Self service cafe etiquette

[Sandra6]

In rheghed recently, mr6 and I queued for a posh sausage roll and a fancy pop. When we joined the queue there were 3 in front of us and plenty of tables. 20 minutes later when we finally got served all the tables were full, mostly with people waiting for other people who were queuing, but also "claimed" with a handbag.
Fortunately someone was just leaving and we got a seat.
Mr6 was quite outraged, but I think it's fair play to save your seat - especially if there's a few of you, or if you have a child.
But what is the "correct" etiquette?

 

[summerdays]

I probably do a bit of both, and especially if there is a group and the table becomes free you might send one person to sit at it. But I'm not sure I'd want to wait 20 mins to be served....

On Friday I paid then we searched for a table but I've not had a problem getting a table at that particular place.

 

[Sandra6]

I blame poncy coffee! By the time he'd finished the order the first cuppa was going cold!

 

[furball]

Etiquette is one thing but selfishness tends to take over in practice.
I'm usually on my own so end up gatecrashing a bagged table.

 

[Roxy641]

I've done all three, but voted for what I would do mostly (only bag a seat if I'm with someone else). The exception to this is when I need to charge my phone or laptop and need one of the few seats that has somewhere you can plug in. It is amzing how many people take those spots (even when they don't need them)..

 

[Oldfentiger]

On a similar vein......
Needing a quick car wash, pull into a fuel station, park up in allotted parking spaces, go to till and purchase token or code or whatever's required,
Get inot car and drive to carwash only to find a driverless car parked in the entrance. So I have to sit there and wait for some selfish twot who arrived after me to go through the wash in front of me.

 

[matiz]

Etiquette is fine if you don't mind standing there like a lemon holding a tray full of food and drink that's going cold.

 

[CanucksTraveller]

There's something related that I've always wondered about... when you've done the honest thing and queued up to get food first, and while you were queueing up the "table reservers" moved in and filled every available table - Is it then considered okay to ask a "table reserver" to allow you to sit down since otherwise you now can't realistically eat what you've paid for?
I've got into some confrontational situations in the past when I've dared to ask.

 

[PK99]

On a similar vein......
Needing a quick car wash, pull into a fuel station, park up in allotted parking spaces, go to till and purchase token or code or whatever's required,
Get inot car and drive to carwash only to find a driverless car parked in the entrance. So I have to sit there and wait for some selfish twot who arrived after me to go through the wash in front of me.

Worse still....

Motorway service station.
Pull up at pump in line behind car already there at pump in front.
As I am paying, he drives away.
Guy drives around the pumps and reverses into the now vacant slot.
I'm ready to do but can't get past and can't reverse back as there is a queue behind me.
I have to wait till he fills, pays and ambles slowly back to his car.
Grrrr!

 

[stephec]

It happens a lot in the Pret a Manger in terminal one at Manchester Airport, I usually just sit at an empty table once I've got my food and wait, the usual reaction is that people pick up their bags with a harumph and walk away.

I wonder if they're the same kind of people who complain about Germans and sunbeds?

 

[Crackle]

This is very amusing a thread. Look folks, it's a dog eat sausage roll world and if you're too stupid to buy your food before you have somewhere to eat it, tough. I am a table grabber and a car wash queue jumper and the Rheged centre serves crap coffee and sausage rolls.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

Worse still....

Motorway service station.
Pull up at pump in line behind car already there at pump in front.
As I am paying, he drives away.
Guy drives around the pumps and reverses into the now vacant slot.
I'm ready to do but can't get past and can't reverse back as there is a queue behind me.
I have to wait till he fills, pays and ambles slowly back to his car.
Grrrr!

As soon as he goes into station to pay, lean on your horn and keep it blaring whilst pointing at his car so that everyone else can see he's causing a problem.

 

[Arjimlad]

I've done all three, but voted for what I would do mostly (only bag a seat if I'm with someone else). The exception to this is when I need to charge my phone or laptop and need one of the few seats that has somewhere you can plug in. It is amzing how many people take those spots (even when they don't need them)..

I never even realised these seats existed !

 

[Arjimlad]

[QUOTE 4483944, member: 259"]They don't have them in Greggs. [/QUOTE]
That'd explain it then.

 

[gordonrgw]

[QUOTE 4483944, member: 259"]They don't have them in Greggs. [/QUOTE]

My local Greggs has seats. Does that make me middle-class. Have I got my threads confused?