Question: Do I Have to Make a Purchase to Use a Hot Spot?
Answer: Most locations do prefer that you make a purchase and some places such as McDonald's and coffee shops only offer the Wi-Fi access to customers who have made a purchase.
Using a location only to use the Wi-Fi access could be deemed loitering and you could be barred from that establishment in addition to receiving a ban from all their locations.
Remember, for many hot spot locations, the Wi-Fi access is a secondary business - selling their products is their first business.