Page 8 | Working at a cafe without buying anything

Overthebow · 2022-03-04T07:52:43+00:00

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?

girlmom21 · 04/03/2022 16:37

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Sparklingbrook · 04/03/2022 16:37

It's like being back at High School on here sometimes...

MurmuratingStarling · 04/03/2022 16:38

YANBU. Very cheeky!

girlmom21 · 04/03/2022 16:38

@Sparklingbrook

It's like being back at High School on here sometimes...

She started it 🤷‍♀️

MurmuratingStarling · 04/03/2022 16:42

@sadpapercourtesan

People get so personally outraged at the idea of 'something for nothing', don't they? And the notion of a business owner having a social conscience and giving something back to their community - without making a profit out of it - really blows their minds.

Small-minded, suspicious, sanctimonious British Tories. Selfishness and greed runs through this country like Brighton through a stick of rock.

Sounds like you are having a bad day. Have some flowers. Cheer you up a bit...

a12356777 · 04/03/2022 16:43

Mind your own business and get a life

Sparklingbrook · 04/03/2022 16:56

@a12356777

Mind your own business and get a life

AIBU positively relies on people not minding their own business. 😂

TonTonMacoute · 04/03/2022 16:56

It is cheeky, the free wi if is a service for customers, not anyone who feels like it, but I guess the cafe needs to make that clear.

If there were paying customers who couldn't sit down because of this person then is reasonable to ask them to move in that case.

MurmuratingStarling · 04/03/2022 16:59

@Sparklingbrook

It's like being back at High School on here sometimes...

I know right...

Working at a cafe without buying anything

JimmyDurham · 04/03/2022 17:43

She could be (i) the owner, (ii) the woman doing the audit of the books, (iii) the owner's mate who has an arrangement, (iv) a contractor pricing up some improvements. YABU. If the staff weren't bothered, why should you be? And if they were too busy to notice, that's the owner's problem not yours.

Suzi888 · 04/03/2022 18:06

How long were you watching her for 🤣

Gonnagetgoing · 04/03/2022 18:13

Oh really lol 😂!

Go have some

Gonnagetgoing · 04/03/2022 18:14

[quote girlmom21]**@Gonnagetgoing* if you think im rude on numerous threads feel free to report me and im sure @mnhq* will deal with it accordingly 🤷‍♀️

Yeah hun it's the same emote you used when I mentioned the sarcastic emote before 😘[/quote]
@girlmom21 oh I did report you don’t you worry!

PumpkinPie2016 · 04/03/2022 18:29

I think it's cheeky! You shouldn't sit in a cafe and buy nothing.

If she needed space and couldn't afford to buy a coffee, she could have used a public library. When I was a student home for the hols, I often used to go and work in a library-I needed some peace and quiet to get on with things but couldn't have afforded to sit in coffee shops.

Sparklingbrook · 04/03/2022 18:48

Everyone knows it’s cheeky but they would prefer to tie themselves in knots with all the ‘what ifs’ just for fun.

MRex · 04/03/2022 19:29

8 pages in, and still people don't accept this person might be:

Staff / manager / area manager / auditor for the cafe
Staff / manager / area manager / auditor for Garden centre (most likely, then they know the person by sight, but not to chat to)
A relative of a staff member
Waiting over an hour (or however long OP was there) for food
Drinking lemonade () not water
Regular, who usually buys stuff and staff know they will get lunch a bit later ..... Or one of the many other legitimate reasons already given.

Think for just half a second. Is it really more likely that staff give a random stranger just tap water with no question about what else they are ordering, or that it's a manager from the garden centre who often sits there to do rotas and ordering?

Sparklingbrook · 04/03/2022 19:31

What if, what it, what if. etc.

20viona · 04/03/2022 19:40

Yes she's cheeky.

Kazzyhoward · 04/03/2022 19:41

@PumpkinPie2016

I think it's cheeky! You shouldn't sit in a cafe and buy nothing.

If she needed space and couldn't afford to buy a coffee, she could have used a public library. When I was a student home for the hols, I often used to go and work in a library-I needed some peace and quiet to get on with things but couldn't have afforded to sit in coffee shops.

Not everyone lives near a library, especially now that many have closed and reduced working hours.

Kazzyhoward · 04/03/2022 19:42

@roughmeasures

I own a cafe, we monitor how long people are on tables, especially laptop users. We would have asked within 30 mins if they planned to buy anything.

I would feel less bad about doing this if it was Starbucks - but in an independent it's a definite no no.

Kinda rude!

Why would you feel less about a Starbucks? Many are franchisees owned by local people, you know, the same kind of person who owns and independent one.

Kazzyhoward · 04/03/2022 19:46

@MGMidget

I never said whose job it was to confront them ‘user’.

The people doing this are CF and they rely on their own brazeness and the reluctance of the staff to confront. It is damaging for a business though because if it happens too often it can be offputting for the paying customers. Eg cafe more crowded means increased covid risk or having a stranger sit right next to you at your table when their are plenty of spare tables is unsettling. You dont know if they are after your purse, for example, and you dont have the usual degree of privacy if chatting with a friend or talking quietly to on the phone with a stanger right next to you.

Obviously if a cafe is very crowded and every seat is taken with paying customers eating and drinking that is just something you have to accept if you want to eat or drink there. But when its less busy and there are other choices I would prefer to give a wide birth to a cafe full of CFs and chose a different cafe!

@MGMidget

But when its less busy and there are other choices I would prefer to give a wide birth to a cafe full of CFs and chose a different cafe!

How do you know what kind of customer they are? They may have nothing on the table because they've just ordered. They may have nothing in front of them because they've just finished and been cleared away. Unless you stand looking through the window for half an hour, you can't possibly know which customers haven't bought anything.

roughmeasures · 04/03/2022 21:08

@Kazzyhoward I wasn't actually aware of the franchisee aspect to Starbucks, but wouldn't do that in a franchisee owned one.

I have many issues with Starbucks, mainly their tax avoidance... but that's a whole other discussion.

Support cafes, buy a drink, don't rinse the free wifi. End of.

:)

user1497207191 · 04/03/2022 22:28

[quote roughmeasures]@Kazzyhoward I wasn't actually aware of the franchisee aspect to Starbucks, but wouldn't do that in a franchisee owned one.

I have many issues with Starbucks, mainly their tax avoidance... but that's a whole other discussion.

Support cafes, buy a drink, don't rinse the free wifi. End of.

:) [/quote]
You wouldn’t know it’s a franchise one unless you did a bit of digging. That’s really the point of franchises - to give the illusion it’s the same as all others, consistency, etc.

Patapouf · 04/03/2022 23:41

@girlmom21

It depends on her circumstances - which none of us know.

No it doesn't, she was occupying a table which preventing a paying customer from using it. If she couldn't afford to buy anything she should have gone to the library.

MGMidget · 05/03/2022 15:16

@Kazzyhoward, if you read my previous post you would see that I have fully observed people arriving and sitting right next to me with no food or drink item arriving. I was there long enough to know it wasn't just a slow service! My previous post also pointed out that they deliberately sit next to me when there was plenty of space elsewhere and this seemed to be to avoid the scrutiny of the management/staff because it would look to an observer as though they were with me, a paying customer who had food and drink on the table. This is a tactic I have seen a number of times.