To think if you are in a busy pub/cafe, once you've finished your drink, you leave?

[angelos02]

I was in a pub last night with DH, got our drinks and looked for a table. I spotted a couple of women at a table with empty glasses so assumed they'd either be about to leave or get another drink but they did neither. Half an hour later, we were still stood (along with lots of other people unable to get a seat). Their glasses had been cleared by this point. If there had been plenty of seats I wouldn't have even noticed. I wouldn't have the brass neck to do this myself. AIBU?

Oh I don't care about pubs - I think it's par for the course. In small Pub in London last thursday me and boyfriend had to be stood at bar because all other tables etc were packed. I didn't see whether they'd finished their drinks or not, I don't care. they've paid for their drinks and we could stand at the bar.

Exactly Hello - why didn't he go to a library?!

a lot of cafes actively encourage that, though, advertising free wi-fi. In quiet times some bod sat there for hours drinking cup after cup of overpriced coffee, and maybe some food as well, is good for trade. Annoying when it's busy, of course, but in my experience tables in Pret are so tiny that a laptop probably isn't taking up any more space than a sandwich, drink and packet of crisps.

Now libraries, there's another thing - in ours, the chairs are positioned directly in front of the bookshelves. Which are full of, well, books, the things you go to a library to look at. One man got a bit tutty with me today because I was standing behind his chair where he was reading the paper. I wanted to look at the books in that section! What a stupid layout.

Southeast - generally I DGAF where they sit with their laptops. But a busy lunchtime in a big town you can tell they've been sat there all morning and the mere lunch people (mums with babies, old people, workers) are just in the way to the student/worker with the laptop.

gRRRR

Mrs - honestly though the looks I get from a lot of people sitting at ONE table with their laptop or even just ONE person at a table. You dare to ask them to share their table if it's busy?!

You may as well be encroaching on their own personal table.

Again, it depends with cafés. A few round here actively encourage that kind of 'just working on my screenplay' kind of vibe, advertising free wifi and plug sockets for laptops, big squishy sofas etc, and are in artsy, studenty kind of areas.

However, somewhere like Pret with a busy lunch time trade to me seems much more like a Grab and go kind of a place.

YANBU

see, not "everyone" thinks op is bu at all.

It is actually very odd to sit for half an hour in a packed pub hogging a good table without a drink or food of any sort. Very odd indeed. Five or ten minutes, yes I can see that. But half a bleedin' hour?

Really? Sat chatting in the pub half an hour can whizz by. I'm often constantly amazed that it's drinking up time already

angel the problem us that unless you are setting a time within which you have your drink you can't tell people that they have been there for too long and should leave 5 mins after finishing their drink.
Some people will have spent 3 hours with the same drink. How will you know? Should the pub ask them to leave so that other customers can sit down?
Others will have arrived and gulp their drink down in 2mins flat. Are you saying that after that they should be leaving within 5 mins even if they have been there just for 10mins max?

You have no idea how long these people were at the table. No idea how many drinks they had ordered (what if they had been there for a whole, had some friends over and spent a nice amount if money. Is the pub suppose to kick good customers off too?).
What you have seen is 2 persons sitting and not drinking and though selfishly that you are entitled to that table now. Regardless if the fact it's quite normal to stand up in a pub.

Tbh if you don't like standing up (which I don't) then you need to choose your pub accordingly (so not the very busy one you might not get a table)

Btw if you had been at the table and said that you left quickly as there was other people waiting and you felt it was wrong to 'Hog' the table, then fair enough.
You would have attentive to other people and not
Living in a bubble whether it is necessary or not is a different issue
But you weren't. You were expecting them to do something for your convenience even
Though entry of people are telling it's ok. Incl people working in pubs!

Edu Yes, some cafes do encourage that, whether intentionally or not. But it just wouldn’t occur to me to sit with my laptop for hours in those kind of places - which I go to frequently - without drinking anything when it’s busy. It’s downright selfish.

Southeast you have said what I wanted to say re the selfish.

If there are 2 seats to a table (Pret) - I don't mind letting 1 person sitting there, it's when 1 person hogs the entire table. what's wrong with the library or their home?!

a classic the other day was when I was turfed out of a table because a man was interviewing someone else. whatever happened to offices? I have met the occasional recruiter for coffee (when it's convenient location wise to both of us) but would prefer an office simply for confidential reasons.

Ha ha. You are dictating to people how they use someone's else's business.
Surely that's a decision for the cafe/pub owner.

But there are thousands if these free wifi places all over the UK.
How are you going to stipulate which clientele uses said cafés?

No mums here. No dads. No using your mobile. No interviewing.

If I were thirsty I would not pay inflated pub prices. Pubs are social places and they had every right to be there and chat until the pub decided otherwise. Not their fault it's busy.

Nobody's dictating anything. I simply can't fathom why some cafe owners are seemingly happy to let some people sit there for hours nursing drinks or not even drinking anything at busy times thus losing money.

Probably allow it because they want you to come back, possibly spend more and recommend. I go for the social aspect, if officious staff get me to leave I shall not go back.

Someone going in every day with their laptop and buying a couple of drinks is possibly worth more to them than a person who pops in once a week at lunchtime.

YABU

I drink coffee anywhere as long as it's good and love reading, observing, talking etc.

YABU. Pubs are designed to be relaxed, social places. If you don't like how busy it is, go somewhere else.

From a profit perspective a cup of coffee/pot of tea has a far higher margin than a glass of wine/bottle of beer/G & T. The actual cost of a barista style coffee is something like 10p, the cost of tea far less.

This would not bother me in a pub but it would in a cafe. They might have been waiting for someone to join them and did not want to get another round until the other people arrived

Do you think those cafés that encourage it perhaps do so because it's profitable?

Edu Yes I can, those that actively encourage it for the reason soul suggested. But maybe some other owners don't like to make a fuss and happy to keep the business ticking over. So I wonder if this is different in other countries.

Maybe. Would be interesting to hear from cafe owners.