Who was in the wrong - bakery or me?

🤣 different strokes for different folks.

Disabilities aren’t always visible and a person in need won’t always feel comfortable or empowered enough to ask you and your kids to move.
Now you know that’s what they are for though you shouldn’t sit there anymore.

Surely not on it. At it. 🤣

Our local bakery has a small thin breakfast bar and 2 stools and a single small table with two chairs. Sounds like a similar sort of set up. Ours however IS so people can eat in. I understand why OP used the table and chairs made available for customers. Yeah she was wrong about their use but why would she think a table and chairs weren't to be used in a food place as a table and chairs would normally be? In my view, the unnecessary (weird?) bit was staff embarrassing her about it when a simple new informative sign could have got the message out without any need to have any sort of engagement that could cause embarrassment.

OP I'd give that place a wide berth now and find a little cafe instead.

A table and Chairs in a place that serves food and assuming that they are for sitting at and eating. Not something to be mortified about really. There are some table and chairs outside my local waitrose, I have never asked if I can sit and eat there. I am not mortified about this.

Only on Mumsnet…

Yes maybe it’s that. I can see why you feel a bit put out though OP.

Maybe the table is for customers to sit and do a crossword at, while they’re waiting for their order?

This. A set of chairs I’d assume are for waiting, but a table and chairs I’d assume are for eating. It’s a bit awkward of them to not have mentioned it before, but I am sure you are not the only one who has made that honest mistake. Maybe they’ve had issues lately so are finally enforcing it. Now you know though and you can just take everything as takeaway in the future.

If they are sold from a heated cabinet, they are VAT-able irrespective- so OP may already have paid VAT.

A "staff seating" area sign is a basic requirement, and would take them minutes. The place sounds disorganised.

I would also think that a table and chairs in somewhere serving food is an invitation to sit down and eat unless there was a big sign saying ‘waiting only, no eating’. I think it’s weird they haven’t said anything for a year. If sitting down to eat your snacks is part of the routine now, I would just go somewhere else ☺️

Like another op posted, whilst I get that it's meant to be for people waiting. It's surely taken them long enough to bring the matter to her attention!

In what way is it weird?

There are multiple reasons as to why it’s not been mentioned before.

Perhaps the staff let her when it was quiet and she wasn’t causing any issues but the boss reminded them of the rules and their insurance and told them to stop people eating there in future.

They politely told OP the rules.
It’s not in the slightest bit weird.

OP sounds like she was already familiar with the rules anyway, considering she admitted she would move if a disabled person was waiting.

Not everything has to be a big drama.

Than they remove the table/s and explain this to the customer who isn't a mind reader.

Function of a table??

Sitting on it

Job done

Eating hot food inside would incur an additional VAT charge. It may be that the bakery staff weren't aware of this previously (as they are not a sit in venue) and so never bothered to pull you up on it, but it's recently been noticed and they've been told to put a stop to it.

Never mind, I found this:

"Greggs bakes fresh daily, without retaining heat or marketing products as hot, to avoid VAT and keep prices lower. Hot sandwiches in heated cabinets are subject to VAT. "

Every day a schoolday....

That could be thought - best not to have tables. Odd set up.

I understand chairs for waiting, but why have they got a table/s? Of course it'll look like a sitting area similar to greggs etc. There should be a sign op? That is confusing imo, and I would honestly have thought it was a sit down area too, because of the table.
I would contact them with "constructive feedback" on their poor set up. That is not clear at all.

This...

However if it was just a few chairs in a line I'd assume it was for those needing a sit down while being/waiting to be served.

Most posters have not said the OP was wrong, just that now she’s been told, they can’t sit there any longer.

Neither was being unreasonable, IMO.

If you eat on the premises, they are supposed to charge you VAT. However, if you take the sausage rolls away and eat them there is no VAT to pay. You should pay 20% more for the sausage rolls if you are going to eat them on the premises. Of course, it is quite possible their systems are not set up to cope with this. Even if they could cope, you clearly haven't been paying VAT. They could be fined if HMRC find out. They are therefore being perfectly reasonable.

I would have assumed it was fine to eat at. Now you've been told it's not just don't eat there any more. It's not weird or a big deal.

And yet further into the realms of absurdity we descend, in the quest to cast the OP into the wrong.

Can I have a go too?

OP, you know those male oiks who steal all the chairs in antenatal units forcing pregnant women to stand or sit on the floor, well you and your children are essentially the bakery equivalent and you should be ashamed of yourselves for victimising the elderly and infirm in search of their flaky treat.

There, that's the OP told.