Café/retail seat-squatters: loiterers occupying paid seating

Pain point

Groups buy one item and camp 3+ hours, eating a third of seating capacity; staff confrontations turn into complaints/bad reviews.

Signal

Strongest in the set — 103 upvotes on the post, top comments at 357 / 212 / 115 / 38, plus an independent anecdote about a craft beer place (37). Real revenue math quoted ("3 customers like this and you are out of space").

Opportunity

"Fair Seating Kit" — QR table codes tied to a minimum-spend/time policy, auto-prompt at 90 min ("extend your stay with any order"), plus printed signage/wifi-voucher timing (wifi code expires with purchase). Service add-on: scripted de-escalation cards + a review-response template for the inevitable complaint. Quick to build (wifi-voucher + timer layer on existing POS/router).

Evidence

• Seat-squatter complaint thread