Starbucks asks customers in South Korea to stop bringing printers and desktop computers into stores as workers transform cafés into remote offices

Retail·remote workStarbucks asks customers in South Korea to stop bringing ers and desktop computers into stores as workers transform cafés into remote officesBy Sasha RogelbergBy Sasha RogelbergReporterSasha RogelbergReporterSasha Rogelberg is a reporter and former editorial fellow on the news desk at Fortune, covering retail and the intersection of and culture.SEE FULL BIO Starbucks South Korea implemented a policy asking patrons to not bring bulky items desktop computers and ers into stores.Getty ImagesStarbucks patrons in South Korea are setting up de facto offices at the coffee chain, bringing along their desktop computers and ers

The company implemented a new policy banning bulky items from store locations

In South Korea, where office space is scant, remote workers are using cafés as a cheap place to work

There’s getting cozy at a Starbucks to sip a latte and catch up on s, and then there’s lugging your er and desktop to the coffee chain to clock into work

Starbucks South Korea is experiencing this exact phenomenon and is now barring patrons from bringing in large pieces of work equipment, treating the cafés their own amenity-stuffed office space. “Starbucks Korea has d 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, ers, or other bulky items that may limit seating and impact the d space,” a Starbucks spokesperson told Fortune in a statement

The company said it will continue to be a “welcoming third space.” The store policy change was first reported by the Korea Herald

But the coffee chain’s crackdown on cagongjok, a term referring to individuals spending longed periods of time working at cafés, may indicate a changing attitude toward customers who may be loyal but taking Starbucks’ burgeoning efforts to become a cozy third space for granted

Starbucks continues to oversee its licensed

For years, there have been pockets of cagongjok as a result of the COVID-induced remote-work boom, as well as the rise of temporary-contract jobs ing the 1997 Asian financial crisis, according to Jo Elfving-Hwang, an associate fessor of Korean society and culture at Curtin University in Australia. “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.” Rising visibility of cagongjok Korea has a strong tearoom culture, Young-Key Kim-Renaud, fessor emeritus of Korean language and culture and international affairs at George Washington University, told Fortune. “Even when they were dirt-poor, people gathered in the tearooms to discuss things [] literature, art, , or whatever, and felt that they were civilized,” she said

But cagongjok—a portmanteau of the Korean words for café, study, and a word for a tribe that has taken on a pejorative meaning—has gained public awareness as a result of South Korea’s labor market and remote-work shift

The pandemic caused an influx of employees needing to work remotely, but as many Koreans returned to the office, government redevelopment restrictions limited how much space was available for es to set up their employees in office spaces—especially in South Korea’s capital of Seoul, where rent prices are skyrocketing as es fight over office spaces

Office vacancies in Seoul remained low last quarter at around 2.6%, according to April data from commercial real estate service CBRE, while rent for the offices increased on average 1.5% from the quarter before

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 cafés. “People just started working from more, and [es] 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.” However, not all café owners are so sympathetic to changing labor culture, calling cagongjok “electricity thieves” and claiming patrons stay working at their es for hours while nursing just a single cup of coffee in that time

While the rise of remote workers in cafés 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

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