People eating and drinking on the go

I agree Summerlove times change and we always sit at the bar on a stool biglouis unless there are no stools, in which case we stand. Must be very uncouth🙂.

When I was a child, eating in the street was considered uncouth. Another area where standards have dropped

Agree 100%

My grandmother told me that only the very lowest class of eople ate and smoked in the street because they knew no better.

I can understand people wanting a coffee/drink if they are standing watching a sporting or other event which involves being around for an hour or so. For myself eating and drinking is something I do sitting down. I would never have stood at a bar to drink in the dim and distant days when I went into pubs.

Sorry to say but I believe it’s an American import ….
My 62 yr old ( American ) husband has barely left the house before he’s thinking about buying food or drink on the go 🤷‍♀️Drives me nuts !
However , guilty as charged with a Gregg’s !

Interesting to be reading this the day before we undertake a five hour train journey to collect a new to us vehicle.
I will be making our food for the day this evening. Rolls, cake and a few snacky bits. My husband is terribly intolerant of rapeseed oil and I can't possibly take the chance of him eating from snack bars or street vendors, the filthy stuff is in everything! Even if this were not so, I would go prepared because a whole day and evening out of the house would cost a small fortune to buy adequate nourishment.

Curtaintwitcher

When I was a child, eating in the street was considered uncouth. Another area where standards have dropped. I'm surprised that shop keepers allow people with food to enter, especially a clothes shop.
Perhaps this is part of the reason why there is such a problem with litter.
I know I sound snobby, but it's obvious that the uncouth are in the vast majority. Their low standards are taking over. Well, I shan't drop mine.

Standards haven’t dropped, they’ve simply changed.

Keep yours where you’d like, but I see no joy in judging others for doing things differently

This view may have already been said but I am on Granny duty today so I don't have time to trawl through 3 pages. I lived in a holiday destination through my childhood years in the 1950's and I only ever saw people eating an ice-cream in the street. Nowadays fast food is everywhere with people eating all times of the day. My view is that this has fuelled the obesity crisis in this country and now people can get food delivered to their door it will only get worse.

I’m okay with people drinking in the street, although not alcohol, I mean a bottle of water or a take away coffee. Also an ice cream is okay, and probably fish and chips at the seaside. Obviously a picnic is fine, that’s the objective, to enjoy food outside. However I draw the line at some of the disgusting stuff sold at the cinema, which has an overpowering smell and forces everyone else to put up with it until it’s eaten. I don’t expect people to be eating on the tube or on buses. If on a long train journey it maybe acceptable to take a sandwich along. Plus people with greasy fingers and eating in clothing shops is absolutely disgusting.

Different mores for changing times, I’m afraid. I dare say our forefathers (and mothers!) would have been horrified at some of their later generations’ antics! ‘‘Twas ever thus” as Mum used to say. I don’t really care what other people do as long as they don’t get in my face. I don’t indulge myself, but I bet my adult children do sometimes! Food on the go? When eaten unnecessarily, these food habits contribute to the serious obesity crisis we have, I should think. They’re probably not all eating salads after all!

Well...I must be as common as muck then. If I'm out for the day and have brought food and drink I will find a nice place to sit and eat it. I do make sure I either dispose of any rubbish, or take it home to wash up. Several reasons why. For medical reasons I need to watch what I eat and drink and a)cannot always be sure of getting what I need, and b) eating at cafes for a whole day out can make a day out prohibitively expensive. I'll usually take a packed lunch and drink and if I need tea will have a bite to eat early evening/teatime. Or get myself a nice take away curry or something similar if it's a nice evening. Eating in can often take time away from doing the activity you set out to enjoy too, all that waiting for food etc.
I do take my Waitrose coffee to my car if I've been shopping there.
I'd rather spend spare cash on the day out to be honest.
I do sometimes spend time in cafes, with one particular friend , who then complains she hasn't enough money. I know that cutting down on coffees out won't get you a house deposit, but honestly if You're struggling to put food in the table at home, cutting out expensive coffee and cake when out and about isn't that bad an idea. One of my children and partner did that when things were tight with buying a house, they took a coffee from home instead.
None of us eat while walking around though or in shops there is usually somewhere you can sit and you can use a wipe before/afterwards. I'd be horrified if I thought I'd got food on an item of clothing

RosiesMaw

Truffle43

On starting this thread I was specifically talking about eating and drinking hot drinks in busy shops. I also enjoy food on the go sometimes. Travelling eating on a bench whilst out and about. Picnics ice cream etc but do it where there’s not a chance of my spilling this over anyone or anything that’s not mine. Never meant to offend anyone.

I often see people drinking coffee and eating while out and about and cannot understand the need to do this. Can anyone enlighten me

Not quite how you started OP.
Fair enough you then went on to talk about shops but some of us, not unreasonably, addressed your first comment about being ^out and about^

Takeaway coffee in Waitrose is free but in the Waitrose café it was £3.20 even with a Waitrse card.

We should have eaten our lunch then got free coffees and sat in the car to drink them!

I was looking at clothes in M&S the other day when a couple turned up scoffing Greggs’ pasties and guzzling coffees. I was quite surprised that this was allowed, but if they’re scared to challenge shoplifting I doubt they’d bother with greasy fingers!

I'm common and eat and drink whilst out and about BUT never in shops . I often finish what I'm eating and then go into the shop. The only exception - on the rare occasions that the shop is very warm, then I may have a sip of water. ( I always take water out with me) but that is very rare

Yes, snacking in public is pretty common now. I can't personally have pleasure from a cup of coffee while walking or doing shopping.

There are a few things that drive me mad; mums giving toddlers snacks while on the run. I had a bus trip to the airport and there was a toddler standing on the seat beside her mum, cheesy crackers getting soggy in her fingers, By the time the 20 minute ride was done, the back of the seat and the window were covered in mess. I was horrified.

Another thing is people bringing snacks to meetings. I attend a monthly union meeting, and always manage to have the 'snacking woman' sit behind me. I have to listen to her crunch and apple, open a bag of crisps, or unwrap noisy candies. Grrr....

Truffle43

On starting this thread I was specifically talking about eating and drinking hot drinks in busy shops. I also enjoy food on the go sometimes. Travelling eating on a bench whilst out and about. Picnics ice cream etc but do it where there’s not a chance of my spilling this over anyone or anything that’s not mine. Never meant to offend anyone.

I often see people drinking coffee and eating while out and about and cannot understand the need to do this. Can anyone enlighten me

Not quite how you started OP.
Fair enough you then went on to talk about shops but some of us, not unreasonably, addressed your first comment about being out and about

On starting this thread I was specifically talking about eating and drinking hot drinks in busy shops. I also enjoy food on the go sometimes. Travelling eating on a bench whilst out and about. Picnics ice cream etc but do it where there’s not a chance of my spilling this over anyone or anything that’s not mine. Never meant to offend anyone.

I was in H&M earlier this week and a woman left chocolaty finger prints on three different white shirts. She actually sent her young daughter back to exchange one because 'I can't buy that now with those marks on it' and seemed to be totally ignorant of the fact that it was the chocolate bar in her hand that was making the mess.

RosiesMaw

@ Maggiemaybe - you and me both!

Street food always tastes better in the open air!
Fish and chips on the beach- if you can fend off the flippin seagulls!

No, they will pinch the crab sandwiches out of your hand!!
Then eat it in 30 seconds in front of you 😯

Oh dear. I walk back from my daily trip to Waitrose drinking my free coffee in my Waitrose beaker. It is one of my life's pleasures.

I don't drop litter. That was drilled into me as a child. And I wouldn't eat a burger in the theatre or cinema or shop for clothes in MS eating food. But guilty as charged with my coffee. Forgive me.

Ah yes, the seagulls! Even worse than those urban pigeons!

@ Maggiemaybe - you and me both!

Street food always tastes better in the open air!
Fish and chips on the beach- if you can fend off the flippin seagulls!

We don't eat or drink in the street both went to the same school who taught us that was unacceptable. I wold quite like a bag of chips now and again in the right setting but DH wont do it. He doesn't like street food either he always wants a seat but also very suspicious so the hygiene. Won't eat from buffets either.

Chocolatelovinggran

I wouldn't do it wearing my school hat ... those rules stay with you, don't they ?

Yes, detention at my school for eating or drinking in public wearing school uniform.
In a cafe sitting down etc it was OK.

(Also given out for not wearing a hat outside despite how windy it was, even whilst riding a bike)

Good grief, I must be as common as muck. If I’m out for the day I’ll happily eat a Greggs pasty or a sandwich on a bench, or even (shock, horror) walking along the street if the town centre pigeons are staking out the seating. At a food fair or town event I buy from pop up stalls and eat on the go or sitting on the grass or a wall if there’s nowhere else available. I’m not going to pay restaurant prices or waste valuable time in them if I have other things to be getting on with.

Yes, I’d have been hauled over the coals for daring to eat while wearing the sacred beret, and my school was at the seaside, so we were never given the very odd “only at the seaside” exemption.

But times have changed, and me with them. Gosh, I even wear patent leather shoes now, and I just don’t care if boys can see my knickers reflected in them.

I was thinking more of people eating after they have been shopping, handling food after touching goodness knows what.

Indeed so, Cal, but what they do to themselves is not really any of my business. Presumably if their behaviour makes them ill they might be more careful, but I do sometimes wonder how the human race survived at all, or other animals come to that, before clean water was easily available – which it still isn't in some places.

Interestingly, a housemate of mine when we were both students was so particular about hygiene that we called her a hygeniac. Oddly, though, she was the one in the house who was always being ill while the rest of us never were. Which is not to say we weren't hygienic where it mattered, just that we weren't OTT about it. She and I are still friends 50 years on by the way. She has had a lot of illnesses – including ones I'd never heard of until she had them – and I've had none. So perhaps it isn't all just about hand hygiene.

Live and let live 🤷🏻‍♀️ 🙂

Auntieflo

I think one of the reasons that I don't go to a cinema any more is because of the smelly food on offer.
Just makes me feel nauseous.
Popcorn (plain) and a drink OK, but anything more, no!

Our local owned cinema now offering pizza, chicken goujons, mozzarella sticks, and popping chicken, along side Cheesy nacho and other smelly items. Why on earth people can't eat before going to the cinema I cannot comprehend.