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?

No, you couched it in moral terms, not in terms of whether it was ‘theft in the eyes of the law’:

I'm not sure it is any more morally wrong than charging £6 for a serving of cereal and bread. Certainly no one has ever been convicted of taking a few extra jams from a breakfast buffet...

The breakfast will be priced partly so that the hotel covers its costs, and partly based on what people are prepared to pay. People either accept the bargain, or they don’t. The hotel won’t be pricing breakfast on the expectation that customers will grab extras for later, having unilaterally decided what they think that things ‘should’ cost, or what they ‘should’ be getting for their £6.

As for your ‘all you can eat’ buffet example, the restaurant is giving people a choice of what to eat whilst they are in the restaurant. They accept the risk that some people choose only the expensive stuff, or that some people will eat three times as much as others. They go into that contract with the customer knowing the score: the customer pays £X and chooses what to eat whilst sitting in the restaurant.

That is a world away from taking food away with you for later because you think that you are somehow entitled to it for the price you paid, based on your own calculations of whether the business will ‘lose money’, which you couldn’t possibly know. The restaurant doesn’t price that in, and for that reason @mam0918 gives a pertinent example.

I don't know whether it meets any definition of stealing, but if you did it sneakily knowing they wouldn't want you to, its certainly a bit dodgy. Petty pilfering I'd call it.

Yes it's too many. 4-6 max I'd say was acceptable!

I don't know whether it meets any definition of stealing, but if you did it sneakily knowing they wouldn't want you to, its certainly a bit dodgy.

petty pilfering I’d call it

pilfering
steal (things of little value).

So technically it does meet a definition of stealing…

£6 for a tiny box of cereal bloody rip off

Yeah it's stealing but who cares really?

@MyShoelaceIsUndone

£6 for a tiny box of cereal bloody rip off

Except it wasn't... it was £6 for cereal (and I imagine there is a variety to chose from, plus the OP didn't say it was limited to only one box serving) + toast + crumpets + spreads/jams/nutella. Wouldn't be surprised if there was some fruit option included too.

@Lavender24

Yeah it's stealing but who cares really?

If you owned a hotel or a restaurant and everyone attending buffet breakfasts, or lunches, or dinners, decided to take food away for later because they thought that they deserved their money’s worth (according to their own unbiased calculations, naturally), you’d care all right.

@Lavender24

Yeah it's stealing but who cares really?

Six quid for a continental breakfast.

Sorry wrong quote!

You are a thief,yes.

YANBU, you more than paid for them. Ignore the pearl clutchers.

Haha, spot who else nicks extra from breakfast buffets!

Hotel restaurant breakfasts are very difficult to charge accurately.

My husband and and I regularly stay at a hotel near to a dear relative.
It charges £16 for breakfast.
My husband will have whatever , which includes fruit, yoghurt, cereal, toast , juice , choice of jams, honeys and marmalades , pastries INCLUDING a full English breakfast. ( not that he eats all of these!)
The cost of this breakfast is included on the hotel booking. It is £16 for people not staying at the hotel.
I barely eat anything. Maybe toast and half a tiny jar of jam. Rarely I might have bacon and tomatoes.
Yet £16 is what the breakfast costs. I don't take anything extra as it doesn't interest me but if someone takes a couple of jams and a croissant, I really don't care and feel pretty sure that the staff don't either.

Ignore the pearlclutchers?

We are probably only clutching them with something akin to a death grip because there seems to be plenty of folk thinking that stealing is fine

@SheldonesqueTheBstard

Ignore the pearlclutchers?

We are probably only clutching them with something akin to a death grip because there seems to be plenty of folk thinking that stealing is fine

Hahahaha

@DeflatedGinDrinker

I'd not class that as stealing as I do that too. Love taking fruit/pastries etc for later. You've paid more than what it costs.

Well of course she paid more than what it costs! The company has to make a profit, which it won't if people keep stealing things.
The end result of that type of behaviour is that prices will increase for everyone else.

You were stealing.

I'm still waiting to find out why grabbing Nutella and jam or a croissant for later is more acceptable (presumably but God knows with this crowd) than whacking the old Tupperware on the table at the buffet and filling it up with tonight's dinner before you leave.
Yes, less cost, fine. However, stealing is stealing. Just like stabbing is stabbing. I don't think you should be less upset with me for stabbing you with a fork than a knife, I still stabbed you.

I did this once and karma smacked me in the face hard by the butter I’d chored melting all over my designer purse

@Hemingwaycat

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

This

I have never understood the need to take extra stuff from buffet restaurants it's such a bizarre thing to do

Did you read any of the thread? We’ve already established that the mini cereal boxes were not priced at £6 each. The £6 was the cost of the continental breakfast, which the OP chose to get for her kids after they had had a bacon sandwich each. That they each chose to eat only one box of cereal and one crumpet each isn’t the hotel’s fault, is it?

I’ll make it easy for you and suggest that you read @suk44’s post, on this page.

That was for Antwerpen

If they were on your table for you to have with breakfast then I wouldn't count that as breakfast.

If they were on sale some how and you took them without paying then that's different.