I think there is a somewhat meaningful distinction whether the provider hopes or expects for it to be worthwhile.
I was a bit baffled by “Accompanying friends to a restaurant and only ordering water.” Is this supposed to freeload on the friends or the restoraunt. If you are paying your food its not like you are burdening your friends. And if the eating friends went without you the extra seat would not really be usable by unrelated customers. And presumably you are making the meal more fun for your friends enabling the restaurant to provide a better value proposition. Is it because they give away the water for free instead of charging tap prices for it? Should we add “breathing oxygen” in that freeloading list too?
The movie theather bit is also super contingent how the theather is being run. If they forbid outside food its bad, but if they allow outside food then they are in the entertainment business only and not even partially in food business.
If you are paying your food its not like you are burdening your friends.
Sorry, this one wasn’t phrased very well. I was attempting to describe something where someone goes to a restaurant and doesn’t order anything at all except (free) water, including not ordering food. The restaurant now has seated your party at a larger table and provided service to you including giving you a glass which they’ll need to wash after. If only a few people do this then it’s not much of a problem, but you could imagine an extreme version where a group of people show up at a restaurant, order only water, and don’t even spend any money. And then a slightly less extreme version we’re only one of those people orders and pays for something.
In where I put this in the list, I was assuming one person tagging along with a larger group of people.
In some roadside shops there are norms that “WC is for customers only” which leads to behaviour like buying a candy bar you don’t really want, to use the facilities.
I would imagine a restaurant would choose to not serve a recurring “water only” customer and even at first time visit I would imagine aggressively pushing the menu until telling to leave. And on the other hand some restaurant strategies might want to instill to people the habit of hanging out there, so in those times that they do get hungry they get to be the servers.
I think there is a somewhat meaningful distinction whether the provider hopes or expects for it to be worthwhile.
I was a bit baffled by “Accompanying friends to a restaurant and only ordering water.” Is this supposed to freeload on the friends or the restoraunt. If you are paying your food its not like you are burdening your friends. And if the eating friends went without you the extra seat would not really be usable by unrelated customers. And presumably you are making the meal more fun for your friends enabling the restaurant to provide a better value proposition. Is it because they give away the water for free instead of charging tap prices for it? Should we add “breathing oxygen” in that freeloading list too?
The movie theather bit is also super contingent how the theather is being run. If they forbid outside food its bad, but if they allow outside food then they are in the entertainment business only and not even partially in food business.
Sorry, this one wasn’t phrased very well. I was attempting to describe something where someone goes to a restaurant and doesn’t order anything at all except (free) water, including not ordering food. The restaurant now has seated your party at a larger table and provided service to you including giving you a glass which they’ll need to wash after. If only a few people do this then it’s not much of a problem, but you could imagine an extreme version where a group of people show up at a restaurant, order only water, and don’t even spend any money. And then a slightly less extreme version we’re only one of those people orders and pays for something.
In where I put this in the list, I was assuming one person tagging along with a larger group of people.
In some roadside shops there are norms that “WC is for customers only” which leads to behaviour like buying a candy bar you don’t really want, to use the facilities.
I would imagine a restaurant would choose to not serve a recurring “water only” customer and even at first time visit I would imagine aggressively pushing the menu until telling to leave. And on the other hand some restaurant strategies might want to instill to people the habit of hanging out there, so in those times that they do get hungry they get to be the servers.