I went out for lunch today, just to a salad place where they make you a fresh salad while you wait. You then take it to a table yourself to eat it. When we got outside there were 2 empty tables, 1 had 2 chairs, but 1 of the chairs had a shopping bag on. The other table only had 1 chair. We sat at the table with 1 chair, and I went and removed the unoccupied chair from the other table. At which time someone at the next table said someone is sitting there, I replied no there isn't, he said well they asked me to save the table they are inside getting there food, I said I already have my food and I want to sit and eat it. He argued that they were here before me, I said if they had been there before me they would have had their food before me. To which he told me I was being extremely rude, I said not really, and he said well maybe not where you come from but it's considered rude in this country.\

As it turns out, 10 minutes later another table left, and I went and removed a chair from the table and replaced the one I had taken. (Didn't really want another argument)

So was I out of line, and just a gobby cow?

Oh God, one of my pet hates is people 'bagging' tables.

Also a bit much to make it into a nationalist issue for you

One time my son and I sat down in La Salsa and started eating, a man who was still waiting for his food came up and told us to move because he had put his receipt on the table - according to him, this is the universal sign for 'this table is taken'

We obediently moved though, because I'm not a gobby cow

I would have left the chair at the table...kept an eye on it and if only one person came back to the table...I would then have asked for the chair.

Oh...and I am a gobby cow...but I am sure you already knew that.

I have discovered within the past few weeks that you are expected to put your receipt on the table at server-yourself buffet restaurants, so yes it may be a commonly accepted sign that a table is taken.

Agreed, I would not have taken a chair without asking someone at the table where the chair was.

That's what you get for being healthy and eating salads. Wouldn't have happened if you had been at Pizza Hut

Reminds me of last month when dd and I were at Disney. We were in the queue for Splash Mountain and the guy in front of us kept looking back and I should have known then... right where the Fast Pass people can join in, his party did as well... there were no less than 12 people he was holding the line for! Now that's my definition of rude. And to top it off he had some gobby teens with him as well!

Speaking of, out where the inlaws live, a truck driver nipped into one to grab a pizza for lunch. Didn't put the brakes on properly and it rolled over him and smashed the front door of the place in

As for the table being thing....if no one is there, sod them. If there were a couple of folks and one waited at the table, fair enough but not if everyone buggers off inside.

Personally, if someone had left something unattended at a table and the bloke had given you lip, should have said you'd call the police about a suspicious package because you never know what kind of nutter leaves something unattended on a table and who trusts a random bloke to not pinch it

We had that in a cruise ship restaurant on our first day aboard. We got our food at the buffet and sat at a window table. There were a couple of sets of cutlery rolled in a napkin on the table and thought that was normal. A few minutes later a couple of women came up and said we were sitting here. No you weren't, there was nobody sitting here. They f****d off elsewhere. There was a sign saying to get your food before sitting down. If someone is sitting at a table while others are getting the food that seems ok though.

Can't stand it. The quickest thing for everyone is for only those that have food to sit down. I always think it's particularly bad at theme parks where everyone saves tables.

If there's food on the table, fair enough. No food & they're squat out of luck as far as I'm concerned.
I'd have taken the chair and told the man to go shove it.

Out of curiosity, did they need the extra chair?

You know if you only glance at your avatar it looks like the mouse is doing something, err, primal, with the turkey...

Oh, and I think table bagging is very rude.

Every year the dirty minded people of BE say similar.

So that's everybody then...

If there's two or more of you and you see a table on entering, then one of you sits down saving the table and they get one of the others to get their food for them. If you're on your own you deal with the table after you have the food and hope for the best. That's how it works in my world anyway.

At those salad places, it's standard practice to leave your receipt on the table so the server can bring your drinks/requested extras while you are off getting your buffet. That's how they know where to bring what things. In better buffet places, the wait staff keeps track of which customers are assigned what tables.

If there's a handbag or other bag on a chair, or a napkin (in cloth-napkin places), then etiquette provides that the person sitting there had got up and was coming back. It is considered rude to question whether the bag/napkin actually belongs to another person, and it is considered rude to lie by placing your own bag/napkin on a chair that isn't your own to keep others from using it.

If there are not enough seats, then you need to ask a staff member to assist you, not require another patron to give up something for you. What you did was understandable, but rather like borrowing the salt and pepper from a table where someone was already seated. You can allow the waiter to do it, but you can't just go do it yourself.

And it was terribly rude to crack a comment about "In this country, we..." and I apologize on that idiot's behalf.

I think that's very galant of you to do that. But I know I wouldn't. Not that it wasn't terribly rude to have said that, it was! But how can anyone possibly apologize for rude behavior from someone who is clearly ignorant but not known by that person?