Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Food Court Hands out ‘ No Loitering’ Slips to Paying Customers

There is some drama coming out of our beloved Port city and we hate to see it! Especially when it involves a local business that so many of us love and want to support.

Here’s the tea:

Someone posted to the New Hampshire Eats Facebook page about an unpleasant experience at Heath Market in downtown Portsmouth. The person was enjoying some food and drinks with two friends at the establishment.

They had spent in the neighborhood of $150 and had just put in an order for another round of drinks when one of the pals had to hop on a Zoom call. Someone who works there came over and inquired about the friend on a call. She then left and returned with a slip for the friend on a call and slid it over to him. The slip said:

The comments on this post started to pour in at a rapid rate. The people are fired up.

A few reoccurring comments were:

• The slip was ridiculous and unwarranted. However, if the friend wasn’t wearing headphones during his Zoom call, he should have been
• If they don’t want people to post up and do work there then why post the Wifi all over the building?
• This action directly resulted in a loss of $ for their business which I’m sure was not the intended goal.

To me it feels like discrepancy in visions for the space. When it first opened it felt like it was being marketed as a communal workspace where folks could post up and work as long as they wanted. Somewhere along the way, the vision shifted into a space for people to unplug from their technology and enjoy their surroundings.

In this post COVID world, so many of us work remote jobs and a place like Hearth Market would be so embraced by the community. However, as business owners, Hearth needs to make sure that those who are taking up seats for extended periods of time are indeed paying customers. They were in the example above, but I’d venture to say that is not always the case.

I think we can all agree the “no loitering” slip was not well received. What is the best way to achieve their vision of the space without offending people or making them feel unwelcome? Shoot me a message, I’d be curious to know what you think.