to think cafe's should stay open for tea?

[OwlLady]

surely they are missing a trick?

they all seem to close at about 4pm and I quite often think it would be nice to take the children to a cafe for tea

and yes, I live on the outskirts of a market town where everything seems to close too bloody early anyway

Ack, "there being" not "their", of course.

live in a city so everything open till late. Surely there are places like Costa just about everywhere? Isn't it weird how many cafes there are now? What did we do without them. p.s. we have a new Krispy Kreme place open till 10 every night too.

Ds1 works in a cafe and they close at 2.30 for two reasons. To pick up their dd from school and to prep in the restaurant they also own where they get their main business.

OP you need to move to Albert Square :) the café is always open

Brian If I'm honest I'm not actually sure what a market town is I thought they were like small cities like Oxford.

Are they a country thing? I only based what I said on going to a Wagamama the other week in Oxford (which I considered venturing to the country).

Am surprised you don't have Costa/Starbucks though, I was under the impression they had invaded everywhere, I can't spit without hitting one where I live.

Oh you urban folk! I live in a village. Population about 2000. We have a transport cafe (haulage yard on edge of village). Various farm shops with cafes in surrounding villages. No Costa, Starbucks etc! We only got a Track Express last year.

Track = Tesco

Market town = rural town, population 10,000 (the one I work in), main road shuts one day a week for the market, about four surnames, everyone knows everyone else, nearest McDonald's or cinema is 15 miles away, nearest Starbucks 30 miles away. Am sure an application to open a chain would be regarded with the deepest suspicion, especially one that sells noodles.

I worked in a cafe that opened at 7am for breakfasts. This meant leaving home at 6am. Then when we closed at 4pm it took about an hour to finish off cleaning the coffee machines, fridges etc so rarely left before 5pm - a long day!

A chain cafe will normally be open long hours all day as it is paying staff to run it. Individual family run businesses can't normally do this as they have to be there themselves when open as can't afford to pay staff to keep it open when they are not there. So difficult to compete, which is why so many are closing down

there are 6000 in my market town and we have bunting up and everything

we don't have anything commercial at all apart from a supermarket

it's all very country living magazine tbh. They even hand rabbits and pheasants freshly shot, outside the butchers

hang, not hand!

can i just say i am not having a go at cafe owners, i am just sad I can't use them early evening when i have the desire to :)

this is why i live in the city

Its a real downer if you've been for a long walk and want a nice teashop at the end - the sort which abound in walking areas - to find its closed. Nowadays I suppose the pub will be open but I need a pot or mug of tea after a walk. And possibly a cake.

It's impossible to keep these places going though, supermarkets have killed off a lot of custom with multi buy offers and big packets of sweets and crisps for a pound.

Plus utility bills and stock are eyewatering at the minute. Then wages. Then insurance. Then tax.

Same here, market town, we have Costa and Nero but those only have a very limited food selection of horrible prepacked stuff which they've probably run out of by then anyway. Our only food chain is Subway which is vile. The sports centre cafe stays open till about 7 but is 20 mins walk from town centre. We do have good independent cafes but all close by about 4.30.

We have an cafe/ice cream palour that's open until 11pm everyday. They make absolutely delectable ice cream waffles after 6pm. A waffle, with your favourite ice cream on top with cream and a sprinkle of almonds and caramel sauce. Sometimes we go there after dinner on the weekend for a coffee or ice cream.

If you ever come to my city, this is one place you HAVE to visit.

A family member owns a cafe. They are up and in work at stupid o'clock every morning to start the baking, then open fairly early for breakfast. Once they have closed at around 4.30 they are around for an hour or so more clearing up and cleaning, so they work a 12-hour-plus day most of the time. Staff are a huge overhead so they do as much of the work as possible themselves (also, where they are I doubt there'd be that much trade after 4.30 so the few people who did come in would have to eat a LOT of cake to justify the additional staff costs).

It was SAUSAGES and chips in The Tiger who came to tea (and ice cream)!

dont cafes open early though? i remember getting fry ups on the way back from nights out, so before 6 am, and there would always be taxi drivers and stuff in them.

YANBU. Afternoon tea and cake is a fantastic English tradition and that's exactly when cafes should be open!

dont cafes open early though?
It depends what sort of cafe. The teashop-country-walk sort I think typically opens 10 or 10:30 for coffee.

We had a cafe in our city which was "closed for lunch" on a daily basis. At lunchtime. I don't know if it opened in the evenings. It appears to have gone out of business..

How I feel for the smaller traders in competition with Starbucks, Subway, McDonald's, Burger King, Costa somethng and the others. They should just not be allowed to trade in this country,. Let's get back to being Great Britain. Yes, I've had a wine but that's when our true feelings come out.