Is saving a table while someone else gets coffee/cake etc an ok thing to do?

[Eeepsh]

Inspired by the M&S cafe thread, I hadn't realised that one person sitting at the table whilst other gets drinks, wasn't the done thing.

We do this as my 86 year old dad needs to sit down, but I always assumed everyone else did it anyway?

If they'd made sure they had a table first, they wouldn't be fannying around carrying a tray looking for one.

There's only one system that makes sense, and that's securing the SEAT for your SIT DOWN meal or drink before you get it.

The only system that makes sense is for the cafe to say what they want people to do. Any system works so long as everyone is doing the same.

I went to a very small cafe in Boston a few years ago. You queued up and told the first person what hot food you wanted. Then as you made your way to the end of the counter the hot food was cooked, it was something really quick, like pancakes. Then when you got to the end of the line to pay and order drinks your food was ready.
There were huge signs everywhere telling people not to reserve tables. There was someone at the end who sent you to a free table. If you had someone who couldn’t stand there were separate places to sit. It was always full but everyone got a seat when they needed one. This was because they enforced one system.
It’s when it’s a free for all it’s a problem.

If on my own I would just go and sit at a table that has a spare seat .

Most places I can think of you need a table number to order food to. I can only think of service stations, where throughput is so quick it doesn’t matter or the big Greggs in the shopping centre where I went just before Christmas. I queued while my sister (who uses a walking stick) and stepmum (fit and healthy but about 4 ft 10 and nearly 80) sat down with our masses of shopping bags. If they’d queued with me, there might have been space for one other family to join the queue behind and one of them would have needed to carry my shopping while I carried the tray.

Unless are loads of free tables, one of our party always snags one. Why queue and pay then have nowhere to sit.