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?

Our cafe at work (before it became table service) used to have a sign saying
'please find a table before ordering'

Table service is definitely the way forward.

I went to an impromptu cafe visit the other week with 8 other people and 4 dogs, there was no way we weren't finding a table before ordering.

They weren't hogging though. They're customers waiting to order/get their food.

I'm pleased that more and more places have app ordering / scan a QR code from your table. Definitely the best way.

It’s fewer people not less…. I’ll get my coat!

The cafe runs a bad system. I would not wait in line to order if I knew that I may not be able to find a seat once my order was in.
Tbh I would have sat my child down at a table and queued up and assumed that everyone else in front of me had done the same. If I was alone I would have left my jacket etc on the chair.

I don't see it as reserving a table. You are sat there using the table and waiting for your order. It's not the same as reserving a table for say 3pm buy not turning up for another 20 minutes

I will just add the cafe layout:

There was a divide at the entrance. A wall about 1 m high. So you had to go in through the front door and you were immediately in the queue for the ordering counter.

There was also an area near the front door that you could leave by - but most people were coming in through the front door and joining the queue - a bit like you would join at any restaurant to wait to get served.

It's the same really, except in table service the waiter/waitress comes to you and in the other scenario you go up and place your order. In each case you still wait your turn.
The wait for your food is presumably the same, just that you are seated comfortably instead of standing up.

Not really - because of throughput - there will be people eating, finishing food and then leaving. Leaving a table free for the next person who turns up in the queue.

They have their food, eat, leave, and leave a table for the next group who arrive.

I can totally see your point re the table being "wasted" on non-eating people, but I do the same as the student. We are a family of six, and there's no way it helps anyone for 6 people to stand in a long queue, especially when some of them are small fidgety people. Much better for them to all sit down and one adult to queue.

Definitely grab a table before ordering if a cafe is busy. Not sure why your son didn't do this for you both. If not you run the risk of not getting a table in which case why have you queued up and not going somewhere else?

I don't see an issue with this, and I would have done the same in his position. It's means there's less people standing around in the cafe and as they're meeting up they're obviously there to have a drink/eat together, so it makes sense that it's one order.

Of course you grab a table if you can. Otherwise you risk having your food and nowhere to eat it. Nothing wrong with that at all, and a bit bonkers to call it selfish.

What if everyone follows the queue system that you’ve arbitrarily decided applies, but then those at the front spend ages sitting after they finished their food. What happens then?

Or someone elderly or disabled walks in?

Getting one person to sit down is a completely normal thing to do. Why on earth buy food if you don’t know that you will have anywhere to eat it?!

I mean, I wouldn't queue for 20 minutes for a cafe unless it was a very special one.

Normally such a busy cafe would have an efficient seating procedure, which meant that no body work have the risk of ordering and having no where to sit. It sounds quite disorganised for such a busy place tbh.

It's the cafe's fault for not having a system.
If there are no rules displayed then customers get to choose. - queue up and hope there is a table free, sit down and send one if the other party to order.

It would annoy me. When we were away a couple of weeks ago, one of cafes we went to wouldn't serve people at the counter until they had a table. It was packed, kids didn't want to wait so we went elsewhere.

I don't know many cafes which expect whole groups of people to stand in line together. That must make the queue look 2 or 3 times longer. I'd imagine a 20 minute long queue is already quite long for a cafe, one with double or triple the number must be out the door and half way down the street!

When I have been in my own I've not been too bothered as I'm happy to ask for a spare seat/space in end of a table, etc,
When I was in my own with dd I probably wouldn't have wanted to wait 20 minutes anyway, holding a small child. If I had, then I'd have left something,like our coats or other non-valuables on the chairs/table to save our spot, like many others appear to do.

As long as it takes to get the food.

If the cafe encourages an inefficient queuing/ordering system, with no displayed rules for ordering and taking a seat then you do what works best for yourself, surely.

It's rude. But if the baristas told them off they'd probably get a mouthful of effing and jeffing. So if you want to keep your teeth it's best to just shrug it off and be the better person.🤷🏻‍♀️

It's not rude it's sensible, absolutely ridiculous and waste of money to queue for food when there's no space to sit and eat it

Why is it rude? Common sense says make sure you have somewhere to eat your food before you order food!

@Longma · Today 11:13

I don't know many cafes which expect whole groups of people to stand in line together. That must make the queue look 2 or 3 times longer. I'd imagine a 20 minute long queue is already quite long for a cafe, one with double or triple the number must be out the door and half way down the street!

Yes to this. ^ I doubt the OP @cakeorwine thought this through though.

PMSL at the posters saying it's RUDE to get a table before ordering your food. How silly! Of COURSE you must get a table first. Does anyone seriously want to pay £20-25 or more for their order in a cafe, and then after 15 minutes of queueing, have nowhere to sit? LMAFO, as if! 😆

And don’t forget it’s the OP who has ranted about how selfish it is!

I can assure you that most of the people - apart from this person - joined the queue that was going from the counter, via the barrier that separated the queue from the seats, to the front entrance. It was just this person who decided to sit down and grab a table whilst his friend waited.

So why were the overwheming majority of people happy to wait, with families and children, next to the barrier, whilst he decided to leave this queue and grab a seat?

According to MN, this is perfectly ok. But no one did that. Because they could see how busy it was - and they were joining a queue by a barrier.

That was the set up.
And no one was leaving the queue to grab a table.
There was a barrier / small wall separating the line that started at the front door.

All the people - apart from this person - whilst I was there - were waiting in line to get to the counter.

No one decided to grab a table - as they could see it was busy.

So why did no one do that?