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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU that when you are alone in a busy cafe...

179 replies

warmandwooly · 24/02/2012 15:10

And paying for your coffee etc that people who are just coming in shouldn't hot the only available tables while their DH etc go and collect their order.
FFS they can see it's busy. They can see people at the que making their order AIBU to suggest they maybe have some thought for others?

OP posts:

Iamweasel · 25/02/2012 10:23

Queue is a funny word isn't it

So short sounding but so many odd letters

yellowraincoat · 25/02/2012 10:32

I am an English teacher and have to check every time if it's queueing or queuing. Both look bloody awful. Apparently it's queueing but some spell it queuing.

Horrid word.

startwig1982 · 25/02/2012 10:43

But it's so much better now that queue is being spelt queue not que!

yellowraincoat · 25/02/2012 10:45

Maybe we should just spell it "q".

Qing.

startwig1982 · 25/02/2012 10:46

That's just wrong...

JasperJohns · 25/02/2012 10:53

Well I am rude then.

Dh & I plus 3 children have just been to Nero's for breakfast. DH got drinks & cakes ordered and the rest of us sat down. We always do this.

It's very congested in there. The 5 of us all jostling around the till would really not have made sense.

MsWeatherwax · 25/02/2012 11:30

This happened to me in Costa yesterday. I think it is a Costa thing - not enough tables/space allocated when they plan the outlet. Luckily someone left, I swooped in and sat around their dirty coffee cups having mine. There should be more tables. I am contemplating never going back to Costa because this happens most times. Unless I use some of the strategies in this thread, but I am anti-social person when on my lunch break and if I shared a table someone might TALK TO ME, which I would hate. If I was feeling social I'd get take out coffee and go back to the staffroom.

It annoys me when I am on my own and I resent everyone, but especially couples. When with DP, it annoys me because I feel like one of us will have to grab a table because otherwise someone behind us will but I don't want to be as bad as them. Usually end up waiting until we have ordered and paid then going for table while DP waits for drinks to arrive on tray. I think families with children are best to grab a table because it must be a total pain to have to manage all of that at once. I wouldn't feel guilty as part of a large group saving a table.

OhChristFenton · 25/02/2012 12:14

SOMEONE talk to me about that coffee cup, earlier on in the thread. 18.15.28 to be precise there is a coffe cup emoticon, how'd that get there then? Or am I the only one who can see it?

trikken · 25/02/2012 12:36

I try not to go in when its busy as with two littlens it would be a nightmare to bring all six of us up to the counter. Luckily the place we go to is usually quiet and is lovely and they know us so well by now they know our order off by heart and almost have our own private table.

ExitPursuedByaBear · 25/02/2012 13:19

ExitPursuedByaBear · 25/02/2012 13:20

Check the emoticons list down there -

anothermadamebutterfly · 25/02/2012 21:21

Of course you get a table before queuing if you want to actually sit down - why on earth would you stay in a cafe and buy coffee/food if you don't have a table to sit at?

If there are no tables, then I would leave and go somewhere else where there are, no way would I queue up politely, get my things and then hover around the full cafe with a tray, nicely waiting for somebody to leave while my coffee spills and goes cold. Just doesn't make sense.

Mimishimi · 25/02/2012 22:41

YABVU. How are the newcomers to determine who in the queue has a table spot or not? As long as they do not push in the queue to order, I don't see what the problem is. That said, this is why I prefer to go to cafes where we are seated first and a waitress comes and takes our order.

Heswall · 25/02/2012 22:47

There was nearly a fight in my local John Lewis over this, somebody was stood with a tray full of food and wine complaining loudly they had nowhere to sit and you could see his point. It would have cost less to eat in a restaurant and have his order taken and food brought to him. In JL you've the worst of both worlds IMO.

skybluepearl · 25/02/2012 23:44

what are they supposed to do - stand around like lemmings til thier tea was served? why not sit down?

WhereYouLeftIt · 25/02/2012 23:45

I think we are all missing the real point to be made here.

I don't want to stand in a queue at all, especially not behind someone dithering over which of the hundred variants on offer they should choose. I WANT TABLE SERVICE, DAMMIT! Which is what I get at all the non-chain cafes.

JerichoStarQuilt · 26/02/2012 00:03

tunip, your post is now waaaay back in the thread, but if it was me in Cambridge Borders in 2007 I am very, very sorry.

I don't think it was me but I also know it would not remotely have occurred to me stupid younger self that dashing to a free table without checking to see if other less mobile people were also going for it was bad.

I have learned better now!

ChippingInNeedsCoffee · 26/02/2012 00:03

OhChristFenton - it was obviously a cut and paste job as it's not an official MN 'smiley' and isn't showing up on my, or most others, screens :)

ChippingInNeedsCoffee · 26/02/2012 00:03

I just get a square.

galletti · 26/02/2012 00:08

If I go into a cafe/bar with family/friends, I have always thought it ok for one of us to go and order whilst others go and sit down at a table. Is that supposed to be unreasonable nowadays? If on my own or with dd in queue, I will take my chance to get table, which always comes up pretty quickly ime.

runningwilde · 26/02/2012 00:10

Yabu

Uncleanch!

Why on earth should everyone from one group of people or a couple queue and not get a table to sit at? God some people are so prissy.

startail · 26/02/2012 00:46

If somewhere is very busy then I may resort to sending out my small determined seat scout, otherwise known as DD2.

Otherwise in theory I think it's rude to keep seats and everything runs smother if people don't. But in reality DD2 finds seats most places

EdinburghRocks · 26/02/2012 00:54

What about when you are in the pub, doesnt one of you go to the bar whilst the others go and find a table. Why would you all stand at a bar if only one was getting the drinks in?

It doesnt bother me.

TheCrunchUnderfoot · 26/02/2012 01:00

ChippingIn this too is now way back in the thread but I don't really think they're illegally booked tables I was just being flippant

I don't care about tables. I don't care if people sit with me or I sit with people or the people sit with some other people on another table, or even in another cafe.

Anyway I just wanted to clear that up and as always I hope the laid back people win the thread. :)

ChippingInNeedsCoffee · 26/02/2012 01:05

Crunchy - Nah we don't usually 'win' because the 'uptighters' just keep banging on and on about it while the rest of us are are sitting at a table drinking our latte's

Galletti - no, it's only unreasonable to the minority, the majority of people think it's a perfectly sensible thing to do!

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