Afternoon tea is a rip off largely aimed at ripping women off

[Coddy]

Somebody suggested this to me and I’ve never thought of it that way.

You don’t get very men going for afternoon tea do you? The Mark up on afternoon tea is absolutely enormous aside from staffing and cost of the building and stuff- it must be money for old rope for the businesses concerned. Specially the ones that charge over 50 quid ahead.

Are we being conned by the whole afternoon tea debacle?

(yes cake is nice I get that)

What supermarket do you buy sandwiches from? Even Waitrose charge as little as £2.80

I love afternoon tea. I don't normally eat cake or sandwiches so it is a rare treat. As long as the cake and sandwiches are good of course. I've only had it at places which are a proper treat and everything made there.

The only better meal is a champagne brunch with nothing to do afterwards. Actually my ideal day would be champagne brunch, a stroll, a snooze then afternoon tea.

Our local town do a fabulous bottomless brunch, three courses. It's enjoyed by many. Hen parties included. What's funny is directly opposite are boutiques and a shoe shop which do very well out of young women who having had a good time do empty their wallets.

I was taken by my son and his girlfriend to a bottomless brunch in Leeds, they were both at university there. We just went for the normal lunch. I did clock not only groups but mothers and daughters enjoying the cocktails.

Everyone seemed happy but again it was female driven.

Men still prefer a quiet pint in a pub it seems.

The sandwich shop nearest my office has a starting price for sandwiches of £4.70. Many of Pret a Manger sandwiches are over £5. Another poster suggested Tesco was charging £5 for smoked salmon sandwich.

Waitrose charge as little as you say for some of their sandwiches- they also charge up to £4.50. You can get "meal deals" for £5 consisting of the sandwich, a drink and a snack. The choice of snacks and drinks is very limited.

My son lived in Bermuda for a few years. Ten dollars a day for lunch. Fifty weeks of the year. This was more than a decade ago. He did the math one day because on top of that the boss needed them in at times until ten PM so they'd order in an Indian takeaway or Chinese to keep going. Fourteen hour days made eating out around forty dollars.

No wonder people would rather work from home in some spheres.

A twee afternoon tea followed by a pub crawl seem an unusual mix 😁

The proper fancy ones are unlimited op

Who needs unlimited tea? You still need to make the hour’s train journey back to the deepest darkest Surrey.

I fear the price of sandwiches at supermarkets is a fair way from our topic - is afternoon tea a rip off? And I guess the answer is "it depends".

I don't

But then I wasnt the one posting the price of sandwiches at the supermarket so Im not sure how where I shop would be relevant?

How is the price of sandwiches elsewhere off from this topic, when people keep bringing up things like a few sandwiches and cakes wouldn't cost more than about £4.00?

A bottomless brunch is something I've never tried yet. It sounds nice, or maybe I should save my money by sitting in Greggs instead, to show I'm not a silly, giggling woman who's easily ripped off? ?

A pub crawl after an afternoon tea sounds a bit much. Do cream cakes and alcohol mix? I'm teetotal so no idea.

It was in response to the nonsense about how overpriced an afternoon tea is.

If you compare the price of uninspired sandwiches and mass produced plastic wrapped cakes if anything is overpriced it's the supermarket sandwiches and mass produced cakes.

Afternoon teas are often advertised with Prosecco or champagne.

Not sure a pint of bitter would go with most though fruit cake, Wensleydale and a pint can be quite nice after a long hike.

Yes I've seen the prosecco/champagne ones. Somehow I didn't associate champagne with a pub crawl but as I said teetotal so alcohol is a bit of a mystery to me.

I was mainly saying that alcohol and cream teas are not strangers by a long shot. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone going on what I would consider a pub crawl straight after Afternoon Tea! I guess some people (who are younger than me!) might go on to bars for cocktails after, especially if they had enough Prosecco to take the edge of their best judgement. Some people might call that a pub crawl.

I would quite like a breakfast buffet in a hotel voucher .

Perhaps the poster who raised pub crawls routinely goes on a pub crawl after lunch in a restaurant. There's no more reason for going on a pub crawl after a nice lunch than after afternoon tea.

I've seen Hen groups start with afternoon teas then move onto cocktails elsewhere.

But will they get giggly after a glass of prosecco? I'm paying for the ambience.

As my son was graduating, we stayed over in Liverpool for two nights, We went to the Panoramic 34 tower for afternoon tea on the Sunday as a special treat for him. I explained that I didn't like strong coffee and it took the waiters/waitresses three attempts to get me a decent cup of coffee, yes it was a rip off, but done as a special treat for d/s.

We then went back to the hotel and ordered an evening meal as we were starving after the mini finger sandwiches!! I wouldn't recommend that you go there if you are hungry

I would think a lot of Hen dos aren’t going to stop at one glass of Prosecco. It just depends on the group. Huge variety in norms for female groups, even restricting to just those that go to Afternoon Tea.

Because what you've had is a Cream Tea. That's different.

Afternoon Tea is a whole another level! As described, sandwiches/other savouries, scones, patisserie.

Oh wow @MagentaRocks, where is this??!!