kipper

If there's not a wait, why would that be a problem?

WillCAD

I have dinner with friends and family every weekend. We usually go to a cheap buffet, but once in a while we go to a chain restaurant. We have been victims of the inconsiderate campers in the past and we really hated being forced to wait while a table of folks just sat there taking up space while our stomachs rumbled, so we take care not to do it ourselves.

We sit and talk after dinner almost all the time - unless there are people waiting for a table, in which case we are considerate and GTFO.

jologolf212

Definitely only pertaining to when there are people waiting. Hence the reason i wrote " know people are there waiting"

darthbimmer

No so fast, bub. While I agree with you that folks who linger for an hour after finishing their meal when there's a line waiting to be seated are inconsiderate, I will not be harried out of a restaurant the minute I set my fork down just because someone else believes it's their turn at the table. In between those two extremes are a lot of shades of gray.

Furthermore, if there's a problem with seating, it is the restaurant manager's responsibility to deal with it. If the restaurant manager wants to tell me my group and I are no longer welcome, I will have that conversation with him. And in that conversation I will be sure to reference to the size of our bill, the size of our tip, and the frequency with which we visit his establishment. (Yes, I've actually had this conversation with a manager.) If another customer wishes to pressure me or anyone in my group to leave, including by staring at us with the "evil eye" or hovering over us, I will not have that conversation. Instead I will go to the manager and ask to have the disruptive non-customer removed! (Yes, I've had this conversation with a manager, too.)

CMK10

Thought of this thread earlier this week. The car in front of me at a McDonalds drive thru had a broken driver's window so at the ordering screen, paying window and pickup window the driver had to open her door and lean her arm out to take care of business. If my window won't go down, I'm walking inside

Black Adder

Hell, if I see 3 cars in the drive thru, I'm walking inside anyway.

jologolf212

I don't think anyone should feel rushed to eat their meal or leave as soon as they are done. I agree there is a gray area when people are done with their meals and one can dispute how much time determines the beginning and ending of the gray period. Further agree that its the managements job to deal with customers. With that being said, I'm speaking of people who have completely passed that gray area. You finish your meal then order another bottle of wine, I don't have a problem with that. You finish your meal, pay your check, then yuck it up for another 30 minutes, then you get up and leave, I have a problem with that.

I agree that if I visit the same restaurant with frequency and run up a large bill with a large tip every time I go, I am entitled to stay as long as I want, but I don't.
I guess I just call it consideration to both the people that are waiting and to the restaurant.

cblaisd

I was a quintuple winner this morning at the grocery store!

• The woman in front of me tried multiple attempts at a phone number to activate her shopper's card. Clerk finally resorted to asking her. Whereupon the same thing happened in verbal/aural form.
  
• Then she had many paper coupons she pulled out (slowly) from her purse that was the size of some Canadian provinces and proceeded to argue about several of them.
  
• Then she wanted to pay part of the bill with cash, carefully and slowly counted out.
  
• Then she asked to pay part of the remaining bill with a check for $5.59.
  
• Then she counted out coins to pay the final $.87

I should learn never, ever to get in a grocery line behind someone with multiple cans of cat food....

KevinDTW

Check, coins AND multiple cans of catfood? That's a new grocery checkout trifecta right there!

cynic

Hey! I have a cat and buy multiple (single serving) cans at a time. I'm quick as can be at checkouts.

However, the lady in front of me at Target the other day was a nightmare. It was right after X-mas, so all the seasonal stuff was 50% off the marked price. She had a full cart of these items including ornaments, greeting cards, house decorations, and many rolls of wrapping paper. She asked the cashier the price of every single item and then would hem and haw about whether she would get it before telling the cashier to go ahead and ring it up or not (mostly not, by the end, there was a big pile of discarded stuff). I guess she doesn't know about the many self- service price checkers in various prominent locations throughout the store. And I guess she was also incapable of dividing the marked price by 2.

To top things off, she also had one of those accordian-style coupon organizers and attempted to use expired ones on some of her non-seasonal purchases. Argh. Flames, flames on the side of my face.

beachmouse

Another person who buys a whole bunch of single cans of Fancy Feast here. I've had the cashier thank me for sorting them to make them quicker for him to ring up- stacks of four or five cans in the same flavor seem to work well.

sethb

I'm amazed at the number of people who are obviously taken by complete surprise by the fact that they'll have to pay.

mapleg

Invite her to visit Canada where we got rid of the little pesty things.

sethb

Once she has her stuff and has paid, why don't you place your order? You might have to speak up a bit to be heard, that's all.

mjcewl1284

I'll admit it: I've been guilty of this twice. I always forget whether the card is under my wife's cell number or if it's another number we use. And it doesn't help I keep all those key chain cards on a separate key chain (I do this because I have way too much of them to keep on my keys).