Would you move tables at a Cafe?

As you say there plenty of other tables they could have used so they shouldn't have asked you in the first place let alone be so rude.

Go to the library if you want to study. You were bang out of order

You were completely unreasonable and she was rude.

@GreenTeaLikesMe - the OP has said that the library is shut on a Sunday.

And taking up a booth for four is really not OK.

Banning laptops is a bit much. If I’m on the way back from a meeting or similar, I might spend half an hour checking through and answering emails, or doing some paperwork, while having something to eat and drink. As long as you are spending about the same amount of time as other customers and buying the same amount of products, I don’t see the issue. Taking up tables for hours is rude, though. Go to the library or find one of those rent-an-office spaces.

I’m sorry, @Ourlittletalks - are you suggesting that the OP should have stood around like a lemon when she arrived at the cafe, when there were tables available, in case a bigger group came in after her? How long should she have waited for?

Just because she was on her own, doesn’t make her some sort of second class citizen who doesn’t deserve to take a seat until all the bigger groups who might visit the cafe that day have finally arrived and been seated!

The way she spoke to you was appalling.
I however that you were also unreasonable to take up a table for 4 and work there.

They're literally not though, the person sitting there is entitled to it.

My god. How on earth did you not lose your shit at those comments? That’s so unbelievably aggressive of her!!!!!!!

I believe society has become an awful more combative in recent times. I’m getting people coming at me aggressively regularly now and I’m really struggling to stay anything close to calm. Kudos to you.

The staff shouldn't have to TELL them to leave, or put signs up FFS.

Fine. Then they're going to have to accept that some customers will be less 'profitable' than others. That's how it is in a cafe. If this isn't to their liking, maybe they should start a takeaway business or set some ground rules.

And who says a booth is a 'family table'? It's not like screaming toddlers are going to be highly profitable either, if that's all you care about.

Did a laptop using student steal your boyfriend once or something? This all sounds very personal and a bit weird.

😂😂 why do SOME people get so FUMING over these SMALL things?? Your blood pressure must be through the roof, and for what?

You're totally missing the point! The point is, why do SOME people think they are so special and precious, that they think they have the right to occupy a table for FOUR PEOPLE in a public cafe for 4-5 hours, and use it as their office space?

The staff shouldn't have to TELL them to leave, or put signs up FFS. It's basic common sense and decency. People should not be so bloody entitled and rude and obnoxious, as to think it's OK to take up a family table for half the day to do their 'big important job!'

No WAY are they going to spend anywhere near as much money in the time they are occupying the table (4+ hours quite often) as a bunch of groups of 4 people would in the same timeframe.

Basic common sense FFS! I despair!

Well there is 4 of them compared to 1, and it's a table for 4, so yeah they kind of ARE more entitled to it!

😆

Both of you were unreasonable.

she should have been polite when asking, and shouldn’t have verbally abused you when you declined.

you should have waited until a smaller table became available and sat there when you first arrived rather than taking up 4 seats when you only needed one. (As someone who worked in many different cafes and restaurants over the years, people hogging large tables for 1 or 2 people are extremely irritating and entitled). Also, it’s a coffee shop, not your personal office. If you’re in the way, just move.

Nero is the worst cafe for table hogging laptop users, no idea why they gravitate there more than other chains. However, it's fine for a reasonable length of time, say 30 mins max, but any longer us taking the piss. I often see people who have long finished their drink, staying there for hours, and usually on the comfiest seats! It's incredibly selfish however in this context the other person was unreasonable for making her point so aggressively.

Well yes, of course the other customer shouldn't have been rude. But she is being massively unreasonable to sit there for ages as well.
Poorly paid cafe staff shouldn't have to play security guard to people with no common sense.

Maybe they needed to use the socket? Both of you were being unreasonable.

I call bullshit. You are lying. I too know the manager of my local chain v well (after spending 1000s of pounds n there over the years) and he positively encourages mobile workers, usiness meerinbgs, NCT meetings, book clubs etc. Because its a franchise and all he cares about is total spend and he kows these people have high disposable income, higher than the old boy that comes in on his own and reads the paper and but one cup of tea. Liar, liar, pants on fire.

And I most certainly do spend around £25 when i go in once a week, often more, and the reason i can do that is because I'm already quids in from not having to spend £20 on a train ticket to travel into the office that day, not spending £9 on station parking and not spending £20 on lunch at some more expensive place in tbe city, and not paying for drinks after work. Its a cheap day for me. People have different lifestyles shocker.

Exactly this. I can't understand why some posters are being so obtuse, and not recognising this - or admitting it. (Or rather they are refusing to!)

But that's an issue for the cafe management to deal with, surely? Other customers don't have the right to take her seat so that the cafe can make more money, especially as there were other seats free.

As I said above, cafes have lots of things they can do to stop customers using their premises as an office. They can set time limits for occupying a table or even ban laptops. If this cafe hasn't done that, other customers can't take it into their own hands to evict other customers because they're insufficiently profitable.

I feel irritated when I can't get a table for my family because one person is hogging a table for four. Often they're not eating and drinking just using it as study space. I always wonder why the coffee shops allow it. But I wouldn't be rude to you.

The women’s approach wasn’t great but why wouldn’t you move to the edge of the bench so your not in the middle of it and put your bag on your lap or between your feet knowing someone else would also like or maybe need a seat?

Because cafes rely on turnover. One person occupying a prime space for hours spending only a tenner is probably going to be a loss for them.

@YellowAsteroid true so it was not just a coffee but that's not really the point is it.

OP said she was 'deep in intense study' - the implication being that whatever she bought had been consumed a while ago.