To wonder what runs through some people's heads sometimes?

[FattyAirways]

I was at a cafe enjoying breakfast. The cafe is big, got around 25 tables in. I was the only one in the cafe. A couple, came in, placed their order at the till and came and sat at the table right beside me! They had 20-odd other tables to choose from. My table wasn't in an enviable position in the cafe, no views out of the window, nothing special about this area in the cafe, yet they chose to do this. Why?

Even worse is when people do this in car parks!

A few years ago I went to a play park type place, very early, before it opened and parked. 10 mins later I came back and two women had parked their cars ONE EITHER SIDE OF ME. The WHOLE FUCKING CAR PARK WAS EMPTY!

I then had to wait whilst they unloaded buggies and children from their cars, whilst chatting away as I couldn't get into my car.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE??

This happens to me in a car park. I always park in most distant corner, nobody around me and come back to have cars park next me but the rest carpark still empty.

😂That would have made me nervous too.

This happens to me sometimes when I'm on my own. 20 tables free, a 100 feet long 50 feet wide space, and someone comes and sits within 6 feet of me. I have actually got up and moved to the other side of the cafe/restaurant before now. I don't care if it offends them.

As you say @FattyAirways WTAF are they doing sitting right next to you anyway, when they could choose a table 50 feet away? Happens in the cinema too. 500 seats - and only 20 people in - so 480 seats to choose from, and someone still sits on MY row, 2 seats away from me, or directly in front. AGAIN I will move.

Went into a cafe once with a colleague for a lunchtime coffee, and there were 40 tables available. Only 5 were occupied. (Including ours.) Some random man just sat right next to us with his frappuccino and brownie, even though he had 34 other tables to choose from. My colleague was talking about something to do with her children, and was giving an opinions (about whether they should be on reins or not when they're toddlers...)

This man started chipping in on the conversation, and adding his twopenceworth! Saying he disagreed with her opinion!

She was like and then Grabbed both our drinks and said 'come on Ebony, grab the cakes! Time to move to another table, where nosey prying ears can't hear our PRIVATE conversation!'

Cheeky fucker! 😂 Totally unwanted and unsolicited butting-in, on the conversation of 2 strangers. Who DOES that?

When I read the OP, I thought for a moment that the couple had actually come and sat at the very same table! Now that would definitely have annoyed me!

But as it was a different table, I don't think it would have annoyed me at all as long as they didn't want me to interact with them and were not particularly noisy. I might have briefly pondered why they had chosen to sit at that particular table when all the other tables where free, but nothing more.

My MIL does this all the time, she's a true extrovert and needs to constantly be around other people. In a cafe she wants to see what the other diners are eating, does it look good and are they enjoying it? On public transport she wants to listen to conversations, and will happily join in so will always choose to sit very close to other passengers.

Last week I took her out for the day, our walking route took us past a certain clothes boutique four times. It had a sale rail outside which MIL wasn't interested in on the 2nd time, but was on the 1st 3rd and 4th purely because other women were looking through the clothes and she needed to see what they were interested in.
Similar in supermarkets, if someone else is buying it then it must be good.

User, I don’t get what’s so weird and intrude about a couple sitting next to you in a coffee shop. It’s a public place at the end of the day.

As pps have said, people getting close to you can hear what you're saying, they're earwigging and nestling close, and making it awkward to have a private conversation. And they DO listen. As I and several others have illustrated. It takes away your solitude and privacy and makes it awkward to get in and out. I find it annoying and entitled when someone plops their arse next to me when there are 100 other seats available.

And as a few posters have said, it's usually a man when it's women alone (or even a couple of women together.) And it IS the same on the beach, and when you're camping. Awkward feckers pitching up right next to you, when the beach or camp site is 90% empty. LOL feck off!!!

As @Theroad said, the best thing about covid was that people couldn't get near you and were forced away from you. Also, it stopped chuggers as well. THEY have returned now! Often on the exit out of Morrisons or Tesco too!

They always block my exit out when I have all my frozen and chilled food... Trying to get me to sign up to their charity, and trying to get me to give my bank details to them! I also get them coming to my door again now! VERY annoying.

I have no idea why people do this. I am on a treadmill, loads are free but no, one person comes and uses the one right next to me.

I park far from the entrance in a quiet supermarket, hardly anyone there. Come back to find someone has parked right next to me. What is wrong with people!

I had this on an uninhabited island once. We boated there, and the beach was completely deserted. I sat at one end of the beach reading while my OH and DD walked to a waterfall inland. A yacht arrived and a family with two children and two dogs rowed onto the beach in a tender and sat right next to me!

Hmm, I guess I'm a bit of a flocker (a mother flocker?) as in the sort of scenario OP describes I do tend to feel driven to sit close to the occupied table. I usually leave at least one table in between as a buffer zone, but never sit the furthest away that I could.

@ShimmeringShirts

Why does having other people close to you cause anger? Why does it matter if there were other tables free? I don’t understand why this is an issue.

I don't understand why YOU don't understand people feel differently to YOU.

@ShimmeringShirts

if you dislike being around people that much then surely you don’t go to cafes and supermarkets and anywhere else you may encounter someone a little too close instead of getting bitchy and cuntish about other people simply being people? I don’t understand the anger towards human nature, it’s almost like some people would rather they were the only ones alive on this thread.

PMSL. 😆 Did you get out of bed the wrong side this morning or something? Or has someone told you to bog off when you've sat next to them in an a 95% empty cafe/restaurant, and tried to butt into their conversation?!! Is that why you're so salty? Is this thread hitting a raw nerve?😂

At least they didn't sit AT your table.

Someone got in on the first page with 'flocking' as the explanation.
Happens on busses etc. Maybe it's a safety-in-numbers thing, or a territorial thing. Or a physics thing as much as psychology.

But when someone parks in the spot next to you when there are loads of empty spaces, now that's annoying, because you then have limited space to get out of your car. Maybe they think their car is less likely to get damaged if it's not exposed on all sides.
Dunno. People are weird.

I do it for safety. I never park at the arse end of the car park away from others. I park where all the cars are and towards the front of wherever I'm going, especially if it's a night time.

I pak correctly within the parking lines so it causes no issue for anyone, so not sure why people are bothered by it

Drives me mad as I’m someone who loves my own private space and to be as far away from people as possible at times.

Ive been on an almost empty train and someone asked me to move my bag so they could sit in the next seat. Fine if train was busy but there were about a dozen people in the entire carriage.

Once we were in Greece and found a totally deserted cove with a pebble beach. After we’d been there about an hour, two older ladies came down and laid their towels so close to us they were almost touching us despite there being not another living soul on the beach as far as the eye could see. We moved along a few feet and they started looking at us like we were mad

Herd mentality

if you’ve ever spent time working behind a bar, you’ll know this is a thing

😂

@ShimmeringShirts you do seem very angry.

Maybe they were regulars and you were sitting at 'their' table and they thought you might move if they sat at the adjacent table. Not condoning this of course!

Oh GOD the beach flockers.

Finding a spot on a virtually empty beach, lovely view of the sea, inevitably some barely evolved fish come and sit right in front of us so we have to hear them yabbering on to each other and stare at pink fleshy backs instead of the ocean.

I always move.

Boils my piss. Leave me the fuck alone. I actually reversed into a bollard years ago because I was ranting to dp about the twat who had parked next to me in an empty car park.

Just like when you purposely park in an out of the way spot at a supermarket (to enjoy a big fat cream cake in peace) and that person cannot find any other spot in a huge fairly empty car park, apart from the one right next to you!

A few weeks ago I was in an empty cafe, probably 30 tables. Sat as far away as possible from the entrance, not adventageous spot at all. Just chilling.

Just as our food arrived a mum and a toddler came in, and sat next to us. Which would be not an issue if the toddler wasn't screaming, very upset, gagging, and mum loudly panicking that they're going to be sick, and digging around for napkins and wet wipes and God knows what. Eventually they walked the whole length of the cafe again to get to the loo.

Fucking lovely. Talk about putting you off your food.

In that situations surely you a) go straight to the loo. Or B) sit near the loo or c) don't discuss vomit next to a strangers lunch!

I was once on the top deck of a bus. I was the only person on the top deck. I was sitting about half way down the bus. Two friends got on. One sat next to me and the other sat on the seat across the aisle. It made no sense.

I got married abroad. The reverend was old school and insisted on meeting all the couples to give us a lecture on the sanctity of marriage. To this end we had to attend a morning meeting in the evening show bar. We arrived and were met at the door and told to take a seat anywhere we liked. There were loads of empty tables across the whole room, but two groups had formed, one on the left of the bar, and one to the right. No one was speaking apart from whispering to their partner. But non the less, two distinct groups were huddled together despite a huge room with loads of space to spread out. Without any thought we joined the left hand group. Turned out every single couple on the left was British, and every one on the right American. I’m sure there must have been some sort of cultural thing going off to make people automatically form the groups like that. No idea what though.

Although the other type of beach people that grind my gears are the ones who won't venture more than a few steps onto the actual sand before setting up their mini city of windbreaks and mats and parasols, usually right at the bottom of the steps thereby meaning that EVERY OTHER FUCKER has to walk through around their medieval encampment to find their own area.

Or the other geniuses who lay out their shit across the bottom of the lifeboat slipway. Probably the same people who park their motorhome up in an escape lane on the way home for a bit of tea.