Added costs for plant milks

[Rizzoli123]

Why is it when I go out and have a hot chocolate and have oat milk or coconut milk there is an added fee. I know it costs more to produce but if I brought a normal coffee which was say 5.00 a week. This is with normal milk. For one made from coconut milk it would add and extra 2.25 in to the bill,.

Why is it that people say that lots of people are embracing vegansim and making changes to their diet to include more plant based foods.

I know their is a cost as less people drink it but why so high

Am. I being unreasonable to ask for the same consideration as soya milk which is free in many places.

(I don't like soya milk)
(I have the milk sachets to take for tea but can't use them for hot chocolate)

@Silentnight87

I agree. I could understand perhaps a 10p extra charge to cover costs, but even then I think it is excessive considering you pay £3 for a drink. At 50p they recoup that cost to them with each drink!!. I am lactose intolerant so for health reasons need oat/soya replacement. It's annoying it's treated differently to see gluten free food replacement which would be charged at same price (i.e. pizza). It's not just about people being vegan!!!

Wait, what?

You clearly haven't had to go GF as well as dairy free. The cost of alternatives is so high that you end up just going without for most of the time. And whilst I do like rice and potatoes, I'm only human and would like to be able to have things like everybody else some of the time.

[cries in £3.75 a loaf of bread once a week]

@Ridiculousradish

I work in hospitality and we charge 50p extra for oat milk. It's purely because oat milk costs a lot more than cow's milk. It's that simple

But not 50p per serving more.

People are being right twats to the OP on here. Lay off, eh?

I'm an oat milk person too. Some cafes don't charge extra. I can only assume they either know they have enough oat customers to make it viable, or they make up the money in other ways.
TBH I don't really mind paying a bit more. I do realise I'm lucky to be able to splurge for an artisan coffee and then oat milk on top though.

The cost of everything in a cafe is more than at home though, that's how retail mark ups work. The coconut milk may only cost 25p. More but a proper mark up had to include overheads, labour, wastage, VAT in some cases. This is applied at the same rate to everything unless they decide to have loss leaders. The OP might as well say why do cafes charge so much for coffee when i can make one for 50p at home?

@Wazzzzzzzup

Gluten free for example is very expensive and fairly revolting mostly

Lots of the dough is ok nowadays. What's rank is vegan cheese👀

I made that mistake ONCE!

@NeverDropYourMooncup - have you tried the M&S bread? £2.40 and a really GOOD bread (considering..) toast it and you’d hardly know

We too are GF and LF and it’s flipping hard and Expensive

[quote MzHz]@NeverDropYourMooncup - have you tried the M&S bread? £2.40 and a really GOOD bread (considering..) toast it and you’d hardly know

We too are GF and LF and it’s flipping hard and Expensive[/quote]
No, I haven't - thank you, I'll try it next time I'm near an M&S.

Honestly, it’s that good we buy quite a few and freeze them

Good luck

@Wazzzzzzzup
That's like saying maccies charge 1.99 for cheesburger so everyone should be able to...

Don't be ridiculous. If a large chain like Pret can swallow the cost, I find it strange that even larger coffee chains like Starbucks and Costa don't do the same. That's not expecting to pay £1.99 for a burger everywhere, that's trying to compare like for like and wondering why Pret is the outlier.

@Talipesmum Plenty of coffees don't require 300ml of milk, in which case 1L probably does stretch to quite a few drinks.

OP, the price of any item is rarely proportional to it's cost (of production or procurement)

Businesses will charge what customers are willing to pay for goods/services. Price is influenced by market forces and perceived value

What do you think the cost of a Chanel bag is?

But what annoys me is the unfair combination of paying more for plant milk, yet on most menus vegan/veggie options - which are cheaper to produce - are often the same price as meat options

Businesses are exploiting the vegan fad. Vegans end up malnourished and out of pocket too. Sorry to be blunt

But not 50p per serving more.

No, but a bottle of say, whole fat milk will, once opened, be used by the best before date with no problems.

A carton of oat/soy/almond milk may not get used up by the time it goes off, so the 50p charge is partially to cover the waste that will occur when it's thrown out.

But not 50p per serving more.

Well no. But the water and tea bag don’t cost £2.50 either.

Businesses are exploiting the vegan fad. Vegans end up malnourished and out of pocket too. Sorry to be blunt

Bollocks. Veganism isn’t a fad.
Many people have non dairy milk for a variety of reasons.
Meat is bloody expensive. I’m willing to bet my shopping is a lot cheaper.
Many people are vegan their lives and perfectly healthy.

For many people vegetarianism or vegan Ian is not a fad. My vegetarianism ‘fad’ has been going for 30 years so far. Plus religions and cultures have had traditions of being veggie or vegan for hundreds of years eg Buddhism.

If anything is a fad it’s the unsustainable meat consumption of rich countries over the last century or so!

@NellWilsonsWhiteHair

Mostly I'm happy to pay extra, but there are a couple of things which irk me -

1. When there is no vegan substitute milk available free. Most places will swap to soya without an additional charge. My workplace doesn't.

1. The fact that I have to pay the same extra 45p or whatever for a dribble of oat milk in my filter coffee that I would have to pay for a whole hot chocolate or latte which involves way more milk. I know there's no real way to make this fair, but it's annoying!

Oatly need to start selling sachets of milk which would fix my issue 2 I think!

I brought some lacto free sachets yesterday.

That should read ‘veganism’, not vegan Ian. (Though I’m sure Vegan Ian is a lovely bloke).

@trancepants

Plant milks cost so much more than cows' milk that I suspect the profit margin is quite a lot less on hot chocolate/chai latte made with a plant milk than a normal hot chocolate. I also read a thread on the feminism board in the last year or so about oat milks, and after that, I'm honestly not sure I'd ever put it into my body again. It's basically run off from pig swill and rapeseed oil. I'm not saying I don't eat shit on occasion but if I'm going to eat shit, it better be a delicious cookie sundae or a spice bag or something insanely satisfying. Not a cup of oil and swill pretending to be a healthy alternative to an actually healthy staple.

I don't normally have them. I normally have lacto free but have them when I go out with friends or family. If not i have water

@PurpleIndigoViolet

That should read ‘veganism’, not vegan Ian. (Though I’m sure Vegan Ian is a lovely bloke).

Nah, I dated him when I was 17. Wears a ponytail and wolf print t-shirt. He's a bit of a knob.