Food court frustration

Recently I walked over to a mall to have some lunch. I decided that having lunch at 11:30 was probably a good idea to avoid some of the business people that also want to eat in the same food court. Well, I was frustrated with what I saw upon my arrival.

It looked like there were a couple of meetings being held in the food court. One was a group of ladies and the other group which was rather large were a group of mean. Well, it wasn't really a meeting, but rather a gathering of friends/people. So here it is just before lunch and there were approximately 20 men sitting and taking up 28 seats and only a few of them had coffee cups in front of them. I know some of the coffee cups were empty because one of the men knocked his over and nothing came out. A bunch of the other men never lifted their cups to drip their coffee during the time I sat and ate my lunch.

The ladies at least were only taking 8 seats for the 8 of them, which was nice. On the other side of me were 3 men sitting at a table for 4 which was no problem but was frustrating was there were using another table for 4 to hold their 2 bags of groceries and their empty coffee cups. Yes, they had finished whatever they had and were just sitting and talking. By this time, people were looking for tables so that they could eat the lunch that they purchased in the food court, but there weren't too many available tables.

I finished my lunch and headed off, so it was almost noon by the time I left the food court by the men were still sitting at the tables with their empty coffee cups. It really bothers me that people can sit in a food court at lunchtime taking tables when they either purchased something a couple of hours ago or haven't purchased anything from the food court. I am not sure how this food court actually survives because of the lack of food purchased as the different vendors. 

The other issue is that this food court is near a school, so parents pick up their kids from school and walk over to the mall and let their kids eat in the food court. I don't see anything wrong letting them eat in the food court, but what does bother me is they are not eating food purchased in the food court but food that the parent has brought from home. This school is within about a 10-minute walk for all the kids that attend it, so why can't the parents take the kids home and let them eat their lunch where it was made.

After I finished the rest of my shopping in the mall, which wasn't a lot, I walked back by the food court.  You guessed it, all the men were still sitting at the tables with their empty cups. So, it really doesn't matter if you complain to the malls because it doesn't seem to help. If the people sitting in the food court know the cleaning staff or security, there is nothing done, but if you are a stranger, they encourage you to move on.

Food courts are to be used for eating meals that are purchased there, and please be considerate about how long you spend at a table. There are others who also want to purchase something and enjoy it.