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?

Well I'd never wait 20 minutes to order in a cafe, for a start.

I think it's fine. I typically go to a cafe with two or three other people. We aren't all going to stand in the queue.

More fool them then? Why order if you have nowhere to sit?

There’s a cafe near me where people queue for 90 mins at a weekend, every single weekend. Even in the week it can be an hour. It’s table service though so no dilemma like in the OPs cafe. But if food is good people will queue.

It's really not that hard. Carry a book with you and leave that and hang your coat on the back.of a chair. Put a few toddler things on the table. Leave the buggy and bring the toddler up to order with you. Loads.of options

People queue every weekend for 90 minutes for a table? Can't you book one in advance? 90 minutes standing outside in the rain?? I mean I'm sure the food is delicious but it's just a cafe at the end of the day.

This is fine, there's absolutely no point in queuing if there are no seats, someone grabs a seat while the other queues.

For people saying what would you do if you were alone or with a baby/toddler... I wouldn't go to a cafe that meant I may not get a seat, plenty of other places.

No bookings allowed. It’s insanely popular. It’s a deli downstairs and a cafe upstairs so you’re inside when you’re queuing as you queue down one side of the deli. Honestly best food in the area.

If i saw a queue in a cafe where you had to wait for 20 mins and no guarantee of a seat i would go elsewhere. Like anyone else would...

Dump a trolley? Never.
Litter? Never?
Get a table before ordering food? Yes, because it is how it works. I don't think it sorts the wheat from the chaff but the wheat from the passive-aggressive martyrs looking for anything to be unhappy about.

I would never order in a cafe without securing a table first. People who otherwise are silly. Surely you constantly end up stood around with your food/drink with nowhere to sit?!

And what this person did was completely normal. Most people would do the same ime.

@cakeorwine

"You are confused
We queued. We got to the front after 20 minutes and ordered.

Meanwhile, 2 people came in. He sat at the table.
His friend waited in the queue. She got to the front of the queue 20 minutes after we did.
So her friend basically hogged a table for about 25 minutes.

I could have asked my son to go find a table whilst I queued - but then he would have been hogging a table for 20 minutes - and that's wrong"

More fool you.

No point in everyone queuing up. I think it's fine for some people to go sit down and secure a table.

You have no common sense op. Also you worded the op so it read like the second guy came later not both at the same time.

Well, I would never wait 20 minutes in a queue to order food anyway.

Whenever I go out with DC or DH or a friend, I get them to go and sit at a table, then I order the food/drinks. Usually takes a few minutes and then I'll go and sit with them and wait. If they want to take 15 to 20 or more minutes to get the food and drinks to us, that's their lookout. The table will be hogged for much longer.

We went into a certain 'eatery' once, (I won't name and shame them on here,) a couple years ago, and my husband and two kids went to sit at the table whilst I went to go order. Someone darted across to me and said 'no sorry. You will have to get in the queue with your family here. None of you can sit down until you've got your food and drinks.'

I said 'well, you just lost an order for 4 then because we're not going to spend 10 or 15 minutes in the queue, paying potentially 30 pounds, just to discover we have no table to sit at!' We all left.

Yes, it's 'table hogging' especially if the meal or drinks take 15 minutes or so. But what are you supposed to do? Wait in the queue for 10 to 20 minutes, and then stand there with a tray full of food and drink going cold, waiting for a table to come free? No thanks. I prefer the former. I'll hog the table first and yes, fuck everyone else.

If somewhere is very busy there is no simple answer to this.

But @cakeorwine yeah YABU.

We always do this. If you have someone to grab a table you grab it. What's wrong with that? Everyone does it where we're from.

Shall I tell you what does annoy me.
People staying in the ordering bays at McDonald's to eat their entire meal.
We always drive away with our food and eat somewhere else. Either another bay or a location nearby. Never would we hog the online ordering bays.

Exactly this. Like I said, what are you supposed to do? If you don't get a table first, and you wait 10 or 15 minutes or more in the queue, and pay £25-£30 or more for your food and drink, (depending on how many there are with you,) then what happens if you find all the tables are full? You will be standing there with all your food and drink on a tray going cold for 10 minutes (waiting for a table to come free!) Who the fuck does that? Nobody. Anyone with even an ounce of common sense would go and get a table first!

Who queues at a cafe for 20 minutes??

I think one of the main downsides of the lockdowns is it proliferated the use of the word 'selfish' for people like the OP. They now describe absolutely everything as such.

Honestly, if the behaviour that's being described by the OP is selfish, then so is:

• dining alone, taking up a whole table all by yourself
• dining with a pushchair, taking up valuable floorspace
• taking too long to drink your coffee, come on - throw it down your neck, people are waiting for a table
• getting a substantial meal which will take longer to eat, and not just sticking with a snack

Utterly ridiculous.

You lost me at standing in a queue for 20 minutes in a cafe, they can’t be true can it ?

Which is a rule you have decided applies, not the cafe.

Why on earth would you queue to pay for food when you did not know you would have any where to sit and eat it?

I thought it was common sense you find your table first.

That's why they are students.
Smart.

I wouldn't order unless I knew we had somewhere to sit. Why would 4 of us stand in a queue?

Personally I cannot fathom ordering without a table unless there are a few tables free what do you do when you’ve got your food in your hands and there’s no table, eat it standing up? He did the sensible thing. are people who queue glass half full types i wonder. i am not!