To think that tea rooms close too early

[CoolForCats09]

This probably sounds like a totally pointless thread but this kind of annoys me - why do most tea rooms close at 4?
I get that places might open early so close early but I'd love to find more places that are open until 5 at least. I think ideal tea and cake time is about 4ish but there's never anywhere open by then, unless it's Costa.

Has anyone else ever thought the same?

Yes yes yes!! Totally agree... My friend and I were moaning about this just the other day. Cafe / tea room opening hours make no sense to me at all, they must be missing out on so much business

I’m in Ireland and our local tea room type place opens until 6.30 & it’s really popular

Quite agree ,it's infuriating .

And things are no better where I live in an inner London borough .I have a friend who ,for various reasons ,I meet about 3pm for a walk or wander .No cafes ,tea rooms open after 4.30 .We've started to go into pubs for coffee .Oh ,or a little tapas place that is open for coffee,wine ,snacks .

Here there are lots of late-night dessert cafés to cater for communities who don’t drink. We’re on the outskirts of a major city with a large Muslim population, however.

I own a coffeeshop, initially we were open did 6 but dead in the last hour. We now open til 5, some days there are people in til 5 but mostly not. Our kitchen closes for hot food at 4pm so the last hour is generally cleaning. It's not worth businesses staying open and paying staff and utilities for a couple of customers coming and spending maybe a tenner each. If the demand was there places would stay open, we're in business to make money, so presumably there just isn't the demand

my local coffee shop is open 07:00 to 20:00 every day.
I often go past at 18:30 and there are always customers.
Good coffee and cakes at all hours.😀

Agree, often wish there were more European style places where you can get an alcoholic drink, or tea/coffee, cake and sandwich.

Isn't this the niche places like le pain quotidien and Patisserie Valerie are going for?

They seem busy and I like them as places where you can get a light meal

Our kitchen closes for hot food at 4pm so the last hour is generally cleaning.

I appreciate you say you used to be open later and weren't very busy but what is the logic in stopping serving hot food an hour before you close?

Surely parents wanting to bring their children in after school want hot food options like cheese on toast alongside their coffee?

Our cages/tea shops are the same, they shut at a time you’ve finished shopping and want to sit and have tea and cake.

we’ve had about 6 dessert shops open in the last year and they open till late and seem to be very busy, especially at night. So I guess they saw the trade tea shops are missing out on.

Cafes*

Omg 😂 this is the issue

Patisserie Valerie have just closed a load of their sites. In our town two independent cafés have closed since the summer as they couldn’t afford escalating running costs. There is no way most places can afford to extend their hours.

I work in a big store which closes at 8 or 9 but the cafe closes at 4. We always get lots of parents & kids coming in after school & I’m sure the cafe would get their business.

Agree! DH and I do a lot of walking and so many times we have finished our walk to find that the local tearoom shut at 4. That's often in national parks too, so places you would expect that people are out walking all day. It just doesn't make sense to me.

I was working until 8pm last night and my train wasn't until 8.45. I'm in a busy city centre and would have loved a cup of tea. I don't expect a family run tea room to provide this service bt you'd think that there would be a late night Costa. The only place I could have gone was a packed bar or McDonald's. I hate the drinking culture in this country.

I live in a Devon market town and there is a new tea room that stays open till 5 which I was surprised about, but think its a good idea. Not sure if she will continue over winter till that time, although it is not particularly tourist place so hopefully will.
Come to think about it there are actually a lot of cafes/tea rooms here and seem to be surviving. Mainly due to the market which is twice a week.

If you started at 7am (as most cafe owners do), you'd have had enough and be ready to pack up and go home late afternoon! Small cafe owners can't afford a manager so are usually working in it themselves most of the time!

Omg 😂 this is the issue

What do you mean this is the issue? Of course they aren't going to pay staff for another shift and pay the energy costs of staying open longer if they won't get enough customers to justify it. It's just common sense.

@Beees because once you turn the fryers, oven, grills etc off they need to cool to clean. It's hard enough paying staff with just a few customers but now you want me to pay them to stay when there is zero income? We have a huge range of cakes, pastries and cold sandwiches so plenty of other options.

Obviously, if I thought the demand was there I'd stay open, despite already doing 12 hour shifts myself, but it's not. We've trialled lots of things to bring people in later on, and it looks like the only thing that's going to work is getting our alcohol licence, which is the opposite of what this thread is suggesting! I've been in the trade for 5 years, this is my second shop, both started being open later, both were reduced as the demand is just not there, despite what this thread would suggest

Only in the U.K. can you walk to a place that is still open and the staff say, ‘we’re cleaning/closing’ so actively turning away trade.
We were recently in Portland, Dorset and at 8pm all the fish and chip shops were closed, the pubs stopped serving food, the mobile pizza van was cleaning down but the Indian and Chinese were still open until after 11pm and had queues.

No, what doesn't make sense is a cafe staying open and paying at least 2 staff's wages (plus expensive heating & lighting) just to serve £1.50 cups of tea to a few people who may randomly walk in. It's clearly loss making to do that.

To cover overheads it needs to be at least half full most of each opening hour (or a regular stream of takeaways), with people spending several pounds each on drinks and food.

@Badbadbunny I dream of starting at 7, I'm in 4.30/5am til 5pm, all our food is made on the premises, scones and pastries baked daily, nothing is bought in...we do a roaring trade between 9-2, then it tails off but we're still open til 5

A golden business opportunity clearly awaits some of you. Open your tea rooms from e.g. 12 - 7pm and your grateful customers should be queuing up.

Had the Indian and Chinese already been open all day?