that people who grab tables at self service restaurants without getting food dirst

[Windsock]

are nobs
owners of small kids etcetc ussual conditions apply
it REALLY annoys me.
this messes up the flow of traffic and one person sits there hogging a space where 4 people could get in eat AND have left byt he time their person arrives

The other people who want to wait should give it up and do what the rest of us do. Or use the drive through.

If somewhere is so full I can't get a seat BEFORE ordering I don't stay anyway, perhaps thats why I have never had an issue with this. I can't see the logic in buying food without knowing you can eat it though.

Mcdonalds used to have signs up saying 'please purchase your food before occupying seats'

It pisses me off when others do it but I will do it if I need to!

Agree with everything Comma said. It's rude, ignorant and a bit thick to hog a table with no food. But if you're all of those things then I doubt you're going to change your mind.

Yes, ThisOnce exactly.

Queues up with ThisOnce

INVALID?

Seriously?

Let me know if you need to share a table Yellow

This topic crops up all the time and is a bit pointless because no one ever changes their mind.

There's a clear divide between the entitled who think they can just walk in and hog a table without food, and those who can do the Maths and understand that buying your food and then getting a table actually increases the flow of smooth flow through the cafe.

yabu, firstly to suggest that one person alone shouldn't be allowed a table, secondly for not realising that normal people in a busy place will approach lone person and ask if it's ok to share table

"Yabu if there were 6 people in front of me in the queue for mcdonalds, the person at the front would not have eaten their food and be leaving the table by the time I was served"

The chances are that some of the other dozens of people sat at the tables already eating would have though!

It is abundantly clear that we need to perform some sort of experiment to find out the most efficient way - queueing first or sitting first like a fucking knob .

Where shall we carry this out yellow? Costa Coffee on a Saturday afternoon? Or McDonalds

There's a place near us where you have to buy food before sitting, it makes no difference there are still people hanging around with trays waiting for you to leave

Moomin - that's bad management on the part of the cafe near you. If they are allowing more people to buy meals than they have room for, then frankly as a customer, I'd turn straight round and demand my money back. Remember - when you pay to eat in somewhere, a large proportion of the cost is for exactly that - having a table inside to eat at. In cafes where half the tables are being hogged by people who haven't even got a meal yet, it's very difficult for the staff to regulate the flow of customers through.

We have a place near us which has a sign saying to purchase your food before you get a table. It's very popular, and at really peak times, they simply put a rope across the end of the queue to close it off until it quietens down a bit. It's really easy and quick - the staff just do a quick look round and act accordingly if they need to slow the traffic of people temporarily. It would be really annoying for them if they were having to close the queue when loads of the people seated aren't even eating!

If I'm out with DH and 2DC then I'd get them to sit while I get food - in the interest of safety as much as anything. 2 DC (especially when they are little, with other people carrying trays of hot food and drink at their head level- potential for accident)

But if I'm somewhere like Bluewater, where there are lots of food outlets - it gets on my wick when one person hogs a four seat table. There are tables for 2/4/6. Sit at a table for 2 if you are 1 or 2 (I'm talking about when it's busy BTW not when it's empty)

Point is what works usually mathematically makes little or no difference to the group of 4 with nowhere to sit and trays of food going cold.

It is not entitled to want to sit down in a restaurant. Indeed sitting down first is common practice in non-self serve restaurants and indeed, nandos (which is somewhere between the two).

If everyone sat down first and went and got there food there would be no problem. (perhaps a minimal turnover decrease for the fast food outlet, but I'm sure their businesses would cope.... Nandos and the rest of the chain restaurant world seem to be doing ok...)

There is no moral high ground attached to running the risk of being without a seat.

Ouch, I'm currently being dragged away by the grammar police, my apologies.

INVALID?

Seriously?

Yeah, totally. I would not want to share a table with an invalid!!

Were talking about self service places though. Your not waiting around for food to cook, you don't spend lots of time queuing so at some point unless they stop people buying food there will be people waiting for tables. We had the same problem at uni

Safety? Not safe for adult to stand in queue with two children? Oh come on! What a poor excise for hogging a table!

Safety! Give me a break. My mum wouldn't have dreamed of hogging a table and my brother and I are miraculously still alive.

Felicity - I agree if everyone sat down first there would be no problem, apart from possibly a decrease in turnover for some outlets. And there would need to be some system for enabling singletons to get their table before queuing but that's easily sortable

The problem is where there is no clear system, so some people do one thing and some another, and potentially you can end up with people who have purchased food not having a seat while tables are hogged by non-eaters. Surely anyone can see that's a ridiculous situation?!

The solution is really for cafes to decide on a system and use it - whether it's seat first or buy first. All they need to do is display a clear notice. Exceptions to be made for disabled obviously.

And yes, I entirely agree with the above sentiments about children and safety. Having children is not a get out of jail free card for hogging tables. Frankly if you can't supervise a couple of kids in a queue, then you probably can't rely on them to sit sensibly anyway while you queue! People with disabilities is one thing; having children is just what most of the adult population do, and doesn't give you special dispensations