People working on laptops in cafes 😡

Customers don’t own a cafe. They have no right to a table or a comfy chair.
Likewise those accompanied by a laptop.

Allira

What would you recommend?

Would you suggest a chair booking system, for example?

You are twisting my words. I mean its first come first served.

OP was miffed because all the comfy seats were taken. How would she have felt about a book group, a knitting group etc meeting for a couple of hours and taking up the sofas. Why pick on working people?

My money as a paying customer who happens to be working is just as good as anybody else's whether I chose to work, yak on a phone, chat to others, read a book, hold a meeting, interview somebody for a job or all the other myriad things which go on.

This all sound sounds like bitterness towards people who work flexibly and may feel isolated at home.

Beware the curse of chronic resentment and living in the past.

Hithere

Allira

What would you recommend?

Would you suggest a chair booking system, for example?

Customers don’t own a cafe. They have no right to a table or a comfy chair.

It wasn't me who said that, I was quoting another poster.

I'd suggest if the cafe in question is local and the best one to get to and you go regularly - if a certain day and time - I know my local Costa would make an effort to accommodate you.

Once they know you a bit.

If possible, ask them when it's a bit more quiet if they can save you the right kind of seat.

I think they have done their thing with the plugs (ie not many available) as not too many long term computer users at all.

BTW, its my observation that the computer users prefer the "sit at the table" spaces not the easy chairs, where you have to balance the computer on your lap.

I live alone and its a lovely place just to people watch for a bit of time and the staff friendly by name. There are a couple of what I'd call "special needs" regulars" who get asked kind questions unless they are heaving.

Graphite

That last was in reply to Oreo.

And I don’t agree at all. Cafes are not for conducting job interviews or long business meetings or any other group activity.They’re for customers wanting to sit down and eat and drink.Sociable yes, meeting a friend for coffee but not more.
I think you’re confusing cafes with libraries and village halls.

I'm not confusing anything. That's what happens at my local Neros. I see it when l'm working there! The place is busy, lively and has a great vibe.

Times have changed. We are a long way beyond the Lyons Corner House and the genteel tea shops of Miss Marple's days.

But for those who like that kind of thing, there's another cafe just along the high street with lace table cloths, cakes on tiered stands and paper doilies.

That’s just silly Graphite I’m not all that old at all and don’t remember tea rooms like that.😄
Times have changed but cafes are still not for some of the examples you give ( who conducts a serious business meeting or a job interview in a Costa?)
It’s a wonder that any normal customer manages to get a table to enjoy their coffee and croissants in your local one.

Agree with Graphite

Feel free to own your own business to make your own rules

Beware the curse of chronic resentment and living in the past.

That seems like an ageist remark 😁
This is Gransnet!

I think you don’t like posters being annoyed with people sitting with their lap tops and a coffee for hours and hours, as you say that you work in one too.

Am pleased to hear that Costa staff do move people on, tho that may be their policy that staff choose to ignore.They wouldn’t ignore it if it was an independent cafe where actually selling food and drink was their livelihood.

Allira

^Beware the curse of chronic resentment and living in the past^.

That seems like an ageist remark 😁
This is Gransnet!

We have been here before.

GN is a platform for people aged 50 and over. Current pension age is 66 starting to rise to 67 from this year. That means that some of the target audidence are still years away from retirement or at least receiving a State Pension. Many will work flexibly.

I'm 70, still freelance and yes, shock horror, I go to Nero to work and buy coffee, breakfast and lunch as I have been doing for 15 years. Staff know me. Sometimes, I get breakfast or lunch on the house.

I may be old fashioned but I see cafes as cafes, places where you can meet up with friends or go with your OH for a coffee or other beverage or perhaps a bite to eat.
And if young mums or knit and natter groups go there for a drink and a bite to eat that is also what cafes are for imho. What they are not is a workplace except for the staff working there. In London where we live cafes are usually very busy and tourists sometimes make up the customer base so making sure seats and tables are available and not a work station for hours on end should be key to such cafe’s success.
Right now we have been put off using our local cafe Nero, and that might not matter much to anyone, but on the other hand maybe it should, because we are probably not alone.

I may be old fashioned but I see cafes as cafes, places where you can meet up with friends or go with your OH for a coffee or other beverage or perhaps a bite to eat.
And if young mums or knit and natter groups go there for a drink and a bite to eat that is also what cafes are for imho. What they are not is a workplace except for the staff working there.

We're just old fuddy-duddies, Fallingstar, thinking that cafés and coffee shops are places to drink coffee, eat, meet friends, socialise!

Now they are workplaces where people go to use free Wifi, free heating, even free food.

London is arguably different where people are constantly on the move and there are thousands of tourists but I can assure you that in vibrant out of London towns and cities with a high number of urban professionals and people working flexibly, the customer base is how I have described.

The thing is you didn’t give it chance did you? You left without drinking your tea. You had no idea how long anybody had been there. For all you knew the people working on laptops hadn’t been there much longer than you.

Essentially you are just miffed because when you happened to call in, the sofas were all taken. That could have been the case at any time if the people you don’t object to had got there before you. Would you be complaining like this if the occupants were young mums or knit and natter groups? Why pick on working people because they like the same cafe that you do?

What London isn't short of is cafes and most by law have to provide accessible toilets so why not just go somewhere else?

You said yourself ... it probably feels worse than it really is.

Graphite you say:
Essentially you are just miffed because when you happened to call in, the sofas were all taken.
why not just go somewhere else?

Fallingstar has already said
We just went out thanks to the lovely weather, is always tricky going out with DH, he can’t walk far and he has impaired vision as well as cognitive difficulties, after suffering a stroke.

Your post is unpleasant and uncalled for, Graphite.

Thanks Allira. Yes it is hard to go far, today we were lucky enough for a good friend/neighbour to take us to a cafe a bit further afield in his car. Otherwise we tend to stay at home most of the time. A trip to the cafe is a real treat and perhaps we were a bit miffed, but I think that’s allowed.

Next thing we'll be hearing that parents taking children, old people socialising in such premises should be banned so that they can work in peace!

Perhaps there should be different cafès and coffee shops, with free Wifi, heating, comfortable seats for those who wish to Work From Cafè all day?

Then everyone would be happy.

I think what we have to do in these circumstances is go and join them. They often have a whole sofa to themselves so walk over and say excuse me I’m going to sit here……

Several cafes near the university in Edinburgh are packed with students and laptops. I had arranged to meet a friend in one but had to choose the only table with a sign saying No Laptops.
I'm sure everyone could hear our conversation because it was like talking in a library.
I find it strange but it is obviously a service the young people enjoy.

I now know to avoid these cafés.

Graphite

You are twisting my words. I mean its first come first served.

OP was miffed because all the comfy seats were taken. How would she have felt about a book group, a knitting group etc meeting for a couple of hours and taking up the sofas. Why pick on working people?

My money as a paying customer who happens to be working is just as good as anybody else's whether I chose to work, yak on a phone, chat to others, read a book, hold a meeting, interview somebody for a job or all the other myriad things which go on.

This all sound sounds like bitterness towards people who work flexibly and may feel isolated at home.

Beware the curse of chronic resentment and living in the past.

I think you're overlooking good manners dictated that if someone looks a bit more frail etc then the laptop person sitting on a comfortable chair offers the other one (couple in this case) that comfortable chair and sits on one of the barstools instead and uses those little tables that come with them.

Indeed, as people offer seats on a bus or train but who’s to know if people intent on their work were even aware of the situation? If I am concentrating, I may just be sitting reading a book and not working at all, I may not even be aware of people coming and going. OP and her husband didn’t stay long enough to have their tea. I am sure that had she spoken to a member of staff, something could have been done. Customers minding their own business can’t mindread someone else’s anxiety or annoyance nor should they have to.

As I said to GrannyGravy earlier next time I might just ask someone if they wouldn’t mind moving in order to sit down. Believe it it or not am not one to make a fuss if I can help it but have to make a regular thing out of asking people sitting in priority seats on public transport if they are disabled and if not could they let my DH sit down before he falls down. It gets incredibly tiring to have to keep doing this and I suppose I just wanted to take the line of least resistance on this occasion, not least because my DH was becoming upset about the fact I was stressed, he can go into melt down and is really hard to cope with.
Is always easy to assume that someone is just being a bit unreasonable or should just say something. Obviously those of this opinion have never had to care full time for someone with multiple disabilities.

Graphite No one is saying your custom is worth less. I saw the manager of one coffee shop asking people on Lap tops to leave. They had sat at the tables for ages and bought only a drink. Other people with food and drink were waiting for the table.
Some cafes have started to put a time limit on it due to piss takers.