Time is money.

That cliché is a way of life in one café.

The Slow Times café in Wiesbaden, Germany has instituted a new policy in which customers are charged on the amount of time they spend on the premises instead of any food or drinks they order.

Owner Daria Volkova came up with the novel concept after seeing other establishments try it in in her home nation of Russia. The system works like a pseudo-parking meter – customers who come in are immediately given a wristband stating the time they entered. They are charged a whopping four cents a minute, which comes out to $2.40 per hour.

And that means those folks who hang out in coffee shops with their laptops working on the next great screenplay could pay a fortune before the curtain goes up on the first scene.

Volkova, who says, “I hope to capture the spirit of the times,” adds to the mayhem by putting clocks in the café all set to different times, which she thinks will prevent people from thinking about time.

With logic like that, you get the feeling some customers are bound to look at the wrong clock and think they have to take out a second mortgage to pay their bill.

[UPI]

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