To think £2 for a babycino is extortionate

[Prrambulate]

The lovely independent coffee shop near me has raised the price of its babycino from £1 (already steep imo) to £2. Babycino in this case = an espresso cup of frothed milk with a dusting of cocoa powder on top.

This place has a selection of toys in a dedicated corner so lots of parents tend to go there to unwind and have somewhere their kids can play for a short while. I sense the business opportunity here but it also seems exploitative to me! Especially since their usual coffees are all at the £3 - £3,50 range.

Working up the courage to complain…

Much marketing. Like I find Starbucks really meh but they moved on from simply being about coffee. Big chains spend shit ton of money on product research and marketing. They are also on the main streets with highest footfall.
People also like to be pretentious - important and like to order triple shot venti garbagino with 1 shot of wood fairy tears, 1 shot of white rhino blood, cream and sprinkles.
If these were not coming up with marketing like Unicorn frappucino, they would be just "meh" for most people.

It's like asking why is tesco more successful than good local green grocer.
Buying power - price and more on offer even outside of season, 1000 people in product development and marketing etc.

I like the natural lighting. The coffee is very good! They recently upped their prices for that too (flat white gone from £2.90 to £3.40, but the latter is the standard price now imo).

It’s not really child dominated either. You have a large table that’s always reserved for book clubs or LGBT groups etc, and a miscellaneous customer base.

I run a coffee shop. 2 quid is really steep! I’d just ask for some warm milk on the side of your coffee, usually don’t get charged for that.

They really had to up. Did they hold off price rises for a while? That usually means later giving up and bigger jump.
The prices of goods and business energy etc have gone up massively over last few of years. The jumps were unsustainable really.

Like everyone moaned about chippies, but when Russia invaded Ukraine, oil went from like £27 to £50 for 18l or so. Businesses were absolutely hammered last few years, likemany households but without energy cap. Big ones had stanring contracts so brunt of anger went to small one. There were busy independent restaurants closing. Such a shame.
It sucked for everyone - businesses and customers.

I know right 🤣🤣🤣🤣

It sounds a lovely cafe which is catering for mums and young children. It sounds much nicer than my local Costa.
They are marketing it at a specific demographic. Wish there had been somewhere like this when mine were young.

I just used to spoon the frothy bit off a cappuccino for my DD!

Dis you struggle to get to the bottom of your stretching understanding barrel there?

I’m not sure what you mean- but nevertheless ‘flat white’ is not a clear description of a drink.

Obviously it’s not extortionate. If you don’t want to pay that much, don’t order it. Simples!

They've got a lot of overheads to cover as well as the cost of the milk, so if they think it needs to be £2, I'd either accept that I go elsewhere

People also like to be pretentious - important and like to order triple shot venti garbagino with 1 shot of wood fairy tears, 1 shot of white rhino blood, cream and sprinkles.

Love it 😄

Yes, some people with kids leave a terrible mess on cafe floors.

Nor is the word cappuccino... Yet you manage to understand that?

I know it’s some kind of frothy milky coffee because I’ve seen people drink it. In the same way I know a flat white is some kind of coffee because I’ve seen it on coffee menus. But since I only ever drink black coffee I don’t know what either of them are comprised of specifically- and neither name is enlightening.

I also don’t know whether an americano is always black or whether you can have foam on an espresso… no coffee names are good descriptors of what they are.

So what if a milky coffee is called a latte and that's slightly different to a milky coffee that has a bit more foam?
And just because you personally don't know what they mean, doesn't mean they're gimmicky or anything else disparaging. almost nothing is named after something obvious, yet we know roughly what they are.

You know that toad in the hole is sausages cooked in batter, but you aren't implying that people are stupid or silly or falling for some marketing stuff when they use that term.

I don't know the difference between different types of red wine... To me they're all red and all wine. Cabernet sauvignon or merlot... couldn't tell you which is which... But millions of others will know the difference between them all...

I think that's the point the poster you're quoting is making. Another PP claims babycchino as a name is a gimmick but flat white isn't. They're all just names and babycchino is no more or less silly.

thank you @DappledThings, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

@00100001 my original post was in response to someone saying ‘babychinno’ is a gimmick name, but ‘flat white’ is an accurately descriptive name.

My point was that all coffee names these days give very little description of what the drink actually is, therefore they could all equally be called a gimmick… which is fine by me- I’ll continue to order my gimmicky hot chocolate thing or a black coffee without worrying whether any of it is a gimmick!

It's so funny hearing why people think a babycino isn't a gimmick, when it blatantly is.

To be honest all those expensive fancy coffees are gimmicky

. See also: the entire menu at the Alchemist, bubble tea, those ice cream places that use dry ice, the ‘cook your own steak on a hot stone’ places, the choose your own lobster from the tank places and many more.

But people enjoy them so they are happy to pay for them, which is the whole point.

But no more so than a flat white or a frappaccino or soya latte with hazelnut syrup.

Why do you think babycchini are so much more of a gimmick than any drink in a cafe?

Sorry @HallesmellieI got this letter I would think it was hilarious 😂 a delightful treat for both myself and my family.

From that £2 they have VAT to pay, then there's the cost of the server making it, either the cost of a disposable cup or the cost of washing a cup, the cost of the milk, the cost of energy.
Many coffee shops complain about the babycino trend.
Before babycinos became a thing, parents would usually buy their young children a soft drink at a coffee shop. Parents coming in and expecting a cheap/free drink for their child while taking up a whole table for an hour with one £3.50 coffee just isn't sustainable as a business model for an independent business. It works in Costa where the drinks cost up to £6 each and there's no toys to entice families to stay long.

I don't recall saying anything was 'more' of a gimmick, simply that it was a gimmick.
Some things are clearly more explanatory than others though - black coffee, hot chocolate, peppermint tea vs babycino etc.

This is now getting silly. A gimmick is not just anything whose meaning isn’t clearly explicit. A gimmick is something used to attract attention or trade while lacking intrinsic value. None of those things listed lack value to the people purchasing them. Even if the historical origin of the term is unclear, there’s enough of a social understanding of what - eg - a flat white refers to (not as much foam as other frothy drinks, for instance).

The only way a babycino is a gimmick is for the child drinking it, who may feel like they’re getting a similar experience to their accompanying grown up nursing a coffee. For the parents buying them, they know exactly what they’re getting (warm milk). It has value.