PTA cream tea

[Isthisreasonable]

Trying to organise the catering at school fete. How much would you expect to pay or are you charging for a cream tea? Would be scone, jam, cream and pot of tea. Not been any other local events offering this to benchmark against. We charged £3.50 pre-covid.

We're in the North West.
TIA

Lovely home made scone or packet of 6 from Asda?

Asda - not enough willing bakers

£4? If not same price as before.

I was going to say £3.50 - £4 seems about right.

That was what I was thinking but a majority on the committee think £5 because it reduces the need for change and prices generally have gone up. We're talking sitting on a bench in the playground not a nice cafe and people need value for money in the current climate.

I’d feel ripped off at a fiver. Stick to £3.50 or £4 and offer card payment.

£4 with option to upgrade to extra scone for £5. People won't buy kids their own cream tea but might buy an extra scone.

Well how much does each cream tea cost you?

I'd estimate if you're using Asda's own brand for everything, it can't be much more than £1.50-2 per portion.

In that case it would be pretty cheeky to charge more than £3.50 - that's already double(ish) what it probably costs you to provide.

For a school fete that seems a high profit margin. I don't think you should charge over double your cost.

A fiver would be more reasonable if you go to a proper bakery and get decent scones and a mid range tea/ jam.

3.50 and do a raffle.

Cream tea sounds a bit too much : you need to arrange everything plus you need pots, then question of space for sitting and washing afterwards etc. DD’s primary school used to sell strawberries with cream and scones with cream and jam separately and tea separately. (They probably still do it, DD is not in primary any more). It was very popular as most people wanted to buy their child a scone or strawberries rather then pay for the full tea experience.

£3.50 seems about right then. For a fiver I’d expect home made/bit more luxurious.

I second the suggestion of an ‘upgrade’ of a two scone cream tea for a fiver. A little tub of strawberries would go down well here. Maybe £2 for a little Ikea bowl full. You’d then get £7 from me!

We sold homemade scones with butter, strawberries and little pots of jam and cream plus a drink for £3 or 2 for £5.
The scone ingredients, butter, jam and cream were donated by local supermarkets, the strawberries were from the school allotment and the scones were made by parents and children as part of a family group so costs were low, the area is not affluent so things need to be reasonable to encourage uptake.

We sell a full cream tea - scone, clotted cream, jam, tea & a slice of homemade cake for £6 or you can buy each item separately for £2.

As a former PTA chair I probably wouldn’t do a cream tea at all. We looked into it and the logistics were too difficult. It’s a nice idea but there are easier ways to make money
However, I would say you need to stick to £3.50 unless you have a very wealthy demographic

Honestly I'd be pissed off if it cost a fiver and the scone was a supermarket one, I'd expect homemade for that.

My DC's school do dishes of strawberries with optional cream and sugar plus shortbread biscuits, easier to eat sitting at a bench or similar than scones etc.

My rule of thumb for PTA food was always around double the cost price, but rounded up if needed. But that is full cost price including any disposable plates etc being used.

It depends on your school. I think I'd be much more likely to buy at £4 than £5, and you want to sell out when you have the sunk costs of buying the scones and cream.

Selling an add-on at £1 sounds like a good idea to help with change. Maybe a cookie or cake for the child.

I would expect two scones for a fiver, especially if they’re just small supermarket ones. One big homemade scone for a fiver would be OK.

However, if it’s just sitting on benches in a playground, will there be any tables? Trying to slice a scone and spread jam and cream will be really tricky without tables (unless you’re going to do all that in advance).

I wouldn't want to pay £5 but I like the option of adding something extra.

I'd pay £5 if it was a big homemade scone and clotted cream, for a small supermarket scone and whipped cream, £3.50 sounds about right.

We just hosted a picnic:
Drink (thatchers, pimms or posh lemonade)
Crisps (kettle)
Cake (nice local cake bar)

And charged a fiver. We did a cheaper version for kids for £3.

Went down a storm.

We looked at a cream tea but the cream was really hard to source and keep cool.

Your original question: pop a can of pimms in and charge £6 (they are £1.70 from Amazon). Or include a cuppa for £4??

Thanks for all your feedback some good ideas. I will keep trying to make the rest of the committee see sense. Thankfully this is my last year.

@KatyN what a great idea!

We had one the other week. Was £2.50 for a scone, halved, each with jam and clotted cream and either tea or coffee.

A pot of tea and two scones at £5 is a good deal, I like the idea of a cake/crisp/maybe an ice lolly for the kids add on (£1.50 for a squash and a choc ice?)