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.

MimosaSunrise

I voted YANBU to the OP, but actually think my view is more nuanced than hers.

The OP seems to have it as:

YANBU - be grateful companies are helping
YANBU - companies are making money off poor people

I don't think either of those are particularly true as I don't believe companies are 'helping'. It would be more helpful for them to sacrifice shareholder profits a little and make more things affordable to more people, but that's idealism and unlikely to happen.

Equally, I don't think companies are trying to make money from poor people either. They're a business and anyone with common sense knows if you're struggling to feed your children over half term then you'd not be spending £10-20 going for lunch.

So I voted YANBU because these deals are nothing more than good publicity and a nice deal for those who can afford it, so the spin of we're a caring company who cares about hungry children annoys me. Have whatever half term deals they like, but stop using hungry children as a prop for advertising what is actually a fairly shrewd business idea.

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.

It's a self fulfilling scheme. They wouldn't charge less for adult meals if they didn't offer it as they'd have less custom and they still have to meet their overheads. The offer pulls in extra customers who wouldn't normally be there and boosts over all spend. Taking the loss on the cheaper menu items means they sell more of the more expensive ones plus often problem get extras such as drinks and deserts. No one is subsiding anything it's just getting more people through the doors. They limit the child to adult ratio to make sure the saving isn't that much too

That’s true, LolaSmiles. I hardly think it’s charity that’s on offer here!

It's a special offer not free school meals. Bloody hek.

Isn't this massively missing the point that hiw the fuck have we reached a level of poverty and child hunger that we are even debating this?
It's not private companies job to provide food for children... it is their job to pay proper taxes.
I would be interested so see if these meals come under "donated" on any of the companies involved accounts.

That’s true, LolaSmiles. I hardly think it’s charity that’s on offer here!
It's absolutely not. Some might be lost leaders but it's not charity, not should it be. I'd imagine there's also some lost leader offers as well because once you've rounded the children up and gone to the supermarket cafe, you might pick up some shopping on your way home, or you might be going to the supermarket and then decide to 'just nip to the cafe' as there's a deal on, and end up spending £10 in the cafe that you might not have done otherwise.

It's embarrassing that our country has so many hungry children and people living in poverty, but it isn't the role of supermarkets and restaurants to feed the nation.

I do find the because we care marketing nauseating though. No you don't. Stick to having a simple promotion.

I do find the because we care marketing nauseating though. No you don't. Stick to having a simple promotion.

Which of them actually do this though? I'm not sore I've seen it. More members of the public putting those words on their mouth. If you go on any of the websites including Asda you'll just see the offer as it's given. No hint towards helping or caring

Beefeaters sell adults all they want to eat breakfast for £9.50 and kids go free. I think you can take 2 kids up to 16 years. My sister and I used to go and take our 2 children of 15 free. So worked out at about £5 each.

Tbf ASDA did announce one summer help to feed children for pound with no minimum spend. But I think someone then just plopped all other offers on it and then people added the charity bot on top to all of them

They did over the summer certainly. There were press releases like this:

We know that families can find the summer holidays tough, and our customers are telling us that this year more than ever, they’re concerned about holiday hunger. With that in mind, we are so pleased to be able to offer children’s meals for just £1, with no minimum adult spend, to ensure that those who would normally rely on a school meal aren’t left without.” - that one was an ASDA spokesperson

Then their Good Living posted this when they announced the £1 deal:
Asda has announced its strongest ever initiative to help feed children throughout summer and the rest of the year, meaning kids across the UK can eat for just £1 at any time of day in Asda Cafés, seven days a week, with no minimum adult spend required.

Tesco's announcement over the summer:
Kids Eat Free is just one of the ways we’re helping our customers to spend less at Tesco. We know that costs can add up over the school holidays, so offering free meals to children with any item purchased at our cafés for an adult, is one of the ways we are supporting parents during this time.”

It's nice to run promotions. People can, and should, use whatever promotion suits their family, but the idea that large companies are doing things out the goodness of their hearts when they could do much more to make food affordable to everyone is laughable.

DH and I ate in Morrisons a couple of weeks ago. A you g Mum car in with 3 children. She was looking at menu and kids kept asking her if they were having a meal or just a drink. I offered her to get 2 kids meals for her as DH and I were buying adult meal anyway. Got lovely smile from the kids and she only had to buy 1 meal for herself and got 1 for other child. More people could offer to do this.

when they could do much more to make food affordable to everyone is laughable.

How do people want even cheaper food. Food in UK is reaply cheap. The only way to bring the prices down even more is... Modern slavery

Cheap compared to wages etc, you know what I mean

How do people want even cheaper food.
Food in UK is reaply cheap. The only way to bring the prices down even more is...
Modern slavery

Or those at the top could take a small cut, which is passed onto consumers in the form of lower prices.

It doesn't have to be the people at the bottom paying the price all the time.

It's a side point anyway. Companies run deals and promotions because they've decided that it's good for business. The problem is that some people seem to be confusing cafe promotions with feeding hungry children, and part of the reason people might be feeling that way is because some of these companies have been trying to use hungry children as advertisement props.

Or those at the top could take a small cut, which is passed onto consumers in the form of lower prices

Energy inputs for agriculture have risen dramatically, there’s no margin to lower prices in this atmosphere. Shrinkflation is about the best they can offer.

Yes this.

Quite.

Remind me not to knock on your door on Halloween...

Excellent. Cant stand that either

Never open the door either!

Energy inputs for agriculture have risen dramatically, there’s no margin to lower prices in this atmosphere. Shrinkflation is about the best they can offer
It's the best they choose to offer.

As long as those, often already wealthy, at the top of companies are raking it in then I'm reluctant to accept there's nothing that can be done.

Your average farmers supplying supermarkets likely have smaller margins because those at the top make the decisions to squeeze suppliers rather than make their own slice of pie a little smaller. Same for pricing. It's all choices made by people with vastly more money than your average person.

I really don’t think you understand just how much energy costs have risen in every aspect of production.

What did you expect over the summer? 😂Should have gone elsewhere then.