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.

But you handed the water back, got your money back, and went next door to the shop. So. What’s the issue?

I can't see how you were rude. They told you the price after you'd handed over he money but you weren't prepared to pay out an politely asked for your fiver back. No inconvenience to them at all. Don't know why people are having a pop at you OP.

He can charge what he wishes, OP. If you wanted to pay less, buy water from a retailer that has lower prices. YABU.

This is so weird, what cafe have you ever been to which has charged less for takeaway than eat in?

This is so weird, what cafe have you ever been to which has charged less for takeaway than eat in?

All of 'em!

I think you mean the other way around ;-)

@Gemini69 CF means Cheeky Fucker

not on my Post it doesn't

Well, this is a first for me, having trouble and getting posts deleted on AIBU....

Just been lucky so far, I guess. Or is that unlucky?!

Posts deleted?
Thought everybody was generally getting on ok - disagreement, yes, but nothing untoward!

Maybe it's the language?

Or MN pouring cold (bottled) water on us! ;-)

Just to say thanks to (almost!) everyone who has responded. Whether you agreed with me or not, it's been interesting, informative and entertaining to read all the different points of view.

This is so weird, what cafe have you ever been to which has charged less for takeaway than eat in?

It used to be very common, less so now.
I believe the cafe has to pay tax on eat in food but not takeaway.

I've seen places charge more to eat in. Greggs for example.

Yet you leave Lavendar's goady post up?

What did Lavendar say that was goady?
Also, why demand that someone has a post deleted for using a term you feel is misogynistic, bitching, but you are happy to keep the word cunt in? Personally I find neither offensive but I find it odd that you pick up on bitch but not cunt.

Was in Greggs the other day and had precisely this conversation with a friend...
If you go in Greggs and eat in, you pay extra on ALL items you buy. So, if you buy a coffee (say 1.50) and pay to drink it at a table, then it's (say) 1.70.

If you buy a coffee and a sandwich and maybe a cold drink, then you might end up paying 1.00 extra instead of 20p. So ironically, the more you buy from them, the more you pay!
I can see why it happens, but it can also feel like a real anomaly to be sat at the same table, for the same length of time, and been charged more because you bought more (better customer).

Glad it's not only me. I have seen take-away and higher eat in prices too.

I think if the DCs and I had been sitting at a table, looking at the view, drinking our water from iced glasses, and after some pleasant small talk with a server or the owner, the £2 each wouldn't have seemed bad at all.

He can charge whatever you like and you can refuse to pay whatever he likes. Yanbu to ask for your money back and it's not rude to do so. He needs to chillax

Torn it's probably VAT you are paying. So if you spend £5, £1.00 of that will be VAT. If you spend £10, £2,00 of that will be VAT..

9am again, it's VAT. Cafes are charged VAT for customers to sit in and eat whereas they aren't for customers taking it away.

The price for drinks in general are extortionate. Sometimes the drinks cost not much less than the ruddy food! I know they have to make a profit but their making a profit then there's just ripping people off.

Ironically if they sold the water cheaper more people would buy it and they would end up making more money..

Most food to take home are zero rated, but cooked (including takeaways) incur VAT.

It's a bit more complex than that, as food that is still hot but in the process of 'cooling down' before eating is considered different that a food that it hot, and kept warm ready to be eaten hot.

No wonder we've no idea what the hell Greggs will charge!

Simon, the c word wasn't being directed at me or any other person on the thread, the b word was being directed at me and in a nasty way.

I was talking about my second deletion, which seemed at odds with a pp's being left up.

My first deletion I accepted and apologised for, as it contained one word MNHQ objected to even in jest: sock-puppetry. MNHQ took the decision to delete the 2 pps I was responding to.

Without the deleted posts now to refer to, it's difficult for anyone including me to comment fully and see it all in context. Just to make it clear, I didn't ask for any deletions. I wasn't abusive. I was perfectly content to let the discussion move on. Someone else reported me, and it went from there. Silly really.

Pipedown, yes I know what it is, but the effect is strange. Buy a coffee and sit at a table, and pay 30p for that, but buy coffee and a sandwich and pay even more for the same privilege (despite having been the better customer).

The cheat is to buy the sandwich to go, then buy the coffee to eat in, and eat in! (bit naughty, but still...)

£2 is a rip off for bottled water, but that's a typical cafe price, and PPs have provided examples of chains that charge even more. I don't know why you expected it to be much less, that's the usual price.

Like a PP, I generally stick to alcohol where possible as it costs about the same as water/soft drinks so feels like much better value.

Barbara, I could have done with something stronger after a trip to A&E, but I was driving, looking after the DCs, one patched up after a nasty sports injury, and they were thirsty too - ordering double G&Ts all round seemed out of the question, silly I know. But with the benefit of hindsight...

YANBU, and his name-calling was particularly uncalled for. Review on Trip Advisor.

I think MNHQ are in need of a few G&Ts certainly today....trigger happy on the one hand, asleep under a sombrero on the other.