That this does not constitute stealing?

[6079SmithW]

We recently enjoyed a self catering holiday. On the way we decided to break up the journey by stopping for breakfast at a well known chain pub/restaurant/hotel.
The menu was very complicated with only certain things being available to hotel guests rather than others.
My partner and I ordered a cooked breakfast, the DC just wanted something simple so I ordered them a bacon sandwich. I enquired about the small boxes of cereal on display as that was what the DC really wanted. I was told it was part of the hotel guests only breakfast and if DC wanted it it would br £6 each (£12). I ordered that too. My bill was over £30!
The hotel guests additional breakfast was basically the small boxes of cereals plus bread/crumpets to toast. The DC ate a box of cereal and one crumpet each.
Feeling aggrieved that I had spent over £30 on breakfast, and mindful that we were going on a self catering break, I decided to get my monies worth by taking with us a few additional individual portions of jam and Nutella (about 10-12) total. My partner accused me of stealing! WIBU?

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.

Oh and when supermarkets used to do free samples, she just wouldn't take one piece of cheese, she'd take a handful, then chase after me as I was walking of quickly, offering me some, OMG

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.

There you go. It’’s the fault of rip off Britain! It’s not that you are cheeky and entitled. No.

@OnTheBoardwalk

Surely the £6 each price was for a continental breakfast not just cereal and a crumpet? Did they also have juice and choice of other food?

Taking 10 to 12 packs is just grabby

As the Cooke breakfast was nine quid and I assume they had drinks then I strongly suspect it was six quid for the continental breakfast. So inc drinks. So not quite as portrayed.

I really hope the pp was joking and she didn’t see the op and the op wasn’t making her kids stuff their pockets, that’s just so so cringe.

Did you openly help yourself to the nutella and jam not caring whether anyone saw you ? Or did you have a quick look round check the coast was clear and shove a load into your bag?

Your answer will tell you whether you believe you were stealing.

Also - your kids had a bacon sandwich so they were going to starve, could you not have told them you would pick up a variety pack of cereal from a supermarket later for them ? If you choose to pay £12 so your kids can have a mini box of cereal when you could buy a whole selection for £1 then possibly you need to steal stuff to make up for your cockeyed spending.

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.

Not the excess from a buffet, surely? How would that not lead to people piling their lunches for the next three days on the table, knowing it'll be gift wrapped for them at the end?!

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.

Not anything left on the buffet table though!😂

I think you are cheap if you think £30 for 4 people to sit and eat a meal in a restaurant is so much of a rip off that you are compelled to steal not 1 or 2, but 10 additional portions of spread. Its a really bad example to set for your children.

When staying at an hotel with a buffet breakfast I always take extra for my lunch because I can eat way less than the average guest (medical reasons) and with the extra roll etc take less than the average healthy male guest eats for breakfast.
Hotels cost their buffets differently than they do individually tableserved meals.
Mind you, in COVID times I would avoid buffet meals like the plague

Well, that’s a new one. “I eat like a bird so I’m going to take extra for later. Only fair!”

Why didn't you tell DC they could have a variety pack from the supermarket?

You could have got a week's worth of jam and Nutella and a variety pack for the price of one buffet breakfast. They had a bacon sandwich so it's not like they're going to starve.

(about 10-12) total
That’s taking the piss.

So you paid £6 for a small box of cereal and then stole 10-12 portions of Jam and Nutella? Yes YABU. No question.

Even if you had paid for the buffet it’s crass to take that amount of sachets. A couple would have been alright.
And to justify it by complaining you’d been ‘overcharged’ because you bought something completely unnecessary?
A bad attitude and not a good example for the children.

I can’t help but think if hotels are marking up breakfasts to absorb the items that disappears in pockets, then there is no point in complaining about £6 for a tiny box of cereal.

Cause and effect.

@Iamthewombat

Well, that’s a new one. “I eat like a bird so I’m going to take extra for later. Only fair!”

By that logic most of us can take something for later seeing as we don't eat as much as the male guests!

I couldn't get worked up about this. It would bother me not only because of the sheer audacity of it, but the fact that I would be associated with it.

As a PP said, it’s mortifying to be with someone who is stuffing their bags and pockets with little packets of stuff which you know are never going to be used, but they take it as a matter of principle.

The same people no doubt who steal the little soaps etc from hotels.

Mind you there was a thread on here some years back from a poster who had stayed in a hotel where there was expensive branded soap, and a note that customers would be charged if they removed them. She took them anyway and then complained that they’d added the charge to her bill.

@AmyDudley

Did you openly help yourself to the nutella and jam not caring whether anyone saw you ? Or did you have a quick look round check the coast was clear and shove a load into your bag?

Your answer will tell you whether you believe you were stealing.

Also - your kids had a bacon sandwich so they were going to starve, could you not have told them you would pick up a variety pack of cereal from a supermarket later for them ? If you choose to pay £12 so your kids can have a mini box of cereal when you could buy a whole selection for £1 then possibly you need to steal stuff to make up for your cockeyed spending.

Well if the pp did see her, she was doing it openly, well she wasn’t, she was making her kids stuff their pockets, and eyeing up th yoghurt apparently.

Which would then make it it was six quid for the continental breasfast. Which in a premier inn includes drinks, all bakery like croissants and muffins etc, yoghurts, cereal, pancakes, yoghurts, granola etc.

@Cindie943811A

When staying at an hotel with a buffet breakfast I always take extra for my lunch because I can eat way less than the average guest (medical reasons) and with the extra roll etc take less than the average healthy male guest eats for breakfast. Hotels cost their buffets differently than they do individually tableserved meals. Mind you, in COVID times I would avoid buffet meals like the plague

I'm not much of a lunch eater so restaurants owe me a free meal later in the day to compensate.

1-2 fine
10-12 bit scummy

I’d say they were the thieves charging you £6 for a tiny box of Kellogg’s cereal

Surely the £6 was for the "kids breakfast"? OP said her bill was £30, so less £12 for the two DCs that works out as £9 for adults and £6 for kids, which sounds pretty usual

Technically I suppose it was stealing - and pretty spiteful to grab "about 12" (which probably means 20) - but I doubt the hotel will care much since it all goes on everyone's bills

I'm not much of a lunch eater so restaurants owe me a free meal later in the day to compensate

Hahahaha

1-2 fine
10-12 bit scummy
😂 could you let me know more about this invented sliding scale of conserve-related morality? What about 4-5, or 7-8?

OP won’t be back now, she’ll have assumed a new identity and gone on the run. I hope when they find her they lock her up and throw away the key

@burritofan

1-2 fine 10-12 bit scummy 😂 could you let me know more about this invented sliding scale of conserve-related morality? What about 4-5, or 7-8?

Taking more than one meal worth’s scummy. So for a family of 4 - above 4 is scummy 😎

Really it’s the principle. Taking extra for the next meal IMO is ok. Taking enough for the entire holiday and then some is going too far

@memberofthewedding

In the USA they offer to box up anything you havnt eaten. You dont have to ask! Its only in ripoff Britain that people are so precious about a few rolls or bits of fruit.

They do that here. I've not been to a place that doesn't offer a "doggy bag" of partly eaten meals

That isn't the situation OP describes, it's not food she couldn't eat and didn't want to waste, it's food that she had no plans of eating with her meal and only took them because she was annoyed at the price of the food she chose to order. That's different to half eaten meal being packaged up. If she asked for a half eaten clocked breakfast to be bagged up I'm sure they'd have done that, asking for a bag of jam and Nutella to take on her self catering holiday..... maybe not.

It's one thing taking a couple extra pots of jam I think a lot of people slip the off sachet of ketchup and stuff but taking a dozen for future meals on the rest of the holiday takes the piss and came be very embarrassing for the people you're eating with. I won't eat out with fil because he does this, chooses to eat at places he knows are expensive, knows the price of things he's ordering and then feels like he needs to get his money's worth by taking loads of sachets and biscuits and stuff. He thinks he's being discreet but everybody sees him stuffing his wife's bag with food, including staff who he's pretty nasty too when asked to put things back. He also fills thermos up with coffee and large juice bottles up with juice at the self serve machines to avoid paying for drinks while out and about.