To get annoyed at people who grab a table in cafes while their friends/partners queue up and order?

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Went to a busy coffee shop this afternoon. Long queue etc. By the time I got mine, I was left waiting along with a few other people who had been served before me standing around with our coffees in our hands waiting for someone to leave and/or ask if they minded someone sitting at their table. What really got my goat was that there were 3 tables that were taken by people who had friends/partners in the queue and therefore did not have their drinks/food yet. I see this a lot. Sometimes the amount of time it takes for someone to queue up, order and get their food/beverages is around the same time someone else could have sat down and finished what they ordered.

Luckily after a short time, a table became free which I was able to take. It just annoys me that people do this. I think if we have a queuing system for food etc surely people with the food should get first dibs on the tables. Would it ever be appropriate to confront someone and turf them off their seat?

aha! it did make me laugh though, thanks for that flat

(kudos to you on film thread! I still don't know why it's not in Classics yet! have you reported it?)

nope. Not working. Can't think of any instance where I've hovered around with another 20people before sitting down for fear of offending. Also think if this is the worst that has happened to you today OP you ain't doing too bad in life. Bonkers! Dont believe DQ for a minute would love for you to try and turf us off a table.

Arf at Table Hoggers! . MNHQ should start a 'First World Problems' section. Just Saying

If I remember rightly, Loudon's in Edinburgh asks you to find a seat before ordering - you order at the till then the staff prepare and bring the food to you once ready. It's a pretty big cafe and it means the waiting staff know where to bring your food to. Ditto Nando's.

The lines are a bit more blurred where there are no waiting staff involved. I've been on both sides. The problem is when everyone is taking a different approach - if everyone reserved seats (those on their own with a coat) then there would be less of a problem but when some do and some don't then yes, it can get messy. Personally I think it's just sensible to get a seat first, particularly if part of a big group. If I'm on my own or there are just two of us I'm less likely to bother as it's much easier to find a space eventually.

Well, not having felt too strongly about this when I started reading it I started off very slightly as a "bagsying a table is probably a bit off but I'm not going to get het up about it" person to veering right round to "it's completely selfish and inconsiderate"

So who says internet forums never make anyone change their minds?

One of you queues and the other/s find a table.

What's difficult about that?

Unless you'd like a fucking MILLION other people clogging up the queue.

Good grief.

This is just the funniest thread!

This is only ever a problem on MN.

In my universe of course people split out when they can. And the few times I have had fiod/coffee and needed to sit I have asked peopke with a spot to share and they have budged up.

We will always share a table if we have space as well.

I have never in all my years in all the cafes in all the countries I have lived in and visited encountered the issue of having my food/drink and not being able to sit and eat it.

It isn't that complicated.

No, sorry, if I'm out with my kids I will unashamedly bag a table if I see one. Why would I risk having to stand around waiting for a table with a tray full of food going cold and kids/baby carrying on because they can see their dinner but not eat it?
If I'm on my own, obviously theres no one to bag a table while i queue, but its not the end of the world, generally Its easier to find a single seat than 4 together, and if I have to wait a few minutes well I won't die of it I'm sure.
I just don't get the angst surrounding it.

We go to the Edinburgh festival every year and Never had a problem about baggsing a table.

We go into a place and if it looks busy we go to another. By busy it could be there is no one at a table but they have left a coat. That is an indication that they got there before us and they have gone to get their food.
Seems normal to me.

Better than them not putting a coat there, me thinking there is a free table, they are ahead of me in the queue and then go and sit at the table I thought was free!

I don't find it complicated either, Morloth. If I am in a party of 6 we need to bag a table, if we have a baby we need a high chair, if I am with my mother I need space for a wheel chair, if I am with a friend we need privacy for a chat and if I can't get any of it we go elsewhere.
If I am on my own I can always find a seat with another lone person and I never mind them joining me, you don't have to talk!
As a lone person, who can't bag a seat, the one thing I don't want is some mad mother queuing with a buggy and three children and her husband and then getting affronted because everyone else uses common sense! Sit them down, get the baby in a high chair and one of the adults gets the food and drink, if it is too much to carry leave the children for 30 seconds and go and help once it is paid for. Simple!
You can 'tut' and give dark looks and put out notices,but there is no way I am queuing without a table, unless I am on my own when it has never, ever been a problem.

The only cafe where I live that has an explicit "order then sit" system is McDonald's.

The problem comes in any cafe when people don't obey the agreed rules - queuing without a seat in most cafes, sitting without having been served in McDonald's.

And yes, we just leave if it looks like we will be queueing for ages without hope of a seat. Even if that's inconvenient/annoying for us.

Luckily I no longer have to set foot in McDonalds but when the children were young of course I sat them first, that is one place where I have seen people with food and no seat.

I have never been in a MacDonalds that had an order first policy. I think that is just yours not a nationwide policy.

You could look at it the other way and think that ordering your food without making sure the cafe has room for you, then expecting others to move, is arrogant and rude. You would never go into a table service restaurant and order without making sure they could seat you.

Of course you get a table first. How are my 3yo and 5yo going to eat a meal without a table?

I'm not going to spend money on food and drink which then goes cold whilst I wait for a table. And how am I going to carry a tray of food to a table if my hands are full of toddler and shopping because I haven't been able to leave them at a table?

You non table baggers are weird really havent thought this through.

Well if I was by myself I might see how quickly places came up and risk ordering and waiting if it looked like it wasn't too long.

If I'm ordering for 3,5,7,or 9 people which is not uncommon I'm not ordering unless we have a table - why would I.

It's going to harder to find space and more annoying, as you'd be spending more cash, if it was a terrible experience.

I'm on the fence about table bagging or waiting- can see the arguments in both directions. But OMFG it boils my piss if someone takes it upon themselves to plonk themselves down and "share" my table. I do NOT like my personal space invaded. It's unBritish.

While I'm with you with table invading uninvited on flip side as both during my waitressing time and a few as a customer I've gotten annoyed when single/couples have sat at the largest tables at the busiest times leaving other standing or going elsewhere to order.

MIL once when I was pg and desperate for a meal/drink asked a couple of old ladies if they'd mind in crowded cafe moving to next two seating table - as there was 3 of us. A polite no she'd have been fine with but they were vile about her even asking.

I think in a proper restaurant, people get tables, and waitresses always tend to assign tables based on group size, to maximise seat occupation.

In a busy cafe, or eating area in a shopping centre (here tables are common for all food stalls, apart from specific restaurant areas), then it's seats rather than tables.

The time I got frustrated and actually sat down, the couple were occupying one of two adjacent small tables (one small table is enough for 4 seats, btw) and basically refused to let me and DS sit on the two empty seats on the second table, even though there were no other seats available as far as I could see and we had walked around quite far from the original food buying point. We had McD's, which are eaten in about 10 min.

It's not so much that people reserve tables for their group, but the lack of good will and flexibility that can be annoying.

Soy mocha frapp sounds lovely, hump. Where can I get this? I've never thought of ordering coffee with soya milk.