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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

That this does not constitute stealing?

349 replies

6079SmithW · 19/08/2021 16:03

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?

OP posts:

Eralos · 20/08/2021 08:38

£30 is cheap for a family of 4 for breakfast. Cannot get that around here (London!)

OneTC · 20/08/2021 09:08

Just like stabbing is stabbing.

So no difference between being stabbed once and being stabbed 12 times?

sweeneytoddsrazor · 20/08/2021 09:37

For those who struggle, it looks like it was a premier inn, six quid odd cor the continental, nine quid for the full English.

Couldn't have been £9. The OP said she got the kids bacon rolls as they didn't want the full English. The cereal/continental was for paying guests or available for £6. So in effect she chose to buy her kids 2 lots of breakfast. She would have paid £18 for 2 full English and 2 bacon rolls.

Bluntness100 · 20/08/2021 09:43

@sweeneytoddsrazor

For those who struggle, it looks like it was a premier inn, six quid odd cor the continental, nine quid for the full English.

Hmm fair point I thought she’d cancelled the bacon rolls.

Chikapu · 20/08/2021 09:44

@Userg1234

Fuck em. It wasn't nailed down or cctv. You paid a fortune for fuck all....delight it was Jack shit. I was a senior manager in an insurance company....but my dad was......well Arthur Daileys successful brother !

Is 'it wasn't nailed down' justification for taking whatever the hell you want then? Should I go to Brown Thomas and help myself because it isn't nailed down?

JesusIsAnyNameFree · 20/08/2021 09:44

@OneTC

Just like stabbing is stabbing.

So no difference between being stabbed once and being stabbed 12 times?

I'm not gonna be much less upset if I'm stabbed once rather than twelve times tbh. I'd still judge the cunt doing it just the same.

I don't think the person taking one is any better than the one taking 12. You still stole something because you somehow felt entitled to it when you weren't.

The only difference would be if it was already on your tray of course and no one would stick 12 on their tray honestly thinking they would eat it at the time.

twinningatlife · 20/08/2021 09:46

Well taking 10-12 is just taking the piss isn't it?

You didn't have to pay £30 you could have gone elsewhere

User4248035893 · 20/08/2021 10:08

Hahahahahahahaha I came on this thread expecting someone took one extra banana for lunch at a breakfast buffet but 12(!!!!) Nutellas.

It might be borderline acceptable if teenagers did that during a school trip as a dare/prank/brag but inexcusable as a mother of 2 on a family trip. What kind of values are you teaching your kids? Go to a cheap chain place, complain about prices, steal items to make up for what you felt you're owed. Wow.

CounsellorTroi · 20/08/2021 10:18

I saw a boy of about 12 filling up his water bottle from the orange juice dispenser. I thought it was a bit cheeky tbh.

iklboo · 20/08/2021 10:25

Another 'dump one post & run'. OP hasn't been back in over 200 posts. My chin is itchy.

SheldonesqueTheBstard · 20/08/2021 10:33

Another 'dump one post & run’

I doubt she has run far. She’ll be weighed down by her spoils.

Disneycharacter · 20/08/2021 10:35

It's stealing, but people do it all the time, so I don't think the police will come knocking any time soon

iklboo · 20/08/2021 10:43

@SheldonesqueTheBstard -

Iamthewombat · 20/08/2021 10:48

@chesirecat99

Why would the full English be a loss leader, *@Iamthewombat*? Loss leaders are to entice people in to spend more money on other items. No one is going to spend money on sides or desserts after a huge breakfast and they aren't going to be spending much on drinks early in the morning.

The main rationale behind the hugely marked up £6 price for the continental breakfast will be to make guests who are getting a free breakfast feel like they have got something of value.

It's a bit morally dubious but it's not worth the level of moral indignation of some posters. I've never taken anything extra from a hotel buffet without asking but when I've asked, the hotel has always obliged eg a piece of fruit or a sandwich for a child that didn't eat their breakfast.

Do I really need to explain this, despite your expertise in the hotel business gained by osmosis through your mother in law?

Here is why a £9 Premier Inn full English might be a loss leader: Premier Inn do not offer breakfast as standard. Nobody gets a free breakfast. You pay extra for it. If I remember correctly from previous stays, your £9 gets you a full English plus access to the continental breakfast buffet.

Is it inconceivable to you that Premier Inn might offer this as a loss leader for the following reasons?

People might be more inclined to choose to stay at a Premier Inn if a good value cooked breakfast is important to them, thus driving up occupancy and

Not everyone in the party might like a cooked breakfast, so they might choose the £6 continental option, on which ther is a higher margin. Which will, of course, vary according to how much each person eats.

Anyway you’ve told us what side of the moral divide you’re on: asking hotel staff for food from the breakfast buffet to eat later - the reason doesn’t matter - and them obliging for a quiet life, then harrumphing about ‘moral indignation’.

GnomeDePlume · 20/08/2021 10:54

I dont understand why people use 'they factor in people stealing taking extra into the price' as justification. Supermarkets factor in shoplifting into their pricing, doesnt mean I can steal anything I want then justify it as having been factored into the price.

AlfonsoTheMango · 20/08/2021 13:27

Hmm. I wonder if it was 10 - 12 and not another, higher, number.

User4248035893 · 20/08/2021 14:21

@AlfonsoTheMango

Hmm. I wonder if it was 10 - 12 and not another, higher, number.

Same, that seems like an oddly specific range and already above a casual "hold in your hand on the way out" quantity. It's an amount where you actually have to stuff it inside a bag, hoodie pocket or force everyone in your party to fill their pockets

5128gap · 20/08/2021 14:32

Stealing or not stealing it's pretty embarrassing behaviour and I'd have been ashamed to be with you OP, if I was your DH. It's the kind of first out of the taxi last to the bar behaviour I find really unpleasant. And people are usually so proud of themselves too for getting one over on someone or getting something for nothing. It just makes you look really mean and pretty.

Greenpolkadot · 20/08/2021 15:13

This reminds me of an old arguments about cruising,
On disembarkation morning the buffet is full folks trying to get a decent breakfast before they get off the ship. Nothing wrong in that ,,
But looking around there are people making up bacon buns etc and popping them into boxes,,grabbing fruit,,,danish pastries,,all being snooked away for the journey home.Some passengers have a long drive to get home,,,us included,,Cant blame them for wanting a nibble on the journey.
The consensus is that 'youv paid for it so have it'
We have a lovey breakfast and set off home,,stopping to slum it a service station on the way,

StarttoFinish · 20/08/2021 15:31

It's people like you that mean your breakfast costs £30

Henrywilldoit · 20/08/2021 15:41

What I don't understand about all this, is why you didn't say no to your dc.

Keep your £12 and go to the supermarket and buy a jar of Nutella, a Kellogg's variety pack, some croissants and a packet of crumpets.

You'd have got far better value for money.

Elphame · 20/08/2021 16:04

Yes it's petty theft

It's because of people like you that we only leave a few washing machine pods and dishwasher tablets in the holiday let. Leave a full box and there is always some entitled person who will take the whole box home with them.

They even steal the washing up liquid and hand wash so we only part fill them too now.

Yogalola · 20/08/2021 17:41

If you had eaten those things at the table that’s ok, but just taking things to eat off site is stealing regardless of your bill.

MollyMinniesMum · 20/08/2021 17:45

Yes Gaby

MollyMinniesMum · 20/08/2021 17:45

Yabu

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