People working on laptops in cafes 😡

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.

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.

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'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.

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.

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.

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.
Likewise those accompanied by a laptop.

My typos, so sorryyyy

I agree with you, Hithere. I first started to work in my local Nero around 2009/2010 (gosh, over 15 years ago) when I needed to be away from the office for a while. It happened to coincide with some very noisy and intrusive construction work going on opposite my house so being able to work in cafe was a welcome escape. I bought a MacBook Air specifically for the purpose.

I chose Nero as it’s an interesting old listed building with a very steep, narrow and worn stone staircase. Listed status mean the owners cannot do much in the way of adjustments for accessibility but there is plenty of room downstairs for those who can’t managed the stairs (and plenty of other cafes with level access). It does means that many people can’t get to the upper floor, for example, the mum and baby groups with all their paraphernalia. It was the ultimate hipster hangout and had a ready good vibe. They occasionally have live music in the daytime as well as evening.

As I live alone, I sometimes feel isolated WFH. My work is solitary (writing) and doesn’t involve digital meetings that are part of WFH nowadays. I would then and still will o to work in a cafe (or the pub) just to have other people around me.

Customers don’t own a cafe. They have no right to a table or a comfy chair. It’s just luck of the draw if it happens to be busy.

There seems to be an awful lot of resentment about how other people manage their working lives perhaps from people who retired long ago and aren’t familiar with how modern working is managed or didn't do the kind of work that can be done in various places.

As the weather warms up I'll be working in the park or on the village green and the coffee will be takeaway.

Doodledog

Just preference I suppose. Cafes aren’t a public service- anyone can use them. Didn’t JK Rowling famously write Harry Potter in a cafe? Lots of writers enjoy the people-watching aspect of working in cafes.

Perhaps it saves putting the heat on at home.

I'm taking my crocheting next time.

Places also chance purpose

Libraries in the past were locations were you borrow books, keep quiet and study

Now? They are community centers with activities and events, shelters for weather emergencies, etc

Why can't cafes evolve too?
Clearly, management is ok with this existing business clientele model

The world has changed and will keep changing.
Maybe it is the issue that some people are not

Allira

But why, I wonder?

Why not work from home?

WFH is becoming WFC

Maybe WFH can be lonely and they feel more connected to others in a cafe. May have better coffee too.
A cafe I used to visit and pass regularly seemed to have the same laptop users every day.
I could see that they had plates and cups on their table so they were spending money every day apparently.

Just preference I suppose. Cafes aren’t a public service- anyone can use them. Didn’t JK Rowling famously write Harry Potter in a cafe? Lots of writers enjoy the people-watching aspect of working in cafes.

But why, I wonder?

Why not work from home?

WFH is becoming WFC

It won’t be good for business if the operate on the basis of customers’ email telling the CEO what to do 😀. I’m sure chains that size know what works for them.

If someone stays there for a few hours a couple of days a week and buys several drinks and maybe lunch every day it will bring in some money- a single customer stopping that for the sake of one drink once in a while won’t come close.

Oreo

Cafes aren’t meant as places of work, and sitting with a coffee for two or three hours is very unfair to other customers.I would write/email the Head Office of Cafe Nero with this complaint.
Staff should be able to ask people to leave when they see them doing this for hours at a stretch.

I agree staff should be able to "ask" people to leave if they are there for ages and the buying (of coffee etc) has stopped - if it looks as if other people want the tables to actually drink coffee/have a meal.

I guess staff in some places havent been monitoring things for quite a while though. It was well over 10 years ago there were precisely 3 people in a regular greengrocers of mine back in my home city - the assistant on till, a thief and myself. Myself as genuine shopper had a bag with just-purchased Marks & Spencers items showing in it sitting on the floor whilst I chose my food. The thief picked up my bag and tried to steal it and I was virtually yelling the shop down as I literally fought them to get my bag back from them. I won - I got my bag back.

....and the assistant = did precisely absolutely nothing whatsoever! Didnt even so much as give me a sympathetic look/comment at the till when I paid for what I'd just chosen. These days - I'd ask her why she said nowt/did nowt whilst an attempted theft was going on. That followed by abandoning my shopping at the till - rather than buy from a shop that wouldnt even protect me from a thief. I was shouting at the would-be thief for goodness sake!!!!! So surely she couldnt have missed noticing something was wrong.

So maybe some staff are there thinking "I'm only going to do part of my job - just the bare minimum" and will let people coming in wanting a drink walk back out again if there's table-hogging going on by someone with a laptop?

Oreo

Cafes aren’t meant as places of work, and sitting with a coffee for two or three hours is very unfair to other customers.I would write/email the Head Office of Cafe Nero with this complaint.
Staff should be able to ask people to leave when they see them doing this for hours at a stretch.

It can't be good for business. Having a turnover of customers rather than one person occupying a table and perhaps buying one coffee over a period of three or four hours must be frustrating for the owners or managers too.

They need to make a profit.

That last was in reply to Oreo.

Who says? Are they for book groups? Knitting groups? Mother and baby groups? Business meetings? Job interviews? All go on at my local Neros. They are just a place to do whatever people want to do and drink coffee at the same time.

So what if I do want to work there? I order coffees. I order lunch if I’m there at midday. I’m a customer like anybody else.

The average high street is likely to have dozens of cafes. Cafes here vastly outnumber all the vape, barber and nail shops put together. Cafes want the business.

Working or studying from a cafe is not new at all, human beings are social animals after all
I bet it makes a huge chunk of their business

I have seen several people who do not know each other share a table if needed, no big deal, laptops included. No hogging

In the future, why not asking if they could lend their seats to your dh? I bet they wouldn't have had any issues.
It is first time first serve, after all

Oreo

Cafes aren’t meant as places of work, and sitting with a coffee for two or three hours is very unfair to other customers.I would write/email the Head Office of Cafe Nero with this complaint.
Staff should be able to ask people to leave when they see them doing this for hours at a stretch.

Thanks Oreo, I agree. And will try to email the cafe Nero we went to. Had a lovely coffee and cake in a cafe this morning, is in Dulwich park and today the park looks amazing. No people working on lap tops, I actually asked a member of staff about this and he said they tend to move people working on their laptops on after they have spent over an hour in situ because is a very busy cafe and there are plenty of cafes in the area for them to move on to, though he said tbh cafes in the area are now far less accommodating of this phenomenon seeing as employers often offer remote workers a hub to work from outside the home.
Interesting.

Cafes aren’t meant as places of work, and sitting with a coffee for two or three hours is very unfair to other customers.I would write/email the Head Office of Cafe Nero with this complaint.
Staff should be able to ask people to leave when they see them doing this for hours at a stretch.

What has being able to afford an expensive house got to do with the ability to train a dog?

Doodledog

Yes, I’m not keen on dogs in cafes, dog-lover though I am. I think it’s only Costa in my home town that bans them, and even then it’s a national, rather than local policy. Everywhere else is ‘dog friendly’ regardless of humans who may be scared or allergic.

That's another thing that hadnt occurred to me - I'm just used to there not being dogs in cafes and the thought doesnt cross my mind there might be. I'm thankful that that seems to be the norm here - ie no dogs there. I'm not allergic to them or anything....but I'm not keen on them.

Quite surprising in some ways - with this being rural Wales and there's dogs....dogs....yet more dogs. I noticed that clearly when I moved here - as I'm just not used to having dogs around (I come from a city). So I don't basically notice - unless they are barking and I do find it (very) upsetting that some people let their dogs bark in their garden and so sometimes my quiet garden has a chorus of "lout dogs" (ie dogs not brought up properly) and being allowed to bark in their owners garden - even though there are other houses nearby. I've literally only experienced one episode I recall in 40 years of "someone's lout dog barking in their garden" prior to moving here and that is one of the downsides (ie lots more dogs here and some of them are allowed to bark even when it will disturb other people nearby). Cue for me thinking "If they can afford a house costing x (ie they ain't the cheapest houses round here) - how come they still don't train their dogs to have manners and not bark like that?"

Pet peeve time - literally.