£3.20 for a bowl of cereal - is there anything left out there that hasn't been wankified?

[Neverbuyheliumbalonz]

So the new cereal cafe has opened in East London, with a bowl of cereal going for £3.20. Apparently there are over a hundred types of cereal and 30 different types of milk.

On the opening day the owner got a bit of stick from a channel 4 reporter who questioned whether they should be selling cereal at £3.20 a bowl, considering they were in one of Londons poorest boroughs
www.channel4.com/news/cereal-cafe-opens-in-london-but-can-it-survive

Now I actually thought that that reporter was quite unfair because there are tonnes of places in that area selling overpriced shit that are 'not accessible to the poor' so I don't think these guys are doing anything different to anyone else in that respect. However the owner handled it terribly, especially when he said 'this isnt one of Londons poorest boroughs is it?' and when asked why the cereal was so expensive he said 'its imported from America' as if that justified it? He just epitomised the 'out of touch hipster'.

But AIBU to think that £3.20 for one bowl of cereal is just a hilarious rip off, regardless of whether you can afford it or not? Yes I know, people who go there are total mugs can spend their money how they choose and its 'an experience' or whatever.

But it's.........breakfast cereal

Plus they keep using the word 'source' when talking about the cereals (if we can source it, we will sell it) which automatically puts them into wankdom anyway.

I guess time will tell on this one...

If I was spending that on sugary shit, I'd prefer to get something that had been an effort for someone/something I couldn't easily do at home in a few minutes. So, cake, yes; cereal, no thanks.

It does seem wanky for the area. £3.20 is a lot of money to some people, I wonder how many residents of Tower Hamlets are regularly using foof banks?

I think the point is that there are plenty of outlets in that area selling overpriced pretentious stuff, so this is no different in that respect. I think in these areas you have the trendy types, who have usually moved into the area from a middle class background in Surrey, Buckinghamshire or Australia, and have the money to spend (often partially helped by their parents) on this sort of thing. And then you have the poor people who have lived there all their lives, and the immigrants, who have to buy boring working class cereal from the supermarket and eat it with plain milk.

And never the twain shall meet.

But these guys are no different to many other places round there.

The cafe looks fun, I wish them luck. It looks like the result of a bet to me somehow!

I bet I can open a cafe that only serves cereal.....

Especially since they are brothers!!

Sure they're not the only ones, but it's the lack of awareness that is really off-putting

If he had said instead something like: yes, unfortunately there's a lot of deprivation in Tower Hamlets... we think our prices are in line with cafes in this specific area though...

Then okay, fine. But to be all duhhh Tower Hamlets is poor? Yeesh. Really insensitive.

I didn't click on the link, so possibly missing something, but I just can't see the attraction with this.

I don't think the price is that bad, we pay about that much in supermarkets for soggy prepacked sandwiches. But if I'm eating out for breakfast, I'd choose something different/ something that requires alot more effort than a bowl of cereal.

I love cereal, but really, it takes a few seconds
and no skill to prepare at home, so I wouldn't waste a meal out on it.

I agree dreaming. I think the fact that he hadn't forseen that line of questioning given the area, nor did he seem to be in anyway aware that there was poverty nearby says a lot.

Although i do accept that he was put on the spot and was probably exhausted and busy, and that reporter was a bit of a wanker.

Why would anybody spend money eating cereal in a cafe? It takes about 3 seconds to prepare it at home You could say that about anything though, couldn't you?

Coffee etc...Nothing is really that hard to prepare at home, yet we all eat out at some point.

I don't think you can compare it with going out for an alcoholic drink. There are strict guidelines regarding where you can enjoy a glass of wine. Last time I checked it was ok to eat a box of Cheerios wherever you please You can compare it to drinking wine at home (which is what people are doing, re the cereal .. cheaper/easier/quicker at home etc)

I freely admit to having not rtft but I just wanted to say 'fucking stupid arsed hipsters'.

Thankyou.

On a side note- people want shit for borderline free these days.

It's like people who make handmade stuff- people want it for less or roundabout the same price as it cost to make, without taking in labour costs etc because that is what we are accustomed to, scrawny little profit margins due to mass manufacturing and stores that bully suppliers into giving the cheapest possible rate.

You could argue this case isn't that relevant to this point, but it does represent how people aren't arsed about service or anything other than £££ in their back pocket. How can small businesses thrive when all we want is more more more for less less less?

Yeah I agree with you as well yourkid, when I think about it, its not actually the price that riles me so much as just the whole pretentiousness of it, it's just cereal.

That place will be packed full of people congratulating themselves on being oh so quirky for eating in there, and posting pictures of their honey-nut-choco-crispies 'creation' lovingly crafted by the 'cereal mixologist', on their Instagram with #cerealkillercafe #bestplaceever #backtothe90s #everyonehastocomehereitstotesamazeballs

Shit, I have turned into my MIL.

I don't get the attraction but I'm neither hipster nor tourist.

Now, the cat cafe on the other hand...

The owner has written an open letter to Channel 4 on their Facebook page, pointing out that as a small business owner trying to get a new cafe up and running with over-priced rent on a Brick Lane property and employing twelve people to staff it, they have to put some mark-up on their product.

Also apparently the reporter kept badgering him for an interview despite him refusing several times because they were too busy, and then didn't even pay for their cereal!

There's an article on the Time Out London blog with some of the "cereal cocktails". I'm not afraid of mixing the last few Cheerios with the newly opened box of Rice Krispies, but this sort of thing is news to me. The Chocopotomus is Coco Pops and Krave served with chocolate milk and a Kinder Happy Hippo. That sounds rather ridiculously tasty. Probably couldn't cope with it first thing in the morning, but after a couple of drinks on a night out...

its not actually the price that riles me so much as just the whole pretentiousness of it, it's just cereal.

I wonder if people said that about coffee shops when they first opened..."it's just coffee" why do we need to spend $6 on it when it costs less than a $1 at home

If you're IN America though, your cereal will be cheap. Do you realise how much your cereal costs in the UK for a box?
We had an American food shop near us until recently. A box of cereal was approximately £6. Bog standard size, not a huge one by any stretch of the imagination.

I just don't see the point of importing our food tbh, unless it's something like Webers Mustard or Dinosauce. I guess I could understand homesick Americans wanting familiar foods, but in and of itself our stuff that you can import is nothing great.

I looked at American food shops in UK to see what they sell as American imports. The only things worth buying are the Aunt Jamima pancakes and syrup. Actually, to be honest, I don't know how you guys have managed to survive without box pancakes.

And A1 sauce.

Everything else is crap. In my opinion. But that's probably why the American food place shut down.

I don't see why people are freaked out over the price. To sit down and have a dish of something in a cafe costs money. Not only is a lot of this cereal imported from America, the cafe also needs to get paid for providing a place to eat it and staff to serve it.

If I lived near there, I might visit just to have a bowl of Apple Jacks, which I haven't had in years. I've looked at the prices of these cereals on importing websites like American Candy and they are very expensive.

That said, if you weren't raised on the sugary stuff I am not sure you'd enjoy it. And one bowl of cereal will not fill you up.

We survive without box pancakes cos we can make them from scratch - though I suspect that is a dying art, given the ever growing range of box cake mixes.

We had an American shop, but I think the things people thought they wanted turned out to be too sweet, weird, or just too expensive.

But I'd definitely give a cereal cafe a try... why not?

As a fellow American, I agree Bulbasaur -- it's embarrassing when you go to our supermarket and their World Foods aisle... the French section has lovely pates and fleur de sel, the Italian has roasted peppers and gorgeous cheeses, the Asian sections are all spices and noodles, and then the American section is like marshmallow fluff, velveeta and cheese whiz.

I do miss A1 sauce though, brown sauce is not the same!

I don't get the fuss over the cereals though, it's the same stuff everywhere.

er - it's a cafe? Overheads? Rent, staff, setup costs? If you worked it out a glass of tap water would probably have to be sold for £2.50. At least it's a small business and the money isn't going to Costa Coffee/Macdonalds.

Sooo Mum, Dad and 2 DC will be < frantically doing mental arithmetic > £12.80 for four bowls of cereal. Hahaha... as if anyone with half a brain would go there as a family! And I'm sure everyone will want a cuppa or whatever - could be £20 for 4 bowls of cereal and a drink!

I saw it on telly and did think it was just novelty value and won't last. Wait till a rainy cold blustery February afternoon and the place will be empty!

My kids are planning a trip there.
The beards make me titter.....standard hipster look in Shoreditch

I thought the way he reacted was ridiculous. All he had to do was point out that he was based in an area which is full of restaurants (mostly run by the local Bangladeshi community) and that he was provided employment and bringing in a lot of publicity and business to the area which would benefit the community as a whole.

I think he should have also pointed out that he was running somewhere which was fairly reasonably priced as a 'treat' destination. And that as a non-alcohol environment it was somewhere that the entire local community could use. People around there might be poor, but I don't think that he has proved himself so extremely that it would exclude local people who want to spend a few extra quid for a child's birthday treat.

The only thing that did trouble me a bit was his staff all appeared to be young white hipsters. When you're living in an area with such high Bangladeshi youth unemployment, not to be employing at least a few members of that community might appear to be less an accident, more a design.

Anyway, my husband had a business which failed in that local area and it's a hard place to succeed. I wish them well.

I don't get the attraction but I'm neither hipster nor tourist. Now, the cat cafe on the other hand..

See, that's what it comes down to doesn't it? Personal taste.If you don't like, you don't go. Simple as that really.
I think it sounds brilliant and would love to visit if I was nearer. I love anything retro and I'd love the nostalgia aspect of it.
The cat cafe on the other hand sounds like my idea of hell. I can't stand cats, and having them roaming around when you're eating your food sounds totally unhygienic for a food establishment.
Mmm. food and furballs

Yes, well said, aermingers

There won't be furballs of course, but that's what it'd be like in my head