Where Does Coffee Culture Draw the Line on Card Games?

A customer who gathered eight people to play cards at an outside table was asked to leave by the café owner, then posted two negative reviews calling the owner petty. Online opinion split between those backing the owner's right to protect other guests' experience and those who argue cafés should accommodate recreational customers, a recurring friction in coffee culture.

The case tests the boundaries of café management. Cafés offer drinks and comfortable seating, and the customer pointed to Go players who met regularly at a Shanghai Starbucks without being asked to leave, so some guests expect the same tolerance. Others hold that a table of eight playing cards takes space from ordinary patrons and shifts the atmosphere owners work to maintain.

During the New Year holiday, gathering friends for a card game is a pastime for many, and cozy cafés naturally become a popular choice. But recently, a customer who invited eight people to play cards at a table outside a café was asked to leave by the owner, and then posted two negative reviews, calling the owner "petty." The incident sparked heated discussion online: some support the owner in protecting other customers' experience, while others believe cafés should accommodate entertainment needs. Should cafés allow card games? Is it reasonable for an owner to turn customers away? This article reviews the incident and various viewpoints, and explores the boundaries and challenges in café management.

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The recently ended New Year holiday must have been a time for everyone to relax fully. Karaoke, card games, and movies are probably essential activities for many during the Spring Festival. Unlike karaoke and movies, card games have much lower venue requirements—as long as you have a deck of cards or a mahjong set and find a place with tables and chairs, you can start playing right away.

So cafés, which offer various drinks and comfortable seating, are indeed a good choice for card game lovers. Call up two or three friends, each orders a coffee, and you can play cards while chatting about life—very relaxing.

One customer had exactly this plan. He invited friends to a café, and after eight people met up, they directly pushed tables together at the entrance to play cards. Just as they were getting into the game, the owner came out from behind the counter and asked them to play elsewhere, saying the café could not accommodate them. This act of shooing customers away naturally upset the consumer, who then posted two negative reviews, arguing that since a café is open for business, it should accept and accommodate customers with entertainment needs, rather than driving away card-playing customers, which seemed "petty."

In this consumer's view, people who come to a café can choose to study or work, or they can choose to chat or play on their phones. Previously, many Go enthusiasts gathered at a Starbucks in Shanghai to play and socialize, and Starbucks did not drive them away. Therefore, café owners should accept consumers with entertainment needs rather than shut them out.

Some netizens also said that cafés in their city have private rooms specifically for card-playing customers; some café owners also said they sometimes play Dou Dizhu with regular customers in their spare time and do not排斥 customers playing cards in the shop.

However, some netizens support the owner's approach: "A café is not a mahjong parlor or a board game room. Playing cards really affects other customers' experience. The boss did the right thing." Many netizens said they go to cafés precisely for peace and quiet. If someone plays cards in a café and loudly discusses and cheers without regard for others, it would seriously affect other customers and cause trouble for them.

In addition, some netizens believe that consumption is essentially a voluntary transaction: consumers can choose the owner, and the owner can choose the consumers. When the owner feels that customers playing cards in the shop will affect others, or even affect the shop's image and business, asking card-playing consumers to leave is understandable.

However, many owners in the comments section helplessly said that their small shops often encounter customers who want to play cards. It is not that they haven't thought about stopping it, but as soon as they step up and tactfully remind them, the shop may get another negative review. Moreover, sometimes the dissuasion has no effect, and in the end they can only turn a blind eye and let customers play cards in the shop.

One owner joked that the shop walls are already covered with various notices, such as "No Smoking" and "No Staged Photos." Now if they want to add a new rule "No Card Playing," there is nowhere left to put it.

Image source: Xiaohongshu

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.