Table for 1

[LilyAnn13]

Sometimes I enjoy sitting outside a cafe in the sun with a few coffees and a good book, but when a couple or maybe 3 or 4 people want a table outside, I am always made to feel that I should give up that table. Some places have asked if I will give up my table.
I get it that businesses need to make money therefore not lose out on custom from a party of 3 or 4 but what about rights for single people? 🤷‍♀️😕

Depends how long you are there and at what sort of time.

A table of 4 having a 2 course lunch with several drinks will pay the bills.
One person sitting at a table for four drinking 2/3 coffees for over an hour with a book (or longer if it’s a good book?) is going to be costing them money. They can’t pay the wages on a couple of cappuccinos with overheads the way they are these days.

Do you mean at a place where they are no tables for single diners outside?

I can see both sides but it’s very annoying when one person is taking a table for 4 and a party of 4 can’t get seated. I’ve seen single people at huge tables getting humpty with staff and other patrons when asked to budge up or move, it does seem a bit selfish.

I try to take up as little room as possible - choosing a table for 2 rather than one that can fit 4 if possible. I also don't mind if people want to share my table or take chairs to crowd around a different one. But providing I've done that I don't feel bad about taking up space. The cafe could install bar seating, or increase number of small tables if it's enough of a problem for them.

Asking you to give up your table is poor form IMO. They were happy to have your custom when you ordered and then ask you to move on as they have a more profitable table opportunity. Not a good look. Unless you were lingering for ages (45min+ after finishing drink is my timing to order again or leave), or if you arrived mid-morning and it was now 1pm and the expectation is over the lunch rush that you buy food and didn't.

I don’t think it’s so much about “single people” - I’d expect (and have seen) a table of 3 or 4 people to be asked to either order food or vacate if they’d been there for several hours only drinking coffee if the restaurant became busy and other customers wanted to sit and order meals. (And most popular restaurants nowadays have time-limited bookings.)

If I’m sitting alone and know I won’t be ordering much else, and see the place begin to pack out, I usually take that as my indication to move on, tbh.

I think that if you are having three coffees (perhaps £15/20?) which takes you two hours and are sat at a four person table, it’s not cost effective for you to stay over a party of four who want drinks and food.

You are not a cost effective customer and as a small business owner what you are doing would drive me nuts. In a big chain, fair enough, but as a PP said, surely once you see the place filling up you would take it as a cue to leave?

I’m on holiday (alone) at present - due to change of plans - although DD will be joining me tomorrow
I walked out of a nearly empty restaurant yesterday as they wanted me to move to a table with less comfy chairs and no view just because I was on my own - there were 12+ empty tables so there was no reason for it and I was intending eating whereas others were just having coffee or drinks
I have soon sussed the friendly to lone diner venues and have made return visits

Sitting outside a cafe isn’t a right. It has fuck all to do with rights. A cafe is a business and needs as many high-paying customers per hour as they can attract.
You need to move in these circs - and I say that as a lone woman who also enjoys a quiet sit and a read in a cafe

It’s not about rights it’s about good business- a table of 4 people all having a meal & a couple of drinks = more money than 1 person having 2 coffees, simple maths really.

How long are you sitting there with your book? If your blocking a table for 4 for an hour while you drink one coffee then I can see why they ask you to share!

Find a park bench to read your book on in the sun. Coffee in a thermos. Can still people watch. Agree with others: cafes are businesses. It is not their job to provide you with a sunny spot to sit in and people watch without spending much money.

There is nothing more annoying than someone sitting in a cafe on a laptop for hours after only having one drink when people are looking for somewhere to sit. In your case OP as long as there were no other tables available then you are perfectly entitled to sit there. As for nursing just one drink whilst reading for some time then that’s unacceptable

Small businesses are falling apart - think about it

“with a few coffees” the OP is extremely clear it’s not just a single coffee.

Maybe they should provide facilities for all then? I regularly eat out alone, if there's only tables for 4 available then damn right I will sit at one. I'd be pretty pissed off to be asked to move, especially as they were happy to take my money before the place filled up

No way, sit and enjoy your coffee OP!

Yes, be reasonable about how long you sit for if busy but don't shortchange yourself either.

When I was a manager of a high street chain coffee shop, it was first come first serve. Don’t move, your custom is just as valuable as anyone else’s.