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.

Maybe .but clearly I'm not alone .

I dont really eat at the sort of place that would do this type of offer. I like better quality food

YANBU. I think some of these companies are all about making money of the poorest in society.

This is ridiculous and I have no idea how you came to this conclusion?

Why would the poorest in society be eating out and spending £10 on a meal, if they can't afford to feed their kids for more than £1?

What's the problem? It's marketed as helping a family afford a treat meal out, it's not claiming to be an actual food bank. We all need business make money, and that sort of discount is decent for a lot of customers. If the scheme can work for both parties I think it's a good one.

I've seen that list of places kids eat for £1 .
It's good because I know where not to eat, I'm not subsidising peoples kids

is that you Suella?

i put yabu because there are lots of reasons people eat out- away from home, short in time between things etc- and any help is better than none, £11 is more affordable than £18 or whatever.

My youngest is 14 but always had a very limited diet- ARFID- and a simple cafe kids meal was often acceptable when he was younger. I’ve done it from the sheer need to get him to eat; also an evening a week we’re stuck out with him because his sibling attends a youth group for disabled young g people (nearest one is next county) so we need to feed him on a budget those nights, any deal helps.

Of course some people still can’t afford it but helping some is better than none.

They are businesses, not charities. It should be the government helping people in poverty, not businesses.

Yes surely this is what they’re aimed at, not giving away free food to everyone. I think it’s great, I can afford a tenner and me and DD get a nice meal out.

The hospitality industry is struggling!
You do realise these are actual businesses who need to pay staff and energy bills before they can even think about making a profit?
This kind of offer is aimed at those who are cutting back but can still just about to go out if there's an offer. It's the same as when there's a two for one offer you get the cheaper meal free
It's neither a charity nor a food bank.

YABU. Your anger should be directed at a government who have allowed this country to be so run down that people can't afford to feed their children. An utter disgrace.

@abitmoreclarity and maybe people who aren't working enough / taking responsibility for, you know, feeding their own kids?

You can't expect the business' who have been hit hardest by covid to operate at a loss to feed the poorest in society. That is the job of the government

Restaurants are business' needing to make a profit to survive. Kids eating for a £1 when an adult pays £10 is a marketing ploy for families who can afford it. It's not their attempt to help the poorest. It's making things slightly more affordable for those who can afford it. Maybe a family would go that wouldn't otherwise. If they didn't it would be extra profit for them rather than taking money that would otherwise go to the poor

It's society and the government that are failing the poorest and need to do more

As the saying goes ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’.

I agree with this, I think its an amazing deal for the kind of 'squeezed middle' as it will just make their disposable income, or budget for half term stretch a little bit further.

No-one is forcing you to spend £10 on a meal. Just stay and eat at home.

In reality the £9.50 assumes that a small proportion of their customers will take advantage of the 2 kids eat free, but not all by a long shot. Every customer paying £9.50 is contributing to that, whether they have kids or not. So effectively a subsidy. It’s clearly aimed at encouraging families to stay in what are predominantly low end business hotels to fill up rooms, especially at weekends. But that reduces costs for the weekday people as the fixed costs of running the hotel are spread over more guests. You can safely assume if every adult breakfast every day of the week also resulted in 2 kids breakfasts being ordered it wouldn’t cost £9.50 for long!

If you are really on the breadline, it’s a bl@@dy awful deal!

Think how much food, you could buy in the supermarket, for that £11. Nobody, who is genuinely hard up, can afford to pay £10 for a main course.

As previous posters have said, those who are hard up and really struggling, don’t go out to eat!

Asda and similar are in a good position to help because they are massive and everyone needs to buy food so they will still be making sales. Feeding your kids on a visit encourages shoppers to go to them and doesn’t cost much, and helps the poorest. It’s much harder for a business that only does cafes/hospitality.

Do people really believe Asda are offering this out of the goodness of their hearts? Or, that children would really starve without it?

It's not £10 for each meal is it? It's encouraging people to have the odd meal out while knowing if they take their kids it won't cost them a good deal more.

I see your point but how can businesses give food away with making a profit ? It would be a food bank otherwise! They have to pay their staff and electricity bills as well. Maybe as PP says have a drink and just avoid the £10 .00 spend!

Hardly. The restaurant puts on the offer because families flock there to have a meal out for cheaper than if they went somewhere without kids deals. They are not feeding children below the breadline, rather they’re feeding families on a budget. The restaurants turn profit from these deals, otherwise they wouldn’t bother.

I don’t have children and I see these as places to avoid. Not because I don’t want to subsidise kids (I’m a primary teacher, I regularly put my hand in my own pocket to feed children that aren’t mine) but because I know that they will be busy and full of children.

As much as I enjoy the company of other people’s children, I like to dine in quieter locations.

I'm so confused by the point of this thread. Surely if you cant afford to eat out you just dont eat out rather than complain that kids meals are too expensive or that you must spend X amount on an adult meal to qualify for a £1 kids meal.
I dont have kids and sometimes I cant afford to eat out, so guess what... I dont eat out.

Thank you, the missing logic in this thread is amazing. I was going to say something similar.

If those not getting free kids meals are not paying less than the 9.50 then those free meals are either baked into everyone’s price, offset by the revenue in other areas (example the price of the room), and/or volume of sales.

This part directed to the thread at large:
But honestly this whole thread is laughable… both posters who are mad at these deals because companies aren’t just handing out fee stuff and those mad they are subsidizing others meals. The misconceptions of how businesses run and the simple mechanics of profit and loss is something else.

Who are the 35% of voters who agree with the op? Bonkers! As a pp said, seems like these cheap meal offers have become mixed up with free school meals in people’s minds. I’d really like to understand whether the YANBUers want all these places giving kids’ meals away for nothing with nothing in it for them (pie in the sky) or if they’d prefer places just to charge 100% of their prices 100% of the time. You know, because it would be ‘fair’.

Holland and Barret has buy one, get one half price.
Bastards making you buy one for full price instead of just goving half price product like that