This reminds me of a story when I was a student. A girl/young woman I know was looking for her friend. Mobile phones was not really something we had but she arranged meeting him at some bar/pub but she didn’t know which one in town. So she then went through town checking one after the other. This was a small town with not that many but it took her much longer than it should. Later she explained she had ordered a drink in each one of the establishments as she felt uncomfortable entering and exiting looking for her friend without ordering something.