Table number

My friend Simon and his dog Murphy have come to stay for a few days.
We were talking about the British service industry and Simon related the story of how he was sitting at a table by the river at a country inn.
He went to the bar and asked for a sandwich, whereupon the barman asked where he was sitting outside and what his table number was. Simon replied that his table didn't have a number so the barman said that if it didn't have a number he couldn't have a sandwich.
A bit miffed Simon went back outside and saw that none of the tables had any numbers.
The UK service industry our biggest employer....