There's nothing worse than waiting 30 minutes to an hour for that coveted brunch table, only to sit down and have your coffee spill onto the face of your phone. Why did it happen? Because the table was wobbly. Apparently the packets of Sweet 'n Low slid out from underneath the table leg.
So what happens next?
For starters, the busy waiter will try to reassert the sugar packs. Maybe he'll use a napkin or even a cardboard coaster. It might work for a while, or worse, the party may be asked to move to a different table, which on a busy Sunday morning, means an additional wait until the next table opens up.
The wobbly table will be deemed inoperable for the time being, until someone coming back from break has the time to fix it. Everyone else is in the weeds because it's so busy. Meanwhile, customers who are waiting are getting aggravated, wondering why there's an empty table on such a busy morning.
The reality is wobbly tables can cost an operation a lot. Angry customers, frustrated wait staff, and even the loss of profits. You can even calculate how much your establishment is losing based on how much customers spend in your restaurant in conjunction with the hourly rate of your staff. Either way, nobody likes a wobbly table.