new blog posts from those blogs being sent to my email, including my own. I check my own blog posts every time I post to make sure the email version is working.<\/p>\n

So, if you are a blogger and notice I’m unsubscribing don’t panic it’s because I’m now getting two of every new blog post. It’s just a huge time waste but I had to do it because it is the easiest way for me to read and respond to my favourite blogs with comments. I’m almost back on track.<\/p>\n

As for the surprise I will be sharing…keep on reading The Saturday Weekend Review because this is the post I will let you all know what’s going on, very soon!!<\/p>\n

Have a great week everyone!<\/p>\n

~Mr.CBB<\/p>\n

Guest posts wanted<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you are a Personal Finance Blogger<\/strong> I\u2019m looking to book High Quality Guest Posts<\/strong> for the months of September and October<\/strong> to help me get through a very busy period. It\u2019s a great way to share your thoughts and the way you write with my fans.<\/p>\n

If you are interested please contact me today as spots are filling up.<\/p>\n

~MR.CBB<\/p>\n

Weekly CBB posts<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you missed any CBB posts from the week here is the list of posts you can catch up on reading!<\/p>\n