sitting in costa coffee

So, if a cafe, whether independent or chain, has space for 48 people and 24 seats are taken by couples, leaving every table with two free seats, should the cafe suffer a loss of business because no one will allow others to sit at the same table as them.

It’s different if you’ve booked a table; that’s yours for the time you’ve booked it.

If I get to the top of the queue, with food and drink that I've paid for, and the only chairs have the clothing of people who have not paid, then I'll take one of those seats.
Table saving is queue jumping, pure and simple. Queues are British national culture. If you don't like it you should (dare I say) leave the country.

You're rather assuming that everyone drives. It's harder as people get older.

I still drive and I'm not using a stick yet but it's only a matter of time.

Yes, if there were no other option by the time I got to the head of the queue, I would take something to go if there were an option and if it weren't teeming with rain outside.

I did actually go sit in my old van with my food last week - asked the girls at the cafe I was using if they were okay with me doing that - but that's not always possible.

It can be frustrating, however. You'll see that there are two or three table, dutifully queue...and then you see the groups coming in and "booking" tables. You're in a no-win situation.

I understand your annoyance at the woman's refusal to let you sit at her table. But (and I speak from experience here) sometimes when a person asks to sit at another persons table,it's an excuse to start trying to strike up a conversation with them. Not everyone wants this (including me!). I'm not saying that that's what you were intending to do,but having been caught out in this way a few times,despite having my nose in a book,or earphones in,it's made me very reluctant to say yes it's fine to sit there. Some people just can't take a hint unfortunately that not everyone is happy to chat with a total stranger. Call me unsociable but that's the way I am,90% of the time!

I understand your annoyance at the woman's refusal to let you sit at her table. But (and I speak from experience here) sometimes when a person asks to sit at another persons table,it's an excuse to start trying to strike up a conversation with them. Not everyone wants this (including me!). I'm not saying that that's what you were intending to do,but having been caught out in this way a few times,despite having my nose in a book,or earphones in,it's made me very reluctant to say yes it's fine to sit there. Some people just can't take a hint unfortunately that not everyone is happy to chat with a total stranger. Call me unsociable but that's the way I am,90% of the time!

Probably because they were brought up with correct manners.
Why are you writing you as ye?

Haha, no promises…

As I've already said, you don't always have something with you that you can use - particularly in warmer weather.

Don't sit by me while you eat it

You’re entitled to use one table too…

I like a good MN Saturday night bun fight 🧁

Costa sells buns don’t they? 🤔

I had this happen to me, in a cafe/restaurant where my husband and I were regulars. On that occasion, the proprietor's daughter was in charge.

By then, I was running between work, my mum's house and the stroke rehab ward to see my husband and had hoped to grab a bite to eat before visiting hours.

I never went back.

I tried another one of our watering holes. By contrast, the reaction there was "What's happened?!" because I was on my own.

I recall saying "It's all right - he's not dead: he's just had a stroke," and bursting into tears. I got a table and they got a generous tip at the end.

12 years later, I'm still going back there and still tipping well.

Are you deliberately missing the point?

You’re entitled to use one chair, not keep the remaining chairs empty because you don’t want other customers sitting there.

So if there’s not enough seats visible before you order, order it to go and then find somewhere nearby to sit like a bench or sit in your car?

Good point, what do non seat reserves do if they need a table number?

Why didn’t ye find a table before ye ordered? One of you could then sit at it while the other ordered, or ye took turns. Was it your first time in a walk in restaurant/cafe, it was?

YABU

I have, a few times.

Fuck me. I really should have thrown myself in the furnace.

Some of us have a severely restricted social circle through no fault of our own. In my case, I have no siblings. My social life shut down as I spent years working full time, caring for my parents and caring for my husband. Had tried for a family of my own but - rather - ironically - was punched in the stomach whilst pregnant by the apple of someone else's eye while at work.

I'm in the process of trying to get back into the world and expand my social circle. Part of that process includes going into places on my own.

Yes, I think I've finally reached the stage of being all out fucks.

Some people on MN don't get that though.

Some cafes have table numbers, and you have to give that to the person serving you. Using a coat to show someone is at that table is perfectly fine if you are alone, as is having any companion sit there instead.

Agree. I avoid Wagamama for this reason.

Bit dramatic 😂 imo it's bloody stupid to buy food and non-takeaway drinks if you don't have anywhere to sit and I have zero sympathy for OPs situation, because it wouldn't have happened in the first place if one of them found a table while the other queued. This 'rule' about not reserving tables is something I've only come across of MN.

It’s not your chair either so can someone move you off it too? Of course you don’t own the table, what a ridiculous response.

Put their coat over a chair to reserve a seat?

It's not rocket science.

Honestly, if you're on your own there's sometimes no other way. You don't always have something with you that you can plunk down to 'reserve' a space.