to be annoyed at people being on their laptops forever in busy coffee places?

[olimpia]

Alright, this time I expect the flaming so won't be as shocked as last time!

I was in a very busy Pret today with very limited sitting and half of the tables where occupied by people working on laptops or doing their coursework leaving no-where for others to sit!
I'm not saying it's never ok to occupy a table in a coffee place but surely people should use their common sense and move on if there are people standing and waiting to sit down?

Of course it's the point. A coffee shop is a business - if this is working for them, it's up to them - if it's not, it's up to them to say something. As a potential customer, it's up to you to choose where to buy (or not) your coffee... it is not up to the customers to 'set the rules' for a coffee shop.

Wouldn't JK have been to skint to be in Starbucks at the time?

YABU, libraries are the very worst place to try and study. Ours is always full to bursting with students taking a big table each and filling it with their bags, apparently there only for a noisy social.

I tried complaining to the librarian once and she merely went and said there was nothing she could do.

So, coffee shop it is. Much quieter. However, agree it is rude to sit there for 6 hours with one cup of coffee when the place is heaving. At least buy a 2nd coffee

YANBU. They are very often the ones occupying a table for four and who have sat nursing the same cup of coffee for 2 hours. Buy more stuff, sit at the small tables, and move the feck along when it gets busy, people.

music how's a heaving coffee place quieter than a library? Should be the other way round.

this is why starbucks is so popular and smaller independent coffee shops really struggled for a while (though round here they've now adopted the starbucks approach)

starbucks make people welcome to come sit and work, read, chat, etc... they dont' tut at you after 30mins when you're 3/4 of the way down your cup and try to free up the table for the next person.
as a result, people actually go there far more and spend more than they do when they're treated to the "this is a business you know" brigade.

Isn't the OP's OP a bit like saying:

AIBU for getting annoyed with relaxed diners in busy restaurants? At the end of their meals, they just sit there slowly drinking the last dregs from their wine glasses and actually bloody enjoying their conversations!! They should shift their fat arses and hotfoot it outta my way so that I can have a turn. What a f*king liberty!

But surely there must come a pointwhen it the cost effectiveness of it starts to matter?

Anyway, I just want a brown strokey sofa to sit on in Starbucks......and then to leave when I have consumed my latte

Just like to point out to the people saying laptop users should go to the library: my local library has closed due to budget cuts, so I took the bus to the nearest and got there just before opening. I then got almost barrelled over by the crush getting in and found all the tables were taken. There is a real lack of public study spaces especially at this time of year when there are a lot of exams.
Agree that people shouldn't hog tables but that applies to everyone.

maya no that's not what I mean. As i said in another post, a restaurant is different from a coffee place and you don't normally see people on laptops sat by themselves in restaurants for hours, do you?

Why don't you just go and share their table, if one person has a whole sofa/big table? A while ago I was in a coffee shop on my own, and the only table left in the whole place was a huge one with two sofas. I settled in with my bucket of tea and a notepad, and tried to get some writing done while I waited about 45mins for DH to return. Despite the place being heaving with other people, no-one came over to sit on the unused sofa, or the other half of the one I was on - it would have been fine by me, but people are just strange and would rather get all huffy!

YABNU I work in a cafe , its very annoying when someone buys one coffee and sits for hours hogging a table , especially when its busy

Aw, olimpia, that post was, like, totally tongue-in-cheek! Don't take it to heart!

Anyway I was teasingly saying that you're being rather prescriptive about how others spend their cafe time. Yeah, it's irritating when that happens, but it's no disaster.

Evilg - I was going to suggest the very same thing. We Brits are a bit nervous of proximity to strangers sometimes!

evilgiraffe I would do this, no problem, but I have seen lots of other people look around and then leave cafes because all tables are 'occupied' by at least one person. People should be less daunted by just sitting down, but also others should be less selfish in the space they occupy.

Not meaning you there evilgiraffe of course. I mean the people who spread their stuff over a whole sofa/table, and/or who glare at others who approach.

Ok so I am here in Starbucks doing stealth intell for you all. What a sacrifice eh? Out of the fifteen people here EVERY SINGLE person has a laptop or gaming machine!! (well except son and I). Some have drinks but most of them have not touched them. Almost all of them have their free water and one guy is surreptitiously refilling his free water with a huge bottled water. Four people (2 pairs) are having loud business meetings loud enough for me to hear every word. Better go before we finish our drinks!!

That would be me then

Seriously dd is currently rehearsing for a show on Sunday afternoons in a town approx 30 miles away 2pm til 6pm. I am self employed and generally take work with me ( I do the same for the 2 hours she does get dance classes ).

Only costa stays open after 4pm. I know lots of parents whose children perform and they haunt local coffee shops whilst the shows are going on.

I generally have a drink and a cake then buy one to take away for dd when I go to pick her up.

They even provide plug points for chargers

I used to frequent a Wimpy bar in a certain Surrey village in the 1980s and as soon as you'd finished your food you were chucked out. No lingering over coffee there.

Cambridge, did you not realise they were doing it for your benefit? I mean. Wimpy. I ask ya.

Haha, tried sitting near the laptop and accidentally wobbling the tray.....should move pretty soon!

"music how's a heaving coffee place quieter than a library? Should be the other way round."

It shouldn't be, but you obviously haven't visited our library. The seats and tables for studying are upstairs in the reference library. It's like a Saturday night rave up there 90% of the time. Why the librarians don't tell them to shut up or leave I have no idea.

A heaving coffee shop, I agree would be as bad.

I can't see a problem-if there are no seats just go and sit at their table-say 'sorry but there are no other spare seats'.

it may be noisy in your local library, but the people at the starbucks I was at didn't have the same excuse. The one local to this starbucks has glass office like meeting rooms. The only time I've ever seen them used is for the occasional group of teens studying and chatting after school (this was early afternoon), there is a seperate computer room (which is usually full) wifi everywhere, kids downstairs, much quieter adult bit upstairs, armchairs, tables and naice daycor. You can't pretend to drink there though, you have to go outside (where the wifi still works)