Saturday I went to the Duboce Park Cafe in SF and all of the good tables (against the wall/window) were taken up by single laptoppers. The only available tables for us were in the middle of the room and at the counter. I even came up with the idea that they should build little walls for the tables to divide them into two single seats, like library carrels (http://rmulibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/01/09/new-library-fur...).
Even so, if laptoppers had better manners, they'd take the worst seats first.
There are multiple definitions of fairness. FCFS might be considered a fair admittance rule, but not an occupancy rule. Consider processes in a computer system. Do we let one process hog the CPU indefinitely while others are waiting? No, most usable systems will context-switch when the current process exceeds its time quantum. "First in, first out" is usually a better rule for occupancy. Applied to coffee-shop seats, that would mean that people who haven't bought anything for a long time should lose their place to people who purchased something more recently. It's only fair.
I think the parent's gripe is about single people taking up entire tables that could seat a group, hence the use of "single" versus "us" and the divider suggestion.
The four tables on the right were singly occupied, as well as another wall-row of four tables behind the photographer. None vacated, and none ordered more during our time eating there. By my napkin calculation, we paid the cafe 10x what the coffee/laptoppers did.
This seems to be something that the staff should resolve. Write an email to the owner/manager with your concerns. In the absence of a person's ability to determine appropriate behavior, it's the duty of the establishment to do so.
They may tell you that those people consistently buy enough to justify their discount-Regus space and they may tell you that those nerdlings are holding tables for the groups of coworkers who rotate in on an hourly basis.
They may also have no idea that it's causing a problem because they see acceptable revenues.
Be more aggressive in asserting change and you'll feel a lot better. Just asking the staff or the shift manager will let you know if it's an easy problem to solve or if you should probably find a different place to hang out.
Coffee shops have become workplace annexes since at least the mid-1990s. I like to take meetings in them because the risk of being overheard regarding internal politics is reduced, it gets interviewees a chance to refresh while you get to know them, and frankly, we all need the walk sometimes. A cup of coffee is also a good unit of time. You may need to wait five minutes for it to cool to a drinkable temperature (I'm a quaffer), you'll take sips from time to time, and you'll eventually finish and have an understanding that something is at an end and a change should be made. In this case, it's throwing away your trash and de-assing the place. :-)
(And if someone has the iron butt to sit in those chairs in your photo for 4+ hours, the muscle and nerve soreness should be motivation enough to go someplace else.)
we paid the cafe 10x what the coffee/laptoppers did
There's probably some price where the cafe would force people to move, but you haven't spent enough yet. I can't tell if you're mad at the cafe for not honoring you for spending money, or if you're mad at the people with laptops for existing.
I suppose, but my girlfriend and I were also eating brunch there. It's the only convenient place that serves both cucumber and capers with their lox bagel.
From the cafe's perspective, it sounds like everything worked perfectly. Even though you couldn't get the seat you wanted, you still had brunch there. And the people working on laptops bought something there; if they couldn't use their laptops, they probably wouldn't have bought anything at all. That, I suppose, is the advantage of being the only convenient place that serves both cucumber and capers with their lox bagel.
Short term gains for long term reputation losses as an acceptable mode of business?
Serving both cucumber and capers with their lox bagels is not much of a defensible competitive advantage, but I guess the owner just needs to ride out customer churn until they hit their ipo and can punch their exit strategy... well...
Even so, if laptoppers had better manners, they'd take the worst seats first.