Robson, S., Kimes, S., Becker, F., & Evans, G. (2011). Consumers’ responses to table spacing in restaurants. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 52(3), 253-264. doi:10.1177/1938965511410310

“Consumers’ responses to table spacing in restaurants” written by Stephani Robson, Sheryl Kimes, et al, discusses the restaurant’s costumers’ preference to preferring seating at tables spaced from other people rather than sitting close to them. They conducted a survey online of roughly more than 1000 Americans in order to find out what people preferred. For this experiment, tables were set up side by side and had only a few inches of separation. They received 1013 responses, both of male and females but they noticed an imbalance in ethnicities, age groups and the frequency in which people went out to restaurants. Some tables were spaced 6 inches apart, others 12 and 24 inches apart. Those who were seated 6 inches apart from others reported to feel less privacy, felt more crowded were not satisfied with the table in which they had been seated at. As previously stated, we found that mainly couples and families at Boston Pizza were seated closer than those who were with friends or their teammates, they all were seated a few tables apart from each other, which leads to being more comfortable to engage in conversations with friends, family, etc. While it is the hostess’ job to seat costumers (at certain restaurants), costumers still get a say in where they would much