What else are you going to do while you wait for your laundry?

Joy Wash, Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC

"Shaw Go WiFi" sticker in the window of Joy Wash, Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC

Vancouver is still in the throes of a condominium building boom. Although all of the new condominiums include individual laundry facilities in every unit, there are still plenty of old apartment buildings that with either shared laundry or none at all.

And that is how a business like Joy Wash has managed to stay in business. (Although I give the business only a couple of years before all the shops are evicted and the entire block of mainly one-storey buildings gets redeveloped.)

In recent years Shaw, the cable firm, has been engaged in an aggressive plan to roll-out WiFi hotspots at retail stores and other locations. And this location, a laundromat, makes perfect sense. You are sitting there waiting for your washing to be finished. Your mobile telephone is in your hand and you don't want to burn through your minutes. So, you connect to the WiFi and surf away to your heart's content.

But wait, there is a catch. You have to be a customer of one of the Shaw Internet plans.

Source: http://shaw.ca/wifi/

What a great way to ensure customer loyalty.