Who was in the wrong - bakery or me?

I'm going to make the crumby bakery, crummy bakery observation - maybe somebody else can work it up into a better joke?

This

I know what I use tables for. But I admit I don't know your life, perhaps when you see your kitchen table you instinctually stand

But… she hasn’t said she’s going to “plead ignorance”. You’re just making things up.

There is a table …. Which is not for sitting. A table & chairs signals sit and eat.

Bakery should take table away.
Bakery can put a sign - we are not licensed for dining in. Chairs for customers who are waiting.

Is they leave the table, don’t hang a sign then people will sit.

It is likely the person at this bakery doesn’t like crumbs which is ironic …. bakery with no crumbs?

it’s for people waiting, people who may have requirements more important than OP.

Priority tables?

You said she shouldn't sit on a (non-priority) chair in case a disabled person needed it but didn't want to/ couldn't ask.

I asked if this was your own approach - i.e. did you never sit down in a public space in case a disabled person needed it but didn't want to/ couldn't ask.

You then said you would only not sit in case it was needed if it was a priority seat. If you know that the seat we are talking about is not a priority seat then what was the relevance in you raising it!

Not everything has to be a big drama.

This is AIBU on MN! I rest my case.

I didn’t say it was….? I said she’s been told it’s not for people to sit and eat at, it’s for people waiting, people who may have requirements more important than OP. Now she knows she shouldn’t sit there. She can’t plead ignorance (which may have been true originally) now that she knows for a fact that she shouldn’t sit there.

There’s really no other purpose for a table and chair other than to sit at, just seems that the bakery owner had a different expectation as to how it should be used than OP. Maybe the owner should have put a sign saying ‘only for waiting customers’. I’m assuming OP has never been asked to move for an elderly or disabled customer? Seems a non issue to me and it doesn’t take that long to eat a sausage roll so I don’t think OP has done anything wrong at all

Guess they’ve just lost a regular customer then!

But it wasn't a priority seat! JFC

No it’s this part of your post I was referring to
“OP sounds like she was already familiar with the rules anyway, considering she admitted she would move if a disabled person was waiting.”

She was being polite

But if the staff believed the same as OP about said dining table, and have now been made aware that it is indeed what seems to be a decoration rather than functional for use, it's not really that weird they didn't say anything, because there wasn't anything to say as far as they were concerned.

And if owners/management who should know about these rules didn't know it was happening, also not weird that they wouldn't say anything, because again, nothing to say anything about as far as they were concerned.

There really isn't some huge conspiracy here to embarrass and humiliate customers, it's just a misunderstanding that's been corrected. Because you know, where humans are involved, sometimes these things happen.

Have a little think and I'm sure you will get there eventually.

Chairs and table = ambiguity, in my opinion. YANBU.

They should replace it with a one armed bandit or a fruit machine like cafes had in the 80s. Far less confusion

Again, the presence of a dining table may imply the possibility that people would dine.

Objection!

We're working on the assumption there that the cafe staff knew that a customer sitting in wasn't allowed. Before I climbed the ladder to the dizzy heights of management and became enlightened on such matters as VAT, a customer sitting at a table we've provided, to eat something we've sold to them, wouldn't have been an issue to me in the slightest, because alongside OP I also wouldn't know.
And if management/owners are not around at the times this happens, then they'd have no reason to believe that it was happening. Strikes me as either a comment has been passed to enlighten the staff/management/owners and a conversation ensued or there's been a complaint about it happening and an investigation into the cafe serving food for eat in and not sticking to the rules on that.

But of course it cannot ever be as simple as that on MN, someone's just got to have an agenda to make other people's lives an absolute misery for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

That sounds like an excellent reason to not have a bloomin table

They will be charging VAT if the sausage rolls are hot, wherever they are to be eaten. But there might be other regulations being broken. It turns out the situation is not so weird after all. But some of the PPs are interesting.

Not if it’s a priority seat, the same way I wouldn’t use a disabled toilet.

Why would you need a table??

To put your hot drinks on whilst waiting for the rest of your food order being cooked/warmed up?

To help you read your book or paper whilst waiting, or somewhere to put your phone whilst looking at it?

Somewhere to rest your handbag or shopping bags whilst waiting instead of on a potentially dirty/wet shop floor?

Many bakeries/hot food shops cook to order - it's not all serving ready cooked stuff from the counter. So a customer could be waiting 10-15 minutes for specially ordered cooked items.

That's certainly the case for our village "bakery" that does all kinds of hot foods such as burgers and chips, toasted sandwiches, etc., causing a fair wait for them as no one wants burgers and chips that were cooked an hour ago and kept "warm" in a hot counter!

I'd say you can't be the only person to sit there and eat something. But I can see why they don't want to clean up crumbs and mess, and they aren't charging VAT on the items. Just do as she says in future. You don't really need to sit at a table to eat a sausage roll out of a bag.

I see why they may have chairs for people waiting.

I don't know why they'd have a table too. I think it's understandable that you thought it was to eat at.