Had to leave Costa as breastfeeding was taking too long

[CalmFawn]

Visited Costa last week with my 10 day old baby. Went to meet my best friend and it was my first outing without my husband ( so a bit nervous!)

Sat down and we both ordered a coffee and a cake. Had a good chat and she held baby etc. about 40 mins into seating, I started to breastfeed baby. Coffee was nearly gone but cakes hadn’t been eaten yet. A member of staff came over and demanded I stop feeding my baby as it was ‘too time consuming’ and we’ve been sat here for too long and it was a busy period so we need to leave. We pointed out there were over 10 empty tables and we still had cake but she ignored us and held the door open for us to leave. I was so upset and embarrassed I just stopped feeding baby and rushed out.

whilst reflecting over the weekend I wish I had had said something to her but worried I’ve missed some time frame that Costa allow and overran. Was she right to ask us to leave? Or was she in the wrong?

I suggest contacting papers or making this more public. This is outrageous! So many people stay hours in coffee shops on their laptop this is not acceptable from the member of staff.

With her 3rd child.

But you don't have to be a parent to know the law anyway and there's always Google.

Make a formal complaint, both the café manager and the chain

Protecting breastfeeding mothers doesn't mean using outrageously sexist insults towards minimum wage working women is okay.

Do they ask people to leave now? I don't frequent Costa, but have never heard this. Obviously if someone is in there for hours on one drink on their laptop that is fair enough though. The OP still had food to be eaten and assuming they were not about to close, 40 minutes is no time for a catch up over coffee and cake.

If this is true then the is really sad and shocking and could be the end of someone’s breastfeeding journey being treated like that in public. I’d contact the newspapers about this tbh. Really get it out there and shame them for this!

@lauraloulou1 Bit extreme. Maybe she doesn't know the law? As for her getting sacked, selling age restricted items to underage customers is unlikely to get you sacked and that's also breaking the law, and that is drummed into retail workers even if you don't sell age restricted goods. I did once get asked what I'd do if I saw a breastfeeding woman when I worked in Sainsbury's café and said I wouldn't do anything, even though I myself didn't know the law at the time.

I've spent hours sitting in Costa with my mate writing stories and never got asked to leave.
(Edited for grammar.)

Hideous language. You should be ashamed.

No one's getting fired either. It's a case of re training the employee.

YANBU but just out of interest how could it take you 40 mins to drink coffee. It’d be cold and rank by then.

My father once fell asleep on a bed whilst shopping in Ikea. The staff just smiled and let him be!

Or the customer could actually spend money and not use it as a waiting room they exist to make money it is a business so if you eant sit there for along time then actually buy things, next people will want to send the staff to the tower or stage a sit in, maybe take their house off them, can this thread get any more dramatic?

Christ. Where to start …

i go to a coffee shop usually because I have some time to kill (normally waiting for dc).

if they started putting a time limit on how long people could stay I suspect they’d go out of business very quickly.

most are there for the same reason and have laptops out. The place is never full.

if the place has tables spare it’s better for business to have people sat there. Make it look busier, at least sell some coffee and cake.

the alternate is people stop going.

if it’s permanently bursting with people struggling to sit that’s one thing. But unless you’re in m&s at lunch time I’ve never seen a Costa that full.

The OP and her friend had been there for about 40 minutes, OP hadn't finished eating her cake and there were loads of empty tables. So how was she stopping them from making money? Other customers could have sat at one of the empty tables. It is illegal to discriminate against breatfeeding mothers which is obviously what that member of staff was doing.

@BlondiePortz
Did you actually READ the OP? She hadn't even finished her cake. 🤦🏻‍♀️

You can feed wherever you like including DFS - just not on their furniture. Retail outlets don't have to provide facilities I believe.

Even if I was chatting with Harry Styles, I'd have finished my cake in that time.

I’ve been in a Caffè Nero where people were asked to leave because they’d been there for ages with laptops, drinks long finished and no tables free for new customers standing with trays. It was great! Nobody should be sitting for hours having meetings, studying or working. It’s a place for buying and consuming food and drink.

But of course breastfeeding is protected anywhere the woman is permitted to be. Was the shop closing? That’s the only justification for OP being asked to leave after 40 minutes, unfinished food and lots of empty tables.

I’ve never shopped at DFS, but presumably you’re allowed to sit on the sofas in the showroom to try them? So if you were doing that, you could surely breastfeed. They’re not providing facilities, you’re testing the sofa to see if it meets your needs. Unless you’re very bendy, the parts you’re feeding with aren’t the parts you’re sitting on the sofa with.

On her third child....

But first one she breastfed out and about.

Male privilege is lovely, isn't it. I bet they wouldn't have smiled so sweetly on a woman doing that.

LMAO!

Snakes need to eat too y'know! Have you always been this snakist? 😂

Because it's a retail outfit their sofas are for display for people to choose from not people to plonk themselves on for a rest or to sit on to breastfeed. Does that really need explaining?

Op said there were plenty of tables free so there was no excuse. A cafe in Brighton had a sign saying no laptops. That was good. So many people spend a couple of quid and expect to use the premises for most of the day. That was a very high traffic place though.