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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Working at a cafe without buying anything

200 replies

Overthebow · 04/03/2022 07:52

Yesterday I was at a cafe and a lady came in and sat down, set up her laptop and books and started to work. She had taken a glass of the free water but hadn’t bought anything. AIBU to think she was a CF?

OP posts:
ChickenStripper · 04/03/2022 09:10

I agree - you see these Cfs everywhere - always in the best window seat. It's easier to get away with this in big places like Pret etc. The least they can do is buy a flipping tea or coffee.

cananyonesay · 04/03/2022 09:12

I used to work for a small charity with only a couple of staff. We were homebased but travelled around an appointments across the county a lot so would take laptops with us and go to cafes between appointments, sometimes we had meetings in cafes as had no office.

My one colleague, never, ever bought anything. However, she would take her own herbal teabags with her and ask for hot water then sit and work for a couple of hours. I used to cringe working with her. It was a rural county, too, so it's not like it would be a Costa or Cafe Nero but a small independent usually.

I was surprised more people didn't tell her to piss off.

BulletTrain · 04/03/2022 09:13

@girlmom21 Thought as much!

jytdtysrht · 04/03/2022 09:13

CF
Anyone who thinks this is ok should open their own living room for free and let randoms with laptops in to sit on their furniture and use the electricity. And accept you can’t use that part of your room until the worker decides to leave.
Because that’s what you want the cafe owner to do.

ErrolTheDragon · 04/03/2022 09:15

I was surprised more people didn't tell her to piss off.

They should have charged her for the hot water and service. DM used to take her own Rooibos teabags before herbals/decaf were widely available but always insisted on paying the price of a tea.

CaMePlaitPas · 04/03/2022 09:17

Unacceptable in my opinion. Libraries exist for this reason, she could have bought a coffee at least.

CounsellorTroi · 04/03/2022 09:17

@girlmom21

It depends on her circumstances - which none of us know.
It really doesn’t - it’s a cafe not a community centre. And by occupying a table without buying anything she was potentially losing them business.
saraclara · 04/03/2022 09:19

This drives me mad. It's almost impossible to get a seat in the coffee places in my nearest town (which tend to be fairly small). The tables are all taken up by people working. While I don't examine every table, it definitely seems that they don't have any recent purchases on them. I've had to give up and leave so many times, and each time it's the cafe owner who has lost custom.

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 04/03/2022 09:19

It's very rude. Staff will have to serve her the 'free' water, then clean the table after she leaves. She's not paying for that either. CF indeed.

SatinHeart · 04/03/2022 09:25

Obviously its a CF thing to do, but if the cafe isn't challenging it then someone's always going to try their luck. Word probably gets round as well that they're a soft touch.

ExConstance · 04/03/2022 09:26

There are two cafes I used to go to quite often. One is in the little town I live close to and you cannot get a set in there most mornings because the laptop brigade are settled in for the morning. They take all the nice window seats too. I've given up bothering to try now. The second is in Bristol and it used to have a lovely laid back atmosphere and great cakes. Now it not only has the solitary "workers" but groups of people holding meetings and recruiting. The atmosphere is ruined

LINABE · 04/03/2022 09:26

@NotNotNotMyName

I think this is increasingly becoming a problem with wfh. If people buy one coffee buy stay there for hours, they are taking up often the best tables in the coffee shop so other customers can’t sit down or are relegated to the table by the loos.
This. Selfish f...ers.
icelollycraving · 04/03/2022 09:27

I think Starbucks have a policy where they don’t ask someone to leave. I have had meetings in coffee shops and really judge those that don’t purchase drinks etc.
Incidentally my sister is a real bugger for it, and she is a manager in hospitality. Tight though and that’s the clincher.

CounsellorTroi · 04/03/2022 09:28

Why can’t people go to community hubs rather than taking up tables in coffee shops?

dfendyr · 04/03/2022 09:28

@girlmom21

It depends on her circumstances - which none of us know.
I disagree - if you have no money for wifi, you go to the library, where there is free wifi, or somewhere else.

You dont take up a place in a cafe - why should the cafe owner subsidise someone ?

CallyfromBlakes7 · 04/03/2022 09:29

I can't get too exercised about this. It's up to the cafe owner/manager to say something. If they don't, they either don't care or have an arrangement that that person.

Maybe in a big place they wouldn't notice immediately, but they would after an hour or two and would probably pointedly ask if the person wanted to bring them another drink.

Up to the staff to manage, nothing to do with other customers unless you need a table and they are hogging one.

southbanklounger · 04/03/2022 09:32

I live in a London suburb and the problem was so bad with WFH crowd that a cafe had to ban them.
Another one has a policy you must buy a drink and they will ask you to leave if you've been there for a while with an empty cup and someone wants to eat. The trouble with this place ( and they do great food) is I often go in, see a sea of WFH people and walk out and don't bother with the hassle of staff kicking people out, they must lose so much custom.

I hate the atmosphere they bring, plugging in their equipment and making the place their f-g office. You don't talk to anyone, stay at home!

CapMarvel · 04/03/2022 09:33

Meh.

Maybe she works there. Maybe the staff know her or she has asked whether she can use the table. Maybe as long as she isn't stopping other customers from having a seat the staff or the owners really don't care.

Lilac57 · 04/03/2022 09:34

If she's not part of the business/friend of the business, then yes, she's a CF. However, if the staff didn't say anything, she probably is known to them and either makes the decisions or has been told it's fine.

DottyHarmer · 04/03/2022 09:34

My niece worked in a popular independent cafe. The owner had to put up a notice as so many people asked for hot water and a cup and saucer (or two) and then produced their own tea bags.

These “charity” cafes. Yeah, right. Imagine if every table were occupied by laptop users or people with their own beverages. Fine businesses they would be then. They’d be bankrupted in a week.

I was in a Starbucks in London and there were no chairs, but I spied one bloke using the table but his cables etc were on a chair. When I asked for the chair he glared and sighed but as I am now an old bat I just stood there with my best Paddington stare.

Flowerpower23 · 04/03/2022 09:35

When I used to manage a cafe, we didn’t have an office. I would sit at one of the tables on my laptop on a daily basis doing rotas, accounts etc. I would however go and help myself to coffee behind the bar so I guess it was clear to people watching that I worked there!

DidymusAmbrosius · 04/03/2022 09:36

There are a whole list of legitimate reasons why she might have done this, including working there or being a supplier waiting for a meeting/who has been invited to work there following a meeting etc.

So YABU to leap to 'this is a CF member of the public' without further info.

00100001 · 04/03/2022 09:39

why do you care? :S

crochetmonkey74 · 04/03/2022 09:41

On this I sort of think mind your own business

Now I have plenty of resources and can always buy a drink - but there have been times in my life I couldn't afford to and did this (I couldn't go home)
I also wouldn't have looked like I couldn't afford it - so would have been labelled a CF

Also, I think with a garden centre- its a little different- sometimes people 'park' members of their family or who they are with in the seating area or cafe while they shop

CounsellorTroi · 04/03/2022 09:41

@00100001

why do you care? :S
Why did you care enough to post? Just scroll on by if the thread topic doesn’t interest you.