I was in a cafe last night that had a a magazine I used to read and I realized how much I missed reading magazines.
Up until about 5 years ago I used to spend about an evening a week at the local Borders working my way though around a dozen magazines in a row. Most of these were from the US/UK and had sticker prices of $20-$30 to buy so I couldn’t realistically afford them. However I changed jobs and Borders closed so I’ve gotten out of the habit.
These days the only magazines I regularly read are the Fortune and Time magazines that my local cafe has (they also have 2-3 other magazines I don’t follow plus the local paper). In fact since I have a choice of about a dozen cafes I can eat lunch at one of the reasons I choose that cafe is their magazine selection.
It occurs to me that reading matter is a big part of the cafe experience for some people, however investing in them is a big expense for cafe owners. So my idea is that customers could pay directly for magazines in the local cafe. One possible way would be to have a subscription, I pay say $5 per week and I am allowed to read the magazines that are on offer. I can also vote to help decide what magazines the cafe should subscribe to (I’d suggest STV for any fellow voting geeks out there). Casual readers might pay a $2 pass with their order.
Any resemblance to the Diogenes Club is not entirely accidental
