Customers who hog tables

Well, if it is a chain then why not complain to head office? I don't imagine they will be too impressed with loss of revenue from customers walking out and some berk sitting there with one drink for ages. With the hike in employers NI surely the cafe will want as much custom as possible. If folk want to study - go to a library.

shared computers and office spaces have hoggers too who eat their lunch and chat merryily away when you are waiting to do your paperwork!

I was in the upper storey, restaurant area of a mall once and it was very crowded. There was the inevitable Macdonald's there.

I went and bought my lunch at a vegetarian cafe which was next door to MacD's but quite clearly not part of it. I couldn't find a single space to sit down as nearly all the tables were occupied by MacD customers. Nobody was prepared to move despite the fact that I was standing with a full tray of food.

I remember a cafe owner telling me that, ' You have to sell a lot of scones to turn a pound!'.

Incidentally, when I did a management course (admittedly, some years ago), new start-up coffee shops had the highest failure rate of all new businesses. The reasons were generally the high overheads plus surprisingly narrow margins plus lack of business skill - "surely anyone can run a café".

Surely the mums will be regulars. They may stay hours one day but just pop in another?

If your café is closing because you can't find a way to work with your customers then really maybe you should look at your business model?

I don't think it's fair if itspeak hours and three women need 3 tables but otherwise...

If we can't find an empty table I ask someone sitting at a table with spare seats if it's OK for us to join them.

Those mothers that take their own food in should be asked to move, its a cafe, if they put up opposition, say you expect every customer to buy at least a drink and you need the tables in an hour.. Restrict the available tables with reserve on them. You don't need customers like that. As for the table huggers, just sit there and spread out, they will take the hint. Our local closed because of them.

So annoying isn't it! I actually asked a chap if me and a friend could join him as he was hogging a table for 4, he wasn't impressed and left shortly afterwards

When you join a stranger at a table its good manners to ask"Do you mind?" or "Is this free".

I can remember once a man coming to sit at my table although there were others free in the cafe. He did not ask, just plonked himself down. He then proceeded to put some of the things from his tray on "my" side of the table over the invisible dividing line. He looked quite surpised when I moved them back to his side, telling his to "Keep his belongings on his own side of the table". He put them all back onto a tray and ostentatiously moved to another empty table. I dont know why he didn't sit there to begin with. I would always choose an unoccupied table over one with someone slready sitting there. Perhaps he had the intention of chatting me up. Wrong move.

A little change of perspective. I was talking to my 17 year old grandson with autism yesterday and he was telling me of his daily trips by train to college. He couldn’t see why it was wrong to put his bag on the window seat and sit on the outside. He has an issue with personal space and finds it difficult if people sit too close. Of course he always moves his bag if asked but it makes him uncomfortable and he will move when another place becomes available. All this makes him seem ill - mannered which he doesn’t mean to be. Of course I am not condoning this behaviour and told him so but I sometimes think we need to be aware that not all disabilities are visible.

A neighbour of mine is very well off but really mean. A new cafe opened about two years ago and she used to go up most days to use their free wifi. She would sit there all morning with one cup of coffee. A few others did the same.

It closed down after about 18 months!

If the only spaces available are on tables with 'table hoggers' I just ask (as I'm sitting down) Is this seat free? They very often pack up and leave at this point 😂

MissAdventure

There are bus seat huggers, bench huggers, they're everywhere, setting up their own personal offices.

Oh yes, they are everywhere! I have no problem at all asking bus or train hoggers to move their stuff to let me sit down.

I don’t mind laptops etc, but dogs in a cafe- don’t get me started!

How mean of them Sago! Some folk eh? Bet the restaurant weren’t happy missing the opportunity to feed nine.

I was the other way on Saturday. I was on my own, the only available table seated four. I sat down, was halfway through my coffee when a little family of four came in looking for a table. I got up, offered them mine - just as a tiny table in the corner became free. Everybody happy!

On holiday with friends we needed a table for 9 people at an Italian restaurant, you couldn’t reserve a table.

There was a couple on their own at the only table that could seat us, they were asked to move but refused, I offered to buy them a bottle of house wine to move but they still refused.

Oh yes!!
They refuse to make eye contact, just sit there, while people struggle to go further down the bus.

Disabled bus seat huggers is another on. Often older ladies with Large shoppers / bags will sit in the seats designated for disabled passengers at the front of the bus put their bags on one seat and sit in the outside seat. My partner has Copd and walks with a stick. I have a hip problem sometimes we have to sit further up the bus. They have no obvious physical disabilities when we see them get of the bus.

Train seat stories! On a crowded train I sat at a single / half seat at the end of the carriage. It was just into a new Uni term & a lad got on with a big laundry bag, weeks of dirty washing which stunk, the bag was wide open, anyway put this next to me & stood in the aisle nearby. A seat became available further down the carriage but he left his washing with me! I was so embarrassed travelling with this bag of young man-gym- smell laundry.

win the cafe we used to like had to close down. The laptop brigade caused them to go bust. It was very sad. It wasn't a big chain one, just owned by a local lady.

Take a few young children with you, sit on their table or next to them and hopefully the children will be noisy and disruptive. They will soon leave.

Aveline

grandtanteJE65 these cafes are in business. They have high rents, rates, utilities and staff costs to cover. They're not charities. It's not fair on them to hog tables endlessly on one cup of coffee.

They will often bring a lot of business in to that cafe on other occasions. My son runs a pub along the river which is always full of working business men, who sit for hours drinking a cuppa, however they also have their business lunches, dinners and other business dates there when they spend a lot of money. If the cafe owner is not worried, leave it be, they are happy or they would say something about it for sure.

grandtanteJE65

I believe it is only in Great Britain that people feel obliged to swallow whatever they have ordered of food and drink as quickly as possible then scram so other customers can have the table!

On the continent of Europe, you are at liberty to sit as long as you like, if you have ordered something and are consuming it, and unless there is a sign asking patrons not to use the café as their office, no-one would dream of being annoyed about this.

I was just going to write similar Grandtante. In fact our Garden centre cafe encourages customers with laptops, as do a lot of cafes by having their Wi-fi password openly displayed for everyone to use for log in. It is the done thing now. People also advertise Warm places and even get LA grants for this to cover the potential loss of income. We have table cards that states I am happy to share, as we have bench cards saying the same. We are encouraged to socialise, which is one of the most important things to avoid depression and loneliness. I go out for coffee with friends and we sit for hours chatting, that is what we go out for. Not to rush down a cuppa and a slice of cake then leave again. We could do that at home. How many of you have not sat in a cafe for more than 90 minutes with a cuppa chatting to friends? I certainly have, almost weekly these days.

DD used to work for a London orchestra and I sometimes went in to see a concert. We would meet up in the cafe at the theatre but it was often very busy before a performance so I often had to ask if I could join someone at a table. People on their own often didn't mind but some were keeping seats for someone who hadn't yet arrived which was frustrating. DD often didn't join me until the last minute as she was working backstage and I had to wait for her as she had our tickets. Fortunately it wasn't usually a location for laptop table hoggers but it could be difficult to get a seat and saving seats for people who haven't yet arrived seems pretty unfair if one is left standing!