Busy queue in a cafe. About 20 minutes to get to the front. Student comes in, grabs a seat and gives his order to his friend in the queue

[cakeorwine]

Should the cafe staff have said anything?

It's really rude to do that - DS could easily have done the same thing whilst we were in the queue but it was busy and it would have been pushing in.

Is it just entitlement? Selfishness?

Or smart thinking and sod everyone else?

I was in a cafe recently and someone took the last highchair for their puppy 🤦‍♀️ a family who were behind them with a toddler had wanted it and the dad went and asked-dog owner refused so he just lifted the dog out and took the highchair for his dd !!

Yab ridiculous
You think people should just walk around once they got their food to find a table😂
What if there's no table?

Utter nonsense.
Grab a table then go up and order
More fool you if you dont

I manage everywhere else fine as most are table service around me but this was a Caffe Nero and same has happened to me in a Costa, obviously it's no issue if it's quiet but I must have been there at a peak time or something. It puts me off going back to anywhere like that though.

Oh god not this again. If you're meeting a friend and they are already waiting in the line why wouldn't they order for you? Otherwise you'd have your meals at different times?

Any cafe or Starbucks or similar where you wait in a line and find a table and a friend sitting at a table while you wait is totally fair game. Or eat somewhere with table service if it irks.

I don't know why you've asked for our opinions.

It's just how cafe culture works.

Too right. Why on earth is a dog inside a café anyway, nevermind in a highchair?!

Personally never go to cafes alone with a toddler unless it's visibly very quiet so no chance of that happening, or we go somewhere with table service. Never had an issue like that before.

I think it's a goady twit tbh
Never ever seen this happen in RL
Grab a table, decide what you want, order food
Often people have spouses, dc, shopping, pushchairs
Literally no-one takes that circus up to the till.

I have never gone to a cafe and queued as a group. One person queues and everyone else gets a table.

What have you never seen happen in RL?

People bothering not to queue in a busy cafe and hogging a table for 20 minutes until someone in their group gets served?

Because clearly many people on here would do that.

They would go to a cafe. See it was a really big queue. And send someone to occupy a table for 20 minutes whilst they wait. And fuck anyone else at the front of the queue.

@VoteHappy
I think you're right

And if it was really really busy.

Would you occupy a table for 20 minutes whilst people who didn't do that then might not have got a table?

Or maybe you don't give a shit about other people?

If the cafe staff weren’t bothered, it’s fair game.

I used to be like you OP, it got me nowhere. Now I’m more selfish and would have done what the student and friend did.

Although if the queue was indeed 20 mins and the friend in the queue was near the back then this isn't going to work. They will have loads of people having been served with nowhere to sit and people sitting down who won't be needing the table for 20 mins 🫤

What have you never seen happen in RL?

I presume the poster meant the whole group queuing and I agree I've never seen it either. A cafe isn't going to want a whole tables worth of people queuing at the till taking up space and increasing the likelihood of a drink being knocked flying by a small child. The sensible and logical thing is for everyone but the person paying to sit down.

For those asking what you do with toddlers when alone etc. I used to put DS in a highchair or when older a seat and watch him from the till. Most coffee shops are small enough to see all the tables from and it meant he wasn't going to cause an accident.

I wouldn't queue in a place with no tables free unless someone grabbed me one.

What do people do, just hang around with a tray?

I wouldn't queue at any cafe if I wasn't guaranteed to get a table.

I know !!! The owners were saying ‘pup needs to be table height or feels anxious’ 😂 the dad just unclipped the harness and lifted it out and took the highchair in about 3 seconds and they sat there open mouthed

@Jaminajar I call.....

To be honest if it was a 20 minutes wait then they must be very very slow staff or understaffed.
I would have given up and gone to Greggs 😂

Would you occupy a table for 20 minutes whilst people who didn't do that then might not have got a table?

Yes.

I can't imagine anyone waiting in a queue for 20 minutes to order food, without knowing there was definitely going to be somewhere to sit and eat it.

I also can't imagine everyone in a group standing in the queue, especially a family where it's usually just one person who will order and pay for all the food.

Yes. Because I’m not standing in a queue with coats and bags and everything. Put stuff down, settle the kids/friends and someone orders. I’ve actually spent this thread thinking about all the “naice” cafe’s I go to. Most of them have greeters who take you to a table first, the ones that don’t have menus on the table and you sit first. Everyone does, whether it’s table service or order at the counter. I can’t think of a cafe with a policy of ordering before you have a table.

People dragging their spouse, dc, shopping and pushchair all into the queue!

Then trying to find a table with food, hot drinks,spouse, dc, shopping and pushchair

Everyone apart from you would find a table then queue
Common sense

The cafe we go to, take you to the table and that is yours whether you are on your own or a group then one person orders for everyone else.
Much better system

What a load of bullshit.