How much?!

[Stormyinside]

Popped into local cafe this morning to grab a sandwich and coffee as in a mad rush and I am having building work done at home, so it’s chaotic and a lot of the house is inaccessible. Ordered a cappuccino and a bacon sandwich and was shocked at the price- £9.70! This cafe is always busy so obviously people are happy to pay what I would consider massively over inflated prices, of course I understand the cafe has increased bills to cover but I was genuinely surprised at how much they charged me, I checked the menu too and it wasn’t a mistake. Do cafes in your area charge this much- AIBU to be surprised? Im in a semi rural area in the south east.

This was take away too, so not using up space in the cafe or anything like that as I know some places charge extra for you to sit in.

I would guess at around £4 for the cappuccino and another £4-5 for a bacon sandwich, sounds sadly about right to me.

I don’t buy food/drinks out very often anymore as it’s so expensive.

Unfortunately yes this seems to be the norm nowadays. My DH popped into Pret yesterday to grab a wrap and a bottle of water. £9.24

That is a ridiculous price!! YANBU. you could
probably make ten bacon sandwiches and coffees fresh for that price. Not saying I think you should as I always spend money on Costa etc just that I don't understand how they get away with charging that much!!

Glad to know it’s not just me being tight 😂

It's madness. Which is why I can't afford to grab a quick coffee and bacon sandwich any more!

Awful isn’t it!

It is far too expensive, but you generally don't get charged anywhere near that around here!

I just looked at the menu of my nearest cafe (north east, not a city) and a bacon sandwich and cappuccino would be £11.25.

Not surprising. Their food and utility costs have gone up just like everyone else's has, probably more so because there's no cap on commercial energy prices.

I've read about cafes and the like seeing increases from under £10k pa to over £50k for the annual cost of electricity/gas. Meaning that they have to substantially put up their prices and continue selling the same number of items, or go out of business.

We'll still probably see a lot of cafes, takeaways, restaurants etc closing in the next year or two, because this is at the same time as people like you OP likely cutting back on cafe type spending because nearly £10 for a basic breakfast isn't a good use of your reducing disposable income. It's a perfect storm

I’ll be having a kitchen refit later this year and will probably be without a usable kitchen for a few weeks. I live in a fairly small bungalow and will have to store my kitchen items in my spare bedroom and don’t really have anywhere to set up a cooking area other than possibly use microwave and kettle in lounge.

So I was thinking last night of what I might do for meals, I live alone so it won’t be too bad but I was thinking I could eat out quite a lot and just have snack food at home - won’t have access to a fridge unless I put the old one in my garage which is down the garden. I’m now thinking I’ll have to budget a significant amount for meals based on these prices!

Woah! I'm in Yorkshire, checked mine and a large bacon sandwich is £3.80, small or medium is less (and their large is huge!). IIRC coffee is less than £2, I don't really drink it so unsure of the exact price. According to the menu you can get a 12 item cooked breakfast for £7, so a full hot breakfast and drink for less than the OP paid for a sandwich and coffee. 😯

Absolutely ridiculous!

Often when I go into a cafe now I think of that scene in Fleabag, where she charges £12.55 for a cheese sandwich and chirps, "London prices!"

It doesn't even seem so far-fetched any more.

I was charged £7 for two ice lollies... Was shocked!

I don’t mind so much if it’s an amazing sandwich but most places are crappy, cheap things and bland coffee.

Off topic but when did we start having to GRAB everything?

Not crazily over priced, thinking of how the cost of everything has gone up so much, the cost of the actual food, min wage, rates, gas, electricity, and so on. I'd say previously about £4 for bacon on toast and maybe £3.50 for cappuccino would seem sensible. So given how much everything has gone up that has to increase.....sadly doesn't seem too over the top given the current situation we are in.

Blimey - I bought a cappuccino and a cinnamon pastry at my nearby cafe last week and it only cost £5.15 (and then I thought over £2 for a pastry was a bit pricy!)

I'm in a "naice" area of NW London too!

Is it a cafe or a café? Meaning is it a coffee shop or a local caff?

because 9.70 sounds right for a costa type place but extortionate for a local caff type place. I’d expect same prices as a supermarket cafe so £3.50 for sandwich and £2 for drink.

Sounds completely normal. I’m between Derbyshire and Sheffield and would expect to pay this.

Yeh, I wouldn’t be particularly thrilled with that price. I’d have said max. £5 for the sandwich and £2.50 for the coffee, so £7.50. But I’d just accept it and probably not go back.

I was behind a man in the queue who ordered a coffee and panini. He was shocked when it came to over £11. The cashier told him the panini was £6.80!!

😱

I just don't pay it anymore. I don't know how others still are, it's ridiculous.

2 bacon rolls, 1 egg roll, 2 hot chocolates and a coffee was £19 in one of our local cafes (sit in) last week so that sounds like a lot. That was a posh suburb of a big city where people take the p!ss out of the price of bacon rolls on the local facebook page 😂

Yes, it’s expensive. But we can’t simultaneously proclaim that NMW should be higher / working people should be able to live without claiming benefits or using food banks, yet also expect to pay cheap prices for our goods and services.