Who was in the wrong - bakery or me?

Hello OP, you probably had no idea how intellectually stimulating this thread would turn out to be but:

How big is this bakery?
Is it a small family business?
Can you in any way describe the set up, personalities involved etc?

I, personally, do not buy the argument that they are living in fear of the VAT. Mind you, I realise that I live in a different culture or cultures where the 'Family table' is a given in any business.

Greggs deliberately don't keep their bakes hot so they don't incur the 'pasty tax' for takeaway, only for eat-in.

Shops that serve hot bakes pay the tax irrespective of location of consumption.

My 18 yo daughter works at Greggs and she has to ask customers whether they're eating in or taking out as there's a price difference. So I'd assume if you aren't asked that question, there's no option to eat in. That said, it's odd that there's a table at all if eating in isn't an option (chairs would suffice for waiting customers), and the fact that it's taken them a year to raise it with OP is frankly bizarre.

Eh? How is she taking VAT laws personally?

OP wants somewhere she and her kids can eat in rather than getting something to take out. So she’s going somewhere else where it’s not an issue. She’s not trying to organise a boycott 🙄

Where it applies, the cafe's till will be programmed with "eat in" and "eat out" buttons which will work out the VAT automatically. No need for counter staff to know nor understand the VAT laws at all. They just press one or the other button and the VAT numbers are all automatically calculated in the background and "pinged" through to populate the accounts and VAT return in turn.

Same happens with the likes of convenience stores - those using bar codes the till will be pre-programmed with the different VAT rates for different categories of sale. Those without bar codes, the till will have different buttons for different categories of sale, so, say a newspaper will be entered by manually entering the price and then pressing the "news" button, whereas a Mars bar will be manually entered by entering the price and then the "confectionary" button, a pack of logs will be entered by entering the price and then the "fuel" button, etc.

No need at all for the counter staff to know as it's all pre-programmed to work it out in the background. Staff only need to know to press the right button which is pretty simple/basic training.

An entire year??

OP just wants to be able to sit and eat some bakery goods with her kids, the bakery she's been frequenting won't allow that, so she's going somewhere else. How is that taking VAT laws so personally?

Why are you taking VAT laws so
Personally?

I don't think it's that odd, the tills are likely manned by minimum waged staff who may not know about VAT laws, perhaps one day the owner happened to be in there when the OP was sitting down and reminded the staff of the rules.

But she hasn’t suggested she’s going to do this!! And no one else has suggested she do it!!!

@theilltemperedqueenofspacetime yeah, there's some Hella regulatory stuff going on. I think takeaway business is charged differently by the council than sit down etc? Kind of like an off license can't have you sit and drink there.

Yes, it is a bit odd. All of the bakeries I've ever been to with tables and chairs, or sometimes stools at a counter in the window, are for customers to sit and eat their purchase. Tables and chairs in a place selling food is an indication that you are welcome to sit and eat it, although the usual expectation is that you'll be fairly quick doing so. We have 4 independent bakeries in my vicinity, all with a few tables and chairs in the corner and they are always used by customers to eat their purchases. How many customers really have to sit down at a table to wait their turn to buy a loaf of bread or sausage roll? How long does it take! You don't have tables and chairs in other shops for disabled or pregnant customers (not normally anyway), so tables and chairs in a food shop only suggests one thing.

What on earth do you mean? She didn’t know she shouldn’t sit there so she sat there. Now she knows she shouldn’t sit there, so she shouldn’t sit there anymore. If she continues to sit there she’s KNOWINGLY doing something she is aware she shouldn’t be doing.

So if you were sat at a restaurant eating a meal and a disabled person walked in to pick up a takeaway.

You would stop eating and let them sit down whilst they were waiting?

And then what sit back down and carry on eating after they had gone?

There’s being polite but that’s pretty extreme.

LTB - Leave the Bakery @😂

How’s that any different?

It’s the table which is the controversial piece of furniture here, though. Elderly/disabled people might need to sit down, granted, but they don’t need a table. A table and chairs implies sitting down to eat.

Oh dear heavens! I also didn’t I say that! I’m saying she’s been told so she shouldn’t do it because she doesn’t have ignorance on her side anymore where she did this time.

Until now- no one was weird as you didn’t know. Now you know so you have to decide- are you ok going and grabbing the food to go or go elsewhere.

Why do they need a waiting area for sausage rolls anyway.

It's not a fish and chip bar or standard takeaway where you wait a while. Surely you go in, ask for your sausage roll, pay, walk away sit down and eat.

If they need a waiting area they must be superslow and therefore have other problems...

Well the bakery said they were for people waiting. 🤷‍♀️

"mortified"

The presence of a table and chairs does imply it is there for customers to be able to sit at them.

It's for the staff to put their ashtray and scotch glasses on during their breaks.

Or it hinges upwards to reveal a rocket launcher.

Nope. Someone said maybe it’s needed for people waiting who may have a disability. OP said she would have moved if someone was disabled. I said that not all disabilities are visible.

I said that now she knows she isn’t to sit there then she shouldn’t sit there. It’s that simple. She’s been told not to sit there- for whatever reason that is (I’m not saying it IS a priority seat)- but it is NOT for the OP and her kids to sit at. So she needs to not sit there.

You’ve completely missed my point. As for the priority seating comment of yours, on buses, trains, with toilets etc. no, I would not sit in these seats because I know that not all disabilities are visible and others needs may trump my own.