The snack-bar security syndrome

People who have PTSD such as I,we prefer a wall table facing the entrance.

I've always felt more comfortable in some seats than others when I sit alone, and when I'm alone I usually feel more comfortable facing the front of the restaurant (i.e. facing the door) than not. Having my back to the rest of the place gives me the heeby jeebies.

I think there's a lot of truth to this, mostly because it seems like Steve DOESN'T think there is.

In such cases I tend to sit near the wall, facing the room, and feel very uncomfortable if I have to have my back to the room. I love corners. And it's true that I'm much less particular about seating arrangements if I'm with a group. Hmmm. I thought it was just me and my compulsive traits... I've never been attacked, by a lunch lady or any other kind of person, but there you go :-)

If you're really interested in seating choices you may want to check out the data used by restaurant and night club designers and owners. Now I don't actually know where to get this data but it was readily available to the nightclub owning parents of my college room mate some ages ago. It's also been repeated to me by numerous clients who have owned restaurants and bars.

IIRC, there is almost always a strong preference for seating along the periphery (walls) than in more open areas. Booths and "horseshoe" seating usually are more popular than "table and chair" seating. (Table and chair seating allows for more patrons to be squeezed into the available space.)

People also show a marked preference to sit in dim areas and face into the light, rather than vice versa, or to prefer overall dimness to bright lighting -- except in "family" restaurants.

Your data may have shown "groups" more often sitting in "open" areas but that is not necessarily an indictation of the patrons' preferences. It is just as likely that larger areas of seating were available in the less desireable location or that the owner / hostess seated the groups at "strategic" areas for purposes of ease of service and / or to give the appearance of having a "full," hence "popular" establishment.

For similar "marketing" reasons, hosts may preferentially seat certain customers at window locations in order to give "curb appeal" to passing foot traffic.

". Solitary individuals showed a significant preference for wall tables over center tables while grouped individuals showed no such perference. "Looking-up" frequency was higher amongh solitary than grouped individuals and higher among patrons at center tables than at wall tables."

While not necessarily mutually exclusive, I suppose, I find it interesting that in one stroke he mentions that solitary individuals look up more often, and in the prior sentence states that they tended to stay along the walls, while in the next sentence he claims to have found that the patrons in the center tables (by his assertion these would encompass far more grouped individuals than solitary ones) actually looked up more often.

The seeming contradiction, not to mention the lack of attention to spelling, leaves me skeptical of the conclusions. Perhaps these observations were made after the consumption of some moldy rye bread or in the *late-night* cafeteria? ;)

Although I'm not familiar with the particular snack bar in the study, my general experience of similar facilities provides two observations:

1. Frequently the layout of such facilities places smaller tables against walls and larger tables in the center. This would seem to lead to solitary people sitting along walls.

2. Actually, "walls" in such facilities usually means "windows." People who are sitting alone may actually be wanting to read or study, and during daylight at least, may simply be seeking the best light for their purpose.