Sainsbury's cafe

[SpoonBender]

Was out shopping today with DD at our local Sainsbury's when decided we would have some lunch in the cafe. I ordered my DD who is only 11months old some toast to munch on. The lady rudely told me that breakfast had stopped at 11.30 and as it was now 1pm they couldn't do toast. I calmly explained that it was for my dd. She point blank refused, and when I ask why she said it was company policy. I was fuming that they couldn't put some toast in...it wasn't like I was asking for a bacon cob!!! We left and went to morrisons where they happily provided DD with some toast. Would it be ok to ring and complain. Still mad now!

I'm on the fence.

In OP's position I wouldn't have bothered asking and would have just ordered something else, like a toastie or a tea cake or something.

If I was the woman serving and someone asked I would have just bunged some in.

Just to clarify: bad customer service would have been ifSainsburys had told the OP to fuck off, or that they didn't feel like serving her, or that she had to go into the kitchen and make her own toast (for example).

Telling her that they're not serving toast because they've stopped serving toast is just....the truth.

Pearl-clutchers/DM readers/staunch defenders of the right to toast: are you horrified because Sainsburys has had the bare-faced cheek to set its own parameters in its own cafe, on its own site, or is there another reason?

Morrison's is the best supermarket cafe. I was gutted when they opened a Morrison's just down the road from my house sans cafe (I could have fed the kids for free every night!).

The Sainsburys near us has a dirty cafe with exceptionally slow service, I am not a fan.

OP, you are U to go to Sainsburys instead of Morrison's.

I accompanied my father to his favourite Sainsbury's once (he has different branches for his different moods) - we decided to partake of tea halfway through the shopping. There was a corral where you could berth your trolley while you supped.

Imagine our distress when we returned to reclaim our shopping to find that some bastard had made off with our trolley. Who in their right mind would make off with a pensioner's selection of UHT milk (just in case of the apocalypse), Finger Marie biscuits and Vim?

We had to start all over again - groundhog Sainsbury's. Surreal day.

Oh thats a rotten thing to happen,your poor father

It hadn't been paid for at that point sm - so it wasn't too bad.

It was just the deja vu of re-stacking the milk cartons as we went round again.

I hear that Morrisons has lockable stables for their customers' trolleys, the posh feckers.

Morrison its a refundable pound coin,and you park it in an individual shed thingy

I will prod my father towards the northern supermarket chain with its superior trolley booths and misty veg.

He won't like it, but at least his haul will be safe.

I was on the other toast thread! I lost days of my life on there!

And I am Pro Toast!

Yeah, if you go in the cafe there are little stables outside. I use them annoyingly often when I've just got the trolley inside and the toddler announces he wants a poo. People respect trolleys with stuff in; an empty trolley they will take, for the sake of the pound coin in it.

Haha hoping your DC doesn't grow up with the same sense of entitlement OP!

Fatal - could one lock an annoying toddler in the stable with the trolley for a peaceful cup of tea?

disclaimer: I don't have any toddlers but I might be looking after one.

That's a bloody good idea.

Alas no. They aren't tall enough to have them strapped into the seat, and there's a gap at the bottom (like toilet cubicles) where they'd get out if you just boxed them in standing.

I fucking love Sainsburys cafe, as does everyone in my locality wth a child, seemingly. It is a new Sainsburys, and we are all all over it, toast or no toast. Their baby changing room is particularly fine - you can lock the entire (massive) suite, and there is a lockable toilet cubicle within it. Luxury!

Why would they want to sell you something with presumably little mark-up at peak busy time? That's presumably why they don't sell toast when they don't need to entice people in. They aren't a charity.

eggsaregoodforyou I remember very well being denied hot water to warm DS's milk when he was a baby, on 'elf n safety' grounds. Interesting how the staff struggled to define the difference between v hit water served Ina tea cup and v hot water in a jug!!!

Sadly this is indeed the laws of "health and safety gone mad" and cafs etc. in the UK cannot give hot water to warm baby food or milk or do it in their microwaves as a mother burned her child on milk warmed in a Little Chef or Happy Eater (gave the milk to the child without testing it! Horrible story) and took them to court in a landmark case on the 1990s setting a legal precedent. Savvy parents do what the old people smuggling their own teabags do and order a pot of hot water

Yes yabu.

Happy was that who made warming baby food in microwaves banned? Amount of people i had to explain to when i worked in a cafe that we didn't have normal microwaves and why we couldnt take the risk of heating baby food up, heat spots, your child may be burned,etc

Maybe staff coukd have put it in the panini heater however if there were other orders she could have been waiting a while.

Even if there are toasties on the menu, these are most likely already made and sent to the store just to be heated in the oven or grill.

Hello Kali, yes, I would think that would be the reason.

Technically, YABU and I wouldn't complain. But, I think I would have just used my discretion to keep your little one happy and rustled up a slice of toast at breakfast prices... I can understand they don't want adults coming in ordering cheap rounds of toast at lunchtime and they want to push the more lucrative meals but for a child I think I would have made the exception...especially if the child won't eat a meal (more wasteful to push a meal on to a child who may only be able to manage a round of toast).

I run a cafe. I would toast some breas for a baby at whatever time of day I was asked. It's not a hardship is it? I have bread. I have a toaster. Or even if that is being dismantled and washed (?!?) I have a grill.

Bloody hell, the milk of human kindness really does run dry on here sometimes doesn't it?!

Bread! I wouldn't go as far as to toast breas as that sounds a bit like breast and that WOULD be unreasonable

LadyBumps, if you're the sort of person who gets really upset at not being able to get a breakfast item at 1pm because your darling child wants it, you're generally also the sort of person who would complain at any bits of grilled bread sent your way for not being "PROPER toast, do you expect my poor child to eat that?" Although I think this thread's a wind-up anyway :)

I'm also puzzled at the toast policy hate. Could just be because I am a hopeless bureaucrat, but policies about things are actually useful, even policies about toast. It makes the difference between "Sorry, we only serve that before 11.30 as that's when we dismantle the grill" and "Come here askin' for toast at 1pm, you some kind of fuckin' mentalist or something? Who eats toast at 1pm, that's just fucked" Policies mean things are happening for a reason, not the whim of whoever you're dealing with at the time.

Hmm. I wonder if it's down to the type of toaster they use? Most likely in a large café they don't have a poxy 4 slice sitting on the side like you would at home ready for use 24/7. I'm guessing perhaps they use a catering toaster that pulls the bread through on a conveyor belt thing and spits it out the other end as toast 15 seconds later. Those machines are big and bulky and need to warm up iir correctly. It wouldn't be worth the time and effort required to take it out, set it up and get it going just for 2 pieces of toast.

Meh I'm with you op, don't think it would have hurt to stick some toast in quickly. This is what I don't understand, yes it's their cafe their rules but isn't it just nice to help out?