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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish that people would not bag a seat first and THEN get their food in a busy cafe...

292 replies

paolosgirl · 14/08/2008 22:31

because those of us who reached the head of the queue before your pal who's way at the back of the queue now have to wander aimlessly about holding a tray with food or drink on it that's now getting cold, because we CAN'T GET A BLARDY TABLE because they're all full of people holding seats for their pals in the queue.

ARGHHHHHH....

Actually, IMNBU at all. I'm being perfectly reasonable (and probably a bit of PMT involved here, granted), but does this wind anyone else up, or shall I just go and have a wee lie down?

OP posts:
MsHighwater · 16/08/2008 22:40

AbbeyA, do you think that if I am on my own out shopping and need lunch/coffee that I should be unable to find a table at all because of queue-jumpers like you?

If you are convinced that you can never get a table together with your friend in a busy self-service cafe you go somewhere else where it's either quiet or has waitress service.

If you and your friend (and everyone else) did what you are supposed to do, there wouldn't be a problem for anyone.

Twinklemegan · 16/08/2008 22:42

It's simple. Just don't go into a busy cafe. Take sandwiches and a thermos - that's what we do. Then we can eat when we want, where we want, with no faffing around.

AbbeyA · 16/08/2008 22:51

Apart from M&S I haven't been anywhere else that expects you to order food before you have a seat.
I am very often on my own and it is much easier to find a seat on my own or go somewhere else. I don't find it a problem. I look at the size of the queue and the number of tables and if it doesn't look as if I am likely to get a table I go somewhere else.I don't expect people with more than one in the party to all queue up, neither do I expect them to hover until the person in the queue is through.The mind boggles at the thought of huge queues with children(likely to be a danger as they don't stand still), buggies,wheelchairs, old people with walking sticks all standing in the queue in order to be fair!
I don't call it queue jumping, just common sense.

sighkotika · 16/08/2008 22:53

from the other side of the arguement, i run a cafe and i PREFER it when people get a table first. i like having just one person from a group of five queueing, it stops the queue snaking out the door and allows people to get past with their tray full of hot drinks instead of squeezing through a crowd. today i even advised a regular customer to gasp 'grab that table at the back, its the only one left' (although she wasnt queue jumping, there was no-one in front and no-one behind). please PLEASE find a table first, it stops my day turning nasty when irate customers cant find a table, blame me for it and demand their money back.

Remotew · 16/08/2008 22:57

This thread will make me think in future. I often queued up got my food to find all the tables bagged because I was on my own or with DD who was too young to bag a table. Peed me off at the time.

However once she was old enough I would of course remember this a tell her to sit at a table whilst I got the order. Because that is what everyone else did.

Agree with the OP to a point. If everyone queued individually the queue would be bigger but would it take longer to serve each person their order or one person with four orders? Also everyone would get their pick of whats on offer instead of saying I'll have this when there may be something better on display. Also if no-one bagged tables then it would actually mean that the cafe turned over the tables quicker and therefore made more money and it would flow better.

Think I need to go to bed now and have a wee lie down. Think I will stick to table service in future.

Remotew · 16/08/2008 22:58

Oh X post from a cafe owner, sorry.

Ambi · 16/08/2008 23:32

I always get a seat first, silly not to. However we don't eat out very often and I hate busy places anyway. The only time I wouldnt get a seat first is if I'm on my own/with the baby in a big food court, however if dh is with me I'll get the table whilst he gets the food.

expatinscotland · 16/08/2008 23:36

if i go into a cafe and it's already stowed with a bunch of people queued up i usually just leave and find someplace else to eat, tbh.

PanicPants · 16/08/2008 23:39

What about places where you HAVE to find a table first, then go and order your food and give the table number?

Remotew · 17/08/2008 00:14

Panicpants, love the name btw, very good point. Think that is the threadkiller!!!

Clary · 17/08/2008 00:29

No YANBU.

This really really annoys me too - and I am there with 3 children so if I can wait till I get my food, others can too.

I never have "bagged" (esp where it is forbidden by a notice) even when mine were v small. Yay paolosgirl I'm with you!

I too have been known to go and sit at a table for four s/one is "reserving" on their own.

In any case IME by the time you have got to the end of the M&S queue there is a table free anyway.

You posters who say you need to bag a seat - don't you realise that it's people who do this who cause a hold up??? OMG have read about half the thread and I see I am in a very small minority of not thinking it's every man for himself. sigh.

I would always move towels off pool loungers too. Not that I have been on that kind of holiday for years.

puffling · 17/08/2008 00:37

Its something that's annoying if others do it, but quite reasonable if onw does it ones self.

AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 09:13

Clary-I would much prefer that you got your children to sit down and queued alone!
I was in M&S last week,I was on my own but I could see that I would get a table.In front of me was a woman with 2 DDs, the younger one was very sweet but she couldn't stand still! She was using the bar for the trays like a ballet bar. She knocked into the woman in front who had hot coffee on her tray. The mother told her in no uncertain terms to stand still, explained to her that people could get scalded and apologised to the woman. She gave her order and when she turned around the DD was doing exactly the same again! I found it stressful because I had to watch her with my tray. The mother could have got them to sit on an empty table very nearby and I can assure you that the people queueing at the time would have been much happier! This was only a short queue-imagine squirming children or arguing children in the boredom of a long queue.
I am glad sighkotika that as a cafe owner you like people to have a seat first.
It isn't a perfect system but it is pure common sense that if you have a party of more than one you sit down before one person queues.

sarah293 · 17/08/2008 09:15

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 09:35

Panicpants has a valid point. In a lot of places you are asked for your table number.
It is nothing like bagging a sunlounger. I don't bag a table if there is no one ready to sit on it, only if some of the party are ready. It is the same with sunloungers, I only get one when ready-however if 4 of us get a sunlounger and one has gone straight in for a swim then I would get them a sun lounger because we will be there for hours and we want to be together. Are you suggesting that you can't move from your sunlounger? Would the swimming person have to sit on it for 10 minutes before they swim, to qualify for it? Are you supposed to move clothes, towels, books etc if you want a swim and hope that it is still vacant when you return? Are we supposed to have 4 of the family together but the 5th has to sit on his own all day because he didn't sit on it at the same starting point?
If you are one person on your own it is much easier to get a sunlounger than as a group. The same applies in a cafe.

Original poster
paolosgirl · 17/08/2008 10:14

You are not asked for your table number in a lot of places! A couple of the 'well known' chains perhaps, but that's all. The thing is with that method, everyone knows they get a table first, choose from the menu ON THE TABLE and then go to the till.

What you lot who say "just go somewhere else" don't seem to get is that 1)you are queue jumping, and so you are in the wrong, and therefore YOU should go somewhere else, and 2)it may not be busy when we go in (see my earlier thread about my trip to Starbucks), but it may then fill up when we are in the queue, with the table baggers filling up a vacant table for their friends who are nowhere near ready to eat, depriving those of us who are ready to eat of a table.

The sun lounger analogy is a good one. You don't bag a lounger in anticpation of swimming or sunbathing, do you?. You bag a lounger when you're are READY to swim or sunbathe!!

Do you table baggers also bag a place in the supermarket queue?????!!!!

OP posts:
tigermoth · 17/08/2008 10:31

I hate busy cafes and would do everything to avoid using one.

I sometimes bag a seat by leaving a spare child or coat at the table, but only if I see other people doing this.

If seat-bagging is a no no, I would look for alternative spaces to eat the food and consider picnicing on the floor if all else failed.

Upwind · 17/08/2008 10:36

I still don't see the problem here. On my own, or with toddler in buggy there is no problem in finding a seat - even if a lot of people suddenly turn up and take all of the free tables - there always seem to be tables with just one person at them who don't mind you joining them. Though I would tend to avoid queueing in the first place if it was not obvious I'd get a seat.

Out to lunch with others - you sort out the seats first. And the dc can have snacks/colour in while waiting and elderly/disabled/unwell people in the group can relax in a seat. And as has been pointed out, you don't risk not being able to sit together.

Signs telling you to get your food first would put me off eating in a cafe.

AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 11:20

Exactly upwind. I wouldn't go into a cafe an hour beforehand and bag a table! When we are ready to order we sit down and one person queues. You don't take a lounger before you want to sunbathe but if you are a family and you get there but 2 of the party want to immediately swim you put their towel on the sunlounger next to you-you don't stand there with your bags twiddling your thumbs until you are all ready to lie on one at the same time!
People do not go into a cafe to wolf their food and drink and leave! They go as a social occasion and they want to sit together. I don't think that many people in a cafe would be happy if you queued with 3 children and had to sit them all separately because there was no table to fit 4!!
If I go on my own then if there is no table there will most likely be another lone person and I can ask to sit on their table-it is no big deal.(I am very quiet and unlikely to spill my drink and drop crumbs everywhere!)
I had never thought about it before this thread started, but I could easily have started my own saying; the one thing that I can't stand when on my own in a cafe are people who block up the queue with fidgety children who can't make up their minds what they want and why can't they do the sensible thing of finding them a table first!

Original poster
paolosgirl · 17/08/2008 11:53

But then you would get people like me coming onto your thread saying - can't see what the problem is, at least they are not queue jumping and hogging tables when they are not eating, thereby depriving people who ARE ready to eat of a table!

The sunlounger analogy was to do with people bagging a lounger in advance, wasn't it? These Germans know who they are..

And what about the times when the table baggers have to be 'consulted' on what they want, because the menu is on the wall behind the counter, a la John Lewis?

As in..

No fruit scones? Oh hold on, I don't know what they want, hold on, I'll just go and ask them? 5 minutes later, and the queue is finnnnnaaallllllllyyyyyy starting to move again

OP posts:
AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 12:13

The one nice thing about being alone in the queue is that you can make a quick, executive decision! You get the food but say sorry they didn't have fruit scones so I got xxxx!

I think people fall into 2 camps and we will continue to annoy each other.

Original poster
paolosgirl · 17/08/2008 13:19

Ahhhhh....but then you get the "oh, but I don't like xxxx" If the 2 or 3 of you queue, you can all choose what you want - AND still keep the movement of people going throghout the cafe, AND let people who have queued properly (alone or otherwise) sit down with their lovely hot food. Oh, what a wonderful, simple idea!

Off to the supermarket now - I wonder if the queue will have queue baggers holding a space for their pals just finishing off their shopping?

OP posts:
AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 13:29

There is a very simple solution. On the table by the entrance they put the same number of reserved signs as tables. Each table has a number. You put your reserved sign on the table of your choice and note the table number (in case you forget which one). You either all go to queue or some of the party stay at the table. You eat and leave. The staff clear tables promptly putting the reserved sign back by the door whan the table is ready. A small notice says 'sorry all tables occupied if no reserved signs to pick up-try again later'.
Problem solved-fair for all-and people are free to have their preferred method without upsetting anyone. I can't think why no one does it!

Original poster
paolosgirl · 17/08/2008 14:14

Agreed - would certainly save me queuing only to find the vacant-5-minutes-ago-tables are now filled with table baggers in came in after me. You are a genius!

OP posts:
AbbeyA · 17/08/2008 14:37

Even better paolosgirl would be a computer-I am sure that someone could devise a programme.
You have a computer by the door with a touch screen. It asks how many in your party and gives you a ticket with the time(just in case anyone tried to cheat!)and a table number. When staff clear the table they reset the computer. If there is no room the ticket says sorry-no tables at the moment.
I do see the problem, after all I am more often the person on their own hoping that a table will still be free, but if I am with someone I want to know we can sit together before we purchase.