If you could afford £10 for each meal so that your child can eat for a pound.

[Nanatokidsdogshampsters]

On my FB feed it's just listed places that a child can eat for a pound.
A couple of them no adult spend is needed. Well done to these.
Asda don't expect. One of our local chippies don't expect.
Yet most of the places are asking for an adult to also purchase a full meal as well.
Some of the cheapest adult meal start at £10.
In this time of crisis with the cost of living a parent isn't or can't afford to pay £10
for one meal so there children can eat for a pound.

YABU. You should be grateful that a company is helping.
YANBU. I think some of these companies are all about making money of the poorest in society.

If course I do . But I would benefit from those offers . Apart from the student discount.

I actively avoid places where kids eat free because that does push up the price for people without kids

Wow

I don't think it pushes up the prices because they are brazenly putting them up all the time anyway! Very few places run these offers outside of the holidays. There was a time when it was a permanent fixture in the good ol' days.

I actively avoid places where kids eat free because that does push up the price for people without kids

But it doesn't - the loss is covered by the increased footfall not by your meal which will be the same price regardless of the offer and similar to the same standard of restaurant anywhere else. That is shown by many my local restaurants being those excluded from the offer. We live in a touristy part of the country restaurants are always busy so they don't need the increased footfall. The meals cost the same as other restaurants in the chain who do offer the deal!

So you would rather kids starve then donate a few pence per meal for them to have a meal

Poor families are eating cheap meals at home, they aren’t going out to eat. This is aimed to
tempt a different audience into their establishment

There are apps like Olio and TooGoodToGo which allow poor people to experience restaurant quality food if they want to. However, the informal feedback I have heard is that they prefer their home cooked fare and consider the prices people are paying for it to be insane.

Maybe if some of these large chains paid their staff a decent wage, instead of paying such low amounts that the tax-payer has to pick up the slack, less people would need to feed their children for a £1

You can bet the shareholders are not going without this winter

Of course businesses exist to make money.

if you can’t afford to eat out, don’t 🤷‍♀️

With wages going up, proces of things go up.

How do people think food like apples can be sold ao cheaply?
Modern slave trade, that's how

It literally doesn’t, I know because I’ve checked. The prices are the same this week as they were weeks/months ago.

Why are you even on mumsnet if you dislike children so much?

When businesses offer cheap or free kids things if a full price adult is paying, they’re just doing it as a special offer that they hope ultimately will be good for their business.

Theres nothing wrong with that, not everything has to be about helping poor people.

Asda can afford to give such a generous offer, but they aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. They’re doing it because they want people to chose them for their weekly shop instead of Tesco who aren’t offering £1 kids lunches. Not because they’re trying to
do anyone anyone a favour.

But yes, many pps are absolutely right, these offers were always there as a promo. It's just that someone put them in colourful comic sans on facebook now so everyone thinks they are something special so bitch about it being a business not charity

You can bet the shareholders are not going without this winter

I guess you don’t follow the stock market … unless you are heavily invested in oil and gas, your portfolio is certainly looking leaner rn

They're businesses, not charities. Of course they're about making money.

It's all about personal taste. My DDs are obsessed with the Beefeater! We did their breakfast thing just this morning where kids eat free. It will be our only meal out during half term. It was a nice experience but by no means special to us but we were all buzzing!

The other options available are either not in our area or are crap in our area.

@ClocksGoingBackwards I agree!

If the restaurant fed everybody for free, it's not a restaurant then is it and it won't be open for very long either. How will the business owners afford to stay open if they don't charge? Offering a subsidised meal is fine for kids because people would have spent money there anyway. There are alternative places open who offer completely free meals, places of worship, charities and community kitchens.

Same.

Why should any business subsidise your child? Don't eat out if you don't like it.

At the end of the day businesses aren’t a charity. YABU.

It’s about finding a business model that works. If they capture a certain market then that’s ok. They surely aren’t claiming to do it out of altruism. If they are then that’s hypocritical.

I always see it as more of a treat than anything else, so to break up the monotomamy of cooking. I may not be able to afford it if I have to buy 1x adult meal, 1x kids meal plus drinks but possibly could if it's only 1x adult meal (I'd go without a drink if needed as I can have those at home).

Come on OP. Get a grip... this isn't a "let's help feed the poorest in society" promotion. It's a maximising sales promotion. Get people into eat at a time where people are cutting back, or saving for Christmas or whatever.

You are neither reasonable nor unreasonable as you have completely misunderstood the idea of the promotion. People who need/want to eat cheaply are not going out to eat. They are buying food at cooking it at home.

Does anyone have a copy of the list? I've tried Google but it's giving me Easter holiday ones 😆

I'm on the fence about this one really. I can understand a parent's anguish about not being able to feed their child and having to spend some money to get a freebie.
They are businesses and not charities and have to make money but shouldn't be taking the piss when people are excruciatingly hard up.