To think this café owner is a CF...

[ooohthepriceofbutter]

...to charge £4 for 2 small bottles of water to take away?

Not a swanky brand, think plain Highland Spring in 500ml plastic bottles, and screw caps, not even sports caps. Water had been in the fridge, but it was to take away so he didn't even open the bottles, let alone provide use of glasses, ice, a table and chairs, loo etc. It's just an ordinary café, not a Michelin star restaurant.

When I politely and quietly declined it and asked for my money back, he loudly called me 'very rude' in front of other customers.

Five minutes down the road, I was able to buy exactly the same for 60p. This was out of the fridge too, in a little rural village shop, where perhaps you'd expect to pay a few pence more to help keep it going.

I wasn't rude, but was the café owner otherwise right in his pricing? AIBU to think this is CF-ery? Profiteering against walkers and tourists in this scorching hot weather?

NC as this is local to me.

Maybe he is fed up with people buying water to take away and was making no money out of it?

What is unreasonable to me is that people still buy water in plastic bottles. Just take a reusable bottle, most cafes will fill it up for you. It is a change of habit but like everything once you get used to taking your own bottle with you it will become second nature. I even have a small pencil case with a spare fork, spoon etc in case I need it.
I don't care what they charge for the water, it is the constant plastic pollution that really worries me.

No one shoved your arm up your back and propelled you into the café and forced you to purchase his goods.

60 p in a rural shop? you wuz robbed I can get 12 for £1.87 in Lidl. See the price differential? Everyone exists to make a profit.

Are you seriously surprised that a drink costs more from a cafe than from the corner shop?

price paid is a contract between the buyer and seller. He was perfectly within his rights to charge that. You were perfectly within your rights to refuse. He was rude though

£2 for a small bottle of water??? CF.

He can charge what he likes but he was unreasonable to be rude to you when you decided you didn't want them.

Five minutes down the road, I was able to buy exactly the same for 60p.

You paid 30p a bottle?

I would expect to pay the same price for takeaway and eat in. You do at starbucks for bottled water.

He has to factor the cost of full service provision into everything he sells as he doesn't know whether people are going to buy a bottle of water to take out or buy it, sit at a table for however long, expect a glass to decant to and so on.

£2 for a small bottle of water??? CF.

500ml is not a small bottle.

Can you buy any smaller than 500ml? Looks small to me.

The shop also had a pack of 6 of the same Highland Spring, but not in the fridge, for £1.

YABU. Cafe's and restaurants make most of their money from drinks and he probably didn't set himself up as a newsagent so the price includes service, taking up a table and chair, washing up a cup etc. OK since you wanted to take it out you didn't need any of those things but in that case you could have gone to a newsagent rather than a cafe.

500ml is small! It's the smallest size most shops sell.

I have seen 250ml, but rarely available.

YABU. Presumably his prices are set based on people staying in, which is what people would normally do in a cafe.

Water had been in the fridge, but it was to take away so he didn't even open the bottles, let alone provide use of glasses, ice, a table and chairs, loo etc.

Well no but as the owner of a cafe as opposed to a corner shop or newsagent he did have to incorporate provision of those things into his pricing strategy of course you wouldn't 'expect to pay a few pence more' for a drink in a shop than a cafe. Corner shops sell Blossom Hill but presumably you don't expect a bottle of wine to be cheaper in the pub next door.

The price in a cafe is the price to have it there. The fact you wanted to take it away isn't relevant.

You will pay more for a glass of coke in a pub than for a big bottle in the supermarket. Same with pretty much any drink.

500ml is small.
750ml is medium
1500ml is large

Yes there are even smaller and even larger bottles, but this is the norm.

Did you not think it was expensive until AFTER you paid?

Tbh, I'd be a bit annoyed at having to do a refund when you were happy to pay in the first place. I'd love to hear the cafe workers version of events.

OP - I politely asked for my money back and cafe worker was rude in front of all the customers.
Cafe worker - customer was rude about the price in front of all my customers but I politely gave her a refund.

Fully paid up member of the recycling and refillable bottle brigade, and from long before it became common place and fashionable.

On this occasion, it was a dash to A&E with the DCs, which led to the refillable bottles being left at home. I get the idea he won't be signing up to the free refills scheme.

Five minutes down the road, I was able to buy exactly the same for 60p.. Go there and buy it then.

You can buy a bottle of wine for £8 in the supermarket but pay £15 in a pub. Why are you surprised by this? This is like when a paper ran a story about how restaurants are a rip off because you can buy the ingredients in a supermarket for less.

And this is the size of the bottled water I buy. Which I get because it is in a glass bottle.

So 500ml isn’t ‘small’

500ml is average and how can you not know the price before you paid? They aren’t exactly cheap for him and he needs to make a good profit somewhere

The shop also had a pack of 6 of the same Highland Spring, but not in the fridge, for £1.

Cheaper than tesco then