thinking people should monopolise tables in self service restaurants when they haven't got any food

[workshy]

been out to Chester zoo today and had a fantastic time however we went to eat in one of the self service cafes, had to queue up for food for 15 minutes and then when we went to find a table there were none.

There were however lots of tables with one or 2 people sat on them with no food -when I asked if we could share there table we we told that the seats were taken by people who were still queuing for food and it would have taken us 10 minutes max to eat a bowl of pasta each

we were eventually shouted over by a very nice man who told us that they would be finished in a minute and he gave us his table

now I'm guilty of doing this in the past but now see the error of my ways -no issue with people sitting down to feed a baby while they wait for their partner, or people who are infirm sitting down to wait but these were people that just could be arsed

so AIBU to think that people shouldn't nick tables until they are actually ready to use them?

If your alone you say "mind if I sit there" at a table with spare seats. Hardly a massive issue!

Exactly.

YANBU

That sort of behaviour used to bring me to the point of tears when I was out with DD and she was just too little to be sent off to bag a table (not that I would, because it's rude ).

Those of you saying people shouldn't join a queue if there's nowhere to sit - 9 times out of 10 I would see plenty of empty tables, join the queue, by the time I'd been served all the seats would be gone, taken by table-hoggers who had come in after me.

Bastards. (Yep, I'm still bitter....)

OP - I had the same thing happen to me at Chester Zoo. I was with my friends little girl who was 2 so needed to be sat at a table for her lunch. I was mightly annoyed at all the tables being taken and no one willing to share after spending a lot on the food. I asked for my money back. I was going to take my friends girl home so I could feed her there. The manager was called and I said that I that unless we could sit I didn't want the food. Magically a table appeared for us.

At Chester Zoo, as far as I remember, there isn't a full service restaurant. They should really have one. I would use it as I don't like self service when with young children. I say this as a frugal mother who brings packed lunches and eats at the picnic tables. However, if the weather isn't good then I don't mind paying. I was there last year with DD (3 months) and DH's collegues children (4 and 6). It would have been irresponsible of me to leave them unattended while I waited in line to pick up food. Luckily the weather was good so we ate outside.

And what if you're not alone? What if there are 4 of you?

But anybody can take a table e.g leave a jacket/paper/empty buggy/changing bag down before ordering food. If a cafe were so crowded/large that I wouldn't feel comfortable doing this I wouldn't be eating there anyway.

If i am going to pay extra to eat in, I am definitely making sure I have a seat. Anything else is just nuts. Politeness has nothing to do with it.

i live in se asia and it's called 'choping'. you leave small packets of tissues and fuck off to queue. can't bring myself to do it!

In a crowded cafe, I wouldn't assume a left behind paper indicated that the table had been bagged, to be honest!

I imagine many people, with tray of hot food in hand and looking for somewhere to sit, wouldn't think twice about chucking a changing bag or jacket off a chair... after all, 'politeness has nothing to do with it'

Well that's fine, because I wouldn't be looking for a nice cup of coffee in a busy cafe, or if I was, I would expect to look for a vacant seat on somebody else's table.

Imagining that I enter an empty cafe with 8 tables for 4 and 10 people in a queue in front of me, I have no way of knowing whether those people are going to occupy all the 8 tables (leaving no space for my group of 4) or occupy 3 of them. To be honest it makes it easier for me if people occupy tables before they eat - at least I have an idea of whether it's likely that I can get a free table, and I can decide whether or not it's worth buying food.

It's only a problem if you expect people to behave in a different way.

I wont eat at a cafe or restaurant that doesn't have a table for me. Which is why my lot find a table and sit while I queue to order our food. Besides, I'm not standing in a queue with hyperactive hungry children. They can sit down and wait while I sort the food out.

YNBU.people should queue then go to a table.

The other day a woman barged in the queue for the bus and her significant other near enough elbowing the lady in front of me to get on the bus.

yanbu i hate it when this happens. particularly if i am with the dc on myown. we've all queued up - DC are small and can't wait at table on their own- then we look for a seat. there are no seats - except ones occupied by people in the queue. then i am standing up with a tray of food / drinks and two DCs to occupy. it is a total pita and the sitting down people just gaze blankly in a selfish way

How anyone can think sitting waiting in a busy cafe makes more sense for everyone is beyond me. It makes no sense.

I'm not sure why people are so selfish, why use up a table when someone could be eating at it?

It's all well and good to say "well just ask if you can share" but many tables are for 4 and are already full.

It's not just a question of numbers though is it, for those of you who think it's OK if you send three people to sit down at a table and sit there doing nothing for 15 minutes while you queue up for food. Those three people do not need the table. The ones with their food already do. Not hard to understand surely?

You selfish lot are one of the many reasons I prefer to take sandwiches.

It's completely rude to bag a table in a busy self-service when there are others such as Lovecat who are buying their food and unable to find a seat because some rude bastard body has come along 10 minutes after them and installed the family to occupy her table while they queue for 10 minutes. (put your shopping/handbag on it?! WTF? Someone else would come along and dump it on the floor, or it could be stolen).

It's really simple logic if you think about it - if everyone in the restaurant all sits down after getting food, they occupy tables for a shorter amount of time. So there's a faster table turn-around and everyone gets a seat in a reasonable, fair space of time. More people get seats. It works, really.

Seeing as a lot of people don't have the basic manners to see this, the zoo really should put up signs to that effect, as well as upgrading the seating if poss.

Yes, simple logic isn't it? But if after several hundred posts some people still don't get it there's not much hope.. Hence, a few signs clarifying the system is the best solution.

Strange how this thread is getting such different reactions from the woman-left-her-stuff-in-a-cubicle-at-swimming-pool thread.

"sit there doing nothing for 15 minutes while you queue up for food"

Where are all these places where people queue 15 minutes for food? And people actually do it?!

What about places where you order and they give you a wooden spoon/number to take to a table? Do you wait until your order is ready before sitting down? Or sit down as soon as you've paid?

Oooh I don't know tinkerbell, at least a few more people that queue have joined the thread. I was beginning to feel very disappointed that the vast majority of people here table hog.

I still don't think this thread is a true reflection of real life though, seeing as I generally have no problems queuing and then getting the table.

But we're not occupying seats for 15 minutes because if the queue is more than 5 minutes long I'm not in the cafe. However, once I have my seat I could be occupying it for an hour or more. I think we are talking about different kinds of establishments.

That woman shouldn't have left her stuff in that cubicle either allpastyears, bloomin cheek of her. After all others might want to use it whilst that woman was doing her lengths in the pool. Hang on, yes there is a bit of a correlation here

Merry I was thinking the same. If somewhere has queues of 15 minutes to be served crap fast food I wouldn't be there!

The queue's never 15 minutes! That's the point of self-service.

5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, it's really not the point.

And if you are really not going to wait for more than 5 minutes, I'm sure your kids can learn to stand still for 5 minutes.

15 minutes, as yellow points out is not the point - though in a busy place not unrealistic actually, either.

I'm going to choose to believe you're feeling the pricklings of a guilty conscience and that's why you're fixing "fifteen minutes". Replace it with any unit of time you deem reasonable, you're still queue-jumping, and slowing down the turnover of tables.