To think £3.50 for a Caramel Slice is extortionate, even for Soft Play?!

[MotherofaSurvivor]

Currently at a new, rather 'trendy' children's play centre (can't really call it soft play as nothing is really that soft! All trendy wooden shelves to climb on instead of foam steps etc ).

Very odd but my little one likes it.

I'm really short on cash at mo but thought I could stretch to coming here, despite knowing it was half term. (My child isn't of school age).

Prices gone up from £4 to £6 for a 2yr old and (£5 per adult) because of Half Term........ Annoying but fair enough. They have a business to run.

Get to ordering a cuppa (can't come without getting a brew! That would be torture!!) - £3.50 Caramel Slice - £3.50..... I nearly fainted. Instead I ordered some hot Ribena @ £1.20 and a Unicorn shaped Shortbread @ £1.70 & made do. Was quite nice to be fair.

They've actually put the prices up of food & drink by at least 40% by my reckoning.

AIBU to think they're taking advantage of Mums desperate to run their kid's energy off but whom don't have the funds to pay what is probably a pittance for Boden-clad gang?

Before I get flamed, I totally get that they have overheads to pay and it's perfectly normal practise to increase the entry fee slightly during school holidays but £18 for my daughter to go down two slides, a quick go on a tethered indoor swing and....well that's it. A cuppa and a caramel slice for me (If I'd succumbed and paid the price they were asking) £18??

At the bakers you can get 4 caramel slices for a pound. I would just pay to let my child play and have a drink and snack at home.

I suspect that people will vote with their feet and not come back. I used to take my dcs to soft play a lot. There is absolutely no way I would pay £11 to take one child to soft play.

I’m also at the price for adult entry. So two parents taking a 2 year old would cost £16 alone!

I also agree that’s expensive for a caramel slice. I’m not sure where that ‘Cheap North’ poster is from if they consider that reasonable (Iceland?!?). In the Midlands I would expect to pay £2.50 for a large piece of cake. £1.50 for what you described.

I don't mind paying £3.50 for a caramel slice but I resent paying £3.50 for a cup of tea! That's my sweet tooth talking though!

I didn't know paying for adults is unusual. I take DD to a role play centre and have to pay for her and me. In fact the only reason I'm not having a bday party for her there is because I can't afford to pay for all the adults (grandparents etc) to come too!

£11 for you and a 2yr old? No way would I ever pay that

Why do you need cake? I know soft play is boring but that's the deal.

Eat lunch or breakfast before you go.

That actually seems like a fairly normal price for food/drinks at a ticketed venue. You would pay similar in any zoo/museum cafe.

I think everywhere you go is a rip off these days. Food, drink and entry fees etc... all seem overpriced.

I am not in the UK and I miss caramel slices... I would pay anything to have one right now (pregnant and craving elevenses...)

£7 for a cup of tea and small caramel slice seems excessive in that setting.

£2.50 is usually the ceiling for those kinds of things.

And now I'm googling caramel slice recipes...

They really are the best things.

I really want a caramel slice now. But not enough to pay £3.50 for one. I hope it was really good and home made with butter and good quality chocolate, not mass produced with crappy shortbread.

It is expensive. I don't mind cakes being small because most of the time the piece is too big and I start to feel sick before I've finished it, but even somewhere expensive like Costa, it's less than that. But the price has to be reasonable, or else a lot of people would do without. I would have thought £2-£2.50 was more than enough.

Unless they are in more money than sense ville, they might not survive unfortunately. Too expensive and not enough people will go. Or people will go but not buy things in the cafe. And they still have costs to cover.

£3.50 for a tea?!?

YANBU that's terrible. At least if you're charging adult entry (which is VVVU) then maybe say you get a free hot drink.

I hope it was really good and home made with butter and good quality chocolate, not mass produced with crappy shortbread.

Most caramel slices fall down when it comes to the shortbread. They use some powdery non-descript biscuit base rather than proper buttery shortbread

lemonshark
I live oop north too. I don’t know where you go but £3.50 for a caramel slice is OTT. It certainly isn’t an average price. A handmade vanilla slice from Betty’s tearooms to eat in is £4 and Betty’s is a top end place to go, so £3.50 for a caramel slice in a soft play is very overpriced!

I missed the £3.50 for tea. That's totally ridiculous. Did you get to keep the teapot? I bet it didn't even come in a teapot did it?

You don’t have to spend the extras if you don’t want to...?

Just have a cup of tea, let your dd play and go home

Alternatively go to the park for free and freeze

Snacks out just aren’t needed, I love a piece of cake now and then but you don’t have to have a piece

Adults should not pay for soft play.

And even the most expensive town up north I. E. Northallerton/Harrogate type places, I doubt it'd be over £3 for a bit of cake. Surely in Accrington or wherever it would be around a quid. Happy to be corrected of course.

That is a ridiculous price -I did go to a horse show (competing) last year where a local cake maker had set up to sell her cakes and biscuits. £5 for a SLICE of victoria sponge! Just bog standard sponge, nothing special like fresh strawberries. She didn't sell much! I do find that overpriced places like this have an expiry date. You just can't charge prices like that and stay in lucrative business for long, you still get one off/occasional customers, but no regulars. Happened to a soft play round here. Far too pricy and after one visit, people went back to the cheaper place round the corner or to the park with a picnic!

yorkshireyummymummy I dunno, prices seem to be higher in those places due to captive audience!

I'm in Yorkshire too, one of the cheapest parts. And wouldn't bat an eyelid at that price. I don't even buy them as I don't eat them but go out for coffee often and see the prices and £3.50 isn't cheap but it's not extortionate either!

They need to charge that price to cover the insurance premium because they have wooden stairs not soft play

I would sneak your own Carmel slice in next time. I take bottled water into my local soft play as I'm beggared if I'm paying £2.50 for a fruit shoot

£3.50 for a tea bag and some hot water? Bloody hell.

£7 for a cup of tea and small caramel slice seems excessive in that setting

Exactly. It's about the same as Betty's Tearooms which is a world famous vair naice cafe chain in Yorkshire, for those who haven't experienced the delights of Betty's before. And Betty lets you in for free.

Are you and this person opening a cafe and trying to get an idea of what prices are acceptable?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3166236-To-think-3-50-for-a-slice-of-cake-is-a-lot