There's finally a way to make sure you get a seat at the coffee shop

Snagging a seat at the coffee shop can be a total pain. If you fail, it's annoying to schlep your laptop somewhere else, and it's arguably even more annoying to stand. After all, you haven't even had your coffee yet.

The Portland, Oregon, startup Workfrom already reviews coffee shop WiFi accessibility for all you students and freelancers out there, and now they're taking things a step further. In a partnership with San Francisco-run Density, they can tell you when there's a seat open at your favorite hangout spot.

It's a surprisingly simple process. They place a sensor in an establishment's door frame that tracks, in real time, how many people are coming and going.

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The technology could have even bigger applications, as the Density CEO told Wired. He imagines it could be used at polling booths to minimize voters' frustration with long lines and increase election turnout.

For now, Workfrom is only testing this day-saver in a handful of coffee shops near them. In other words, the dream of the '10s is alive in Portland.