Earlier today I was in St. Louis adjusting some machines at our St. Louis Datacenter, and everything went well. I was on my way home about 1130 after only being there since 930. This was shaping up to be a good day. Then I started hearing strange noises and pulled off at the Shiloh exit. Apparently the valve stem on my tire was broken. I limped home on the spare and headed to the tire shop to get back up to speed. Since they have WiFi available, I did not have to miss out on work. This brings me to my question for you, readers: Do people consider or prefer businesses that have WiFi available for public use?

WiFi is not the reason I prefer this tire shop, but on a Monday where I have a flat tire, it does make it much simpler to get things done. So I looked around and started wondering if people do make decisions about where to shop and do things based upon connectivity.

Maybe on a day when I’m working from home and feel like a coffee, I’ll head to a shoppe that has WiFi so I don’t have to grab my ‘joe’ and go. A number of places are advertising connectivity for customers, and I’m curious if any of you base where you shop on whether you can hop online with your laptop, Droid, or other machine.

Are geeks the only people who prefer businesses with free WiFi? I find that hard to believe since fast food restaurants, coffee shops, and even truck stops make a very defined effort to let you know that WiFi or other Internet access is available for use. Maybe it is just the flavor of the month for everyone to offer wireless at their locations.

Surely someone out there can tell us whether the geeks are alone in paying attention, or if Joe Everyman pays attention too. Let me know if WiFi affects your decision of where to go or where to shop at askageek@register-news.com