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AIBU?

Business meeting in Waitrose cafe

250 replies

whoneedswings · 01/02/2017 11:28

I'm currently sat in Waitrose cafe enjoying my free coffee with my 6 month old (I find it useful to feed him here whilst we're out shopping.) It's very busy so I've plonked myself on a chair on the edge of someone's table. Done this many times, just finding a bit awkward today as these people are discussing private financial matters and conducting some sort of meeting. They don't even have any coffee or food (so I'm not rushing them) just feel maybe it's a bit U to be continuing their business in a very small busy cafe. Or is it me?

OP posts:

Report

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 10:15

spidey66: It's not at all rude if you ask. But you ask because you are acknowledging that it is their table (at least until they leave), and therefore they are entitled to continue talking about whatever.

StealthPolarBear · 02/02/2017 10:17

Ooh night wandered you had me all cross

NavyandWhite · 02/02/2017 10:24

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 02/02/2017 10:47

NightWanderer -

Trifleorbust - restaurant, no. Waiting staff allocate customers to tables there. Self-service cafe, yes. I would ask politely, but if the people already at a table with free spaces have clearly finished their food and drink and I was standing looking for somewhere, why on earth shouldn't I sit at that table? And OP did ask, as has been explained many times.

I don't think anybody on this thread is saying that it is not OK to do business-related stuff in a cafe. What some of us find odd is that so few of the people carrying out their business audibly are taking into account that everybody else can hear them and some of what they are saying is confidential. I would feel just as uncomfortable about finding myself next to people talking about intensely personal stuff where the people concerned were identifiable.

Also, if it is no longer OK to moan on MN instead of having an argy bargy out loud, AIBU is doomed.

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 10:56

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g: I know she asked. But she had no idea if they were finished or not. They may have been about to get another drink/cake.

Out of interest, are you saying if you asked and the answer was, "Sorry, we're having a private conversation" (not audible to the room in general, just at their table) you would sit anyway?

Sprink · 02/02/2017 10:59

I can't stand it that people use public spaces which are supposed to be for people socialising - or relaxing - to have their meetings.

Who says public spaces are supposed to be for socialising or relaxing?

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 11:01

Highalert

Any empty seat in a packed cafe is fair game.

No way. That is against every rule of etiquette. It is fine to ask. It is bloody rude to plonk yourself down next to someone in a cafe with your chips and start munching away.

tanfield90 · 02/02/2017 11:21

I'm in Costa now and there's a business meeting going on a few yards from me. I can't hear any (raised) voices though coz the piped music is too loud ! Two big papery ring binders on the table though.

ShowMePotatoSalad · 02/02/2017 11:28

If travelling for a meeting maybe Waitrose was a good equidistant meeting place. They may well have had a drink or something to eat which could have been cleared away by the time you got there. You just don't know.

And if they're discussing finances, so what? You don't even know what company they work for so it's hardly a breach of sensitive information.

I do love a good Waitrose thread tbf.

CaraAspen · 02/02/2017 11:31

"Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g

It wasn't their table. It was Waitrose's table. OP had as much right to sit there as the other two, more in fact, as she had just purchased food and they had finished.

Read all the OP's posts and you will see quite plainly that she was just wondering why they would have a meeting about confidential financial stuff in such a crowded public place. Clearly this has touched a nerve amongst many who do similar stuff all the time and are not pleased to be told that others find it annoying or inappropriate."

THIS ^^^^

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 11:32

I would LOVE someone to ask Waitrose, M&S, Starbucks, Costa etc whether they would be okay losing the custom of all people having informal business meetings

CaraAspen · 02/02/2017 11:35

Ask them, then. Conduct a survey.

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 11:36

CaraAspen: No, I doubt that would work. Random member of the public sending surveys to supermarkets and coffee chains = weird. My point rhetorical as I am sure you know.

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 11:37

*is

CaraAspen · 02/02/2017 11:43

And yet you took my question literally - and answered it. Odd.

Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 11:46

CaraAspen: What question?

JacquesHammer · 02/02/2017 11:55

I can't stand it that people use public spaces which are supposed to be for people socialising - or relaxing - to have their meetings

The clue is in the "public" spaces - free for anyone to use.

If you don't like the conversation I would have thought you shouldn't be listening in the first place......

I have regular meetings with clients in coffee shops. We chat at a normal volume. You'd have to be listening pretty intently to find out what we're talking about.

FeliciaJollygoodfellow · 02/02/2017 11:56

Well I can't imagine their compliance department would be that thrilled that confidential information is being discussed in a public place, so it's probably either obscure enough that you can't do anything with the information, not actual confidential/secret, or they don't care?

YANBU to sit there, YABU to judge what they're talking about as confidential when unless seriously earwigging and looking at computer/written notes you can't possible have all the details?

JacquesHammer · 02/02/2017 11:56

Clearly this has touched a nerve amongst many who do similar stuff all the time and are not pleased to be told that others find it annoying or inappropriate

The only person who could possibly find it inappropriate is my client - if they suggest the meeting place that suggests they're pretty much ok with it.

Inappropriate

NavyandWhite · 02/02/2017 11:57

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

civilfawlty · 02/02/2017 11:59

Obviously you can sit down. What you CANT do is moan about the conversation happening at the table you have joined.

brasty · 02/02/2017 12:01

Depends what you mean by confidential. Discussing budgets may sound confidential, but not be. In the public sector many budgets are published online in reports.

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Trifleorbust · 02/02/2017 12:07

If the client has no problem with the level of confidentiality, and Waitrose are happy to accept money from people having informal business meetings, there really isn't an issue bar the OP thinking she had more of a right to the table and expecting them to get up and leave when she asked could she join them. No story here.

TheMaddHugger · 02/02/2017 12:36

🦇 Batman socks. Lol

Coastalcommand · 02/02/2017 12:42

YABU. You asked to join them. It's up to them what they talk about.
If you didn't want to share a table with them you should have waited for a table to become free before ordering your coffee.

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