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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To think this café owner is a CF...

180 replies

ooohthepriceofbutter · 15/07/2018 14:25

...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.

OP posts:
SuburbanRhonda · 15/07/2018 14:45

Quite a drip-feed there, OP Hmm

Hippopotas · 15/07/2018 14:47

I’m confused. You paid the price then decided it was too much and asked for your money back?

If that is the case YABU

TornFromTheInside · 15/07/2018 14:48

500ml is small. Just because you can find smaller, doesn't make it less so. When the standard range of volumes ranges from 330ml (a can) to 2000ml, 500 is at the small end. it's 1/4 of the 2000ml.

Original poster
ooohthepriceofbutter · 15/07/2018 14:50

A naice young chap served me. He said it was no problem to buy it to take away when I asked. When I asked how much it was, handing over a fiver at the same time, he mumbled the price with his head down. I couldn't quite hear it, so asked again. He repeated it, and pushed his pad over so I could see he'd written '2 waters £4' on it. I got the idea he was feeling slightly awkward about the price. We were at this point, with my fiver in his hand, when the owner turned up by chance, putting something on the counter. It wasn't any trouble to hand me my fiver back. It was still in the server's hand. Nothing had been rung up on a till.

OP posts:
Amanduh · 15/07/2018 14:51

No. I can buy 2 litres of diet coke for £1.50 in most supermarkets. In a cafe, restaurant etc its a couple of quid for a pint. Relative.

Amanduh · 15/07/2018 14:51

(So yes yabu)

DailyMailReadersAreThick · 15/07/2018 14:53

Quite a drip-feed there, OP hmm

How on earth is it relevant why she was buying water? Ridiculous comment.

Haffdonga · 15/07/2018 14:54

YABU.

You don't pay the same price for a drink in a cafe as a in supermarket. The mark up is how restaurant businesses survive.

(You wouldn't expect to buy a can of coke or a cup of coffee in a cafe for the same price as you would buy a multipack of cans or jar of Nescafe in Aldi, would you?)

Original poster
ooohthepriceofbutter · 15/07/2018 14:55

drip-feed

Hopefully pun intended Grin

OP posts:
9amTrain · 15/07/2018 14:56

YANBU. £2 for a bottle of water. Christ.

TornFromTheInside · 15/07/2018 14:58

The costs of running a cafe are high. They aren't supermarkets.
They can't afford to buy in and sell with minimal margin, they have to recover their costs.

Restaurants are on the biggest forms of failing businesses.

If you start over analysing what you're paying, you'll drive yourself insane. I just had a salmon salad for 6.00 and was probably about 1.00 worth of ingredients at the most, but there were 5 staff, the cost of renting the building, the air con, the materials to clean the tables, the lighting, the electricity etc etc. I probably sat at the table for an hour, so they made 4.00 per hour out of me (oops no, I had some drinks too, so they made 6.00 per hour from me. There were about 10 tables, so 60.00 per hour / 5 staff = 12.00 per hour each on average.

Sometimes they'll make more, but then there will times when there are empty tables too.

fleuriepeninsula · 15/07/2018 14:58

I don’t understand. You’re dashing to A&E yet have time to decline the expensive water and shop around for better pricing?

In any event no, the cafe owner can charge whatever he likes for water.

MadMags · 15/07/2018 14:59

YANBU for wanting your money back if you deemed it too expensive.

He's not BU for charging whatever he wishes for products in his cafe. he was absolutely BU for being rude to you for wanting your money back. What a fuss over nothing!

And posters here and being, frankly, batshit for being so vociferous in their defence of a random cafe owner! Hilarious!

TornFromTheInside · 15/07/2018 15:03

And posters here and being, frankly, batshit for being so vociferous in their defence of a random cafe owner! Hilarious!

They aren't defending a random cafe owner, they are defending the need for business owners to make a profit.
Asking for 'money back' is not the same as 'choosing not to buy'.

I understand how Tesco work, and use them when it suits my needs.
I also understand how a cafe works, and use them as it suits me.
I don't expect to sit down and eat my food in Tesco at no extra cost, and likewise I don't expect to purchase food in a restaurant without extra cost.

The two experiences are entirely different, and you pay for those two experiences. People are defending that.

AirForce0ne · 15/07/2018 15:04

YABU

It's too expensive for you, you don't buy it, but how dare you complaining about his prices? His cafe, he charges what he wants. He was rude, but you are being ridiculous to complain about him.

Original poster
ooohthepriceofbutter · 15/07/2018 15:04

Prices go up and down in supermarkets and shops, depending on what's on special offer. I assumed the 6 pack was on promotion, but the lovely lady said not. She said (apologetically!) she'd just had to put the single fridge bottles up from 50p.

OP posts:
Shumpalumpa · 15/07/2018 15:04

500ml is not small, it's medium. 250ml is the norm.

OP, i would have taken my money back too.

However, experience has taught to ask and be clear on the price for everything

Much easier than taking your money back afterwards.

TornFromTheInside · 15/07/2018 15:07

www.drinkmorecustomwater.com/bottle-gallery/

These guys sell the actual plastic water bottles. 500ml is by far the biggest seller. Why? because that is the highest selling size of water bottle on the shelves.

LavendarGreen · 15/07/2018 15:08

Who gives a shit if the OP bought a PLASTIC BOTTLE? Hmm

It's all recycled anyway, and most people - including me (and the OP probably) will put it in the recycling.

YANBU OP. £2 for a 500ml bottle of water is a rip off. Then again, everyone is out to make a profit, and nobody asked you to buy it.

Mummyoflittledragon · 15/07/2018 15:10

It’s a cafe. Cafes are full of tables and chairs for people to sit at and only have consumables for sale. Corner shops and supermarkets are full of merchandise and consumables. How can you not understand this is the normal price in a cafe?

Gemini69 · 15/07/2018 15:10

he's ripping the piss ... yes he is a Cunt face ... Flowers

BulletWithABun · 15/07/2018 15:12

500ml is not small, it's medium. 250ml is the norm

Norm where? It's not the norm in the UK. I would struggle to find a 250ml bottle anywhere in the town where I live in the UK.

Gemini69 · 15/07/2018 15:12

Then again, everyone is out to make a profit, and nobody asked you to buy it

She DIDN'T buy it.. she rightly asked for her money back....

Original poster
ooohthepriceofbutter · 15/07/2018 15:13

I did tell the shop owner about the café owner. She laughed, and said she'd 'heard a tale or two and quite a few grumbles about up there over the years'.

Her attitude was very much she wants and needs to make a profit and a living, but also wants to provide a service and not rip people off, especially for water in a heatwave. She said she's happy with the profit margin on the water at 60p and it covers the refrigeration costs ok.

OP posts:
MadMags · 15/07/2018 15:13

Asking for 'money back' is not the same as 'choosing not to buy'.

In this case it is, because it wasn't put through the till.

Seriously, are you all cafe owners or something? Why the overly-aggressive/overly-invested responses??

He was rude. Regardless of whether it's ok to charge that much or not, she didn't want the product, and he had a go at her about it. That. Is. Rude. Confused