To be fuming with these selfish customers?

[squashedalmondcroissant]

I work in a cafe and sometimes we put out free samples of cakes etc to give people a taster and obviously try and tempt people into buying a full price piece. No obligation, but that is the general idea, even if they come back another time.

Family comes in, I have a tray of 6 samples out on the counter. They proceed to take ALL the samples for themselves. The samples were plenty big enough to share especially as most of them were very young kids who could have easily had a bite each.

Aibu to be fuming at this? They saw me put them out so they knew that was all I had to give away and they just took them all! This particular family are regulars and I know (and they know) that they had absolutely NO intention of buying any of the cakes. They never do, they have a bit of a reputation for being freeloaders, helping themselves to things they shouldn't and paying for take away and then 'conveniently' changing their minds after they're paid to eat in knowing that they haven't paid the extra charge.

Aibu to just ban them forever? or am I just grumpy after dealing with annoying customers all day

your suggestion is to go straight to banning rather than just removing the tray when they walk in or putting up a little sign to say one sample per person or point blank asking them to refrain from taking them all

Definitely ban them.

they’re regulars? what do they buy?

did you start the thread about outdoor seating?

Firstly , normally when samples are out, they are very small (literally less than 1 bite) for this very reason, so that's something to consider.

Secondly, if the CF family decide they are eating in, then get used to challenging and saying "you paid for take out prices, if you would prefer to eat in, it's an extra £(price)"

Move the samples when you see them come in.

Did they take all the samples as in took multiple each? Or just there were six people and six pieces? The latter isn't an issue in my opinion, even if they "could have" shared.

Ban them. Do you really need their custom? They’re cf freeloaders.

This

Banning them?? Have you heard of social media/reviews?!

Don’t ban them if they spend money but clamp down. If they change where they want to eat add the extra charge before giving them their food. When they approach the sample display tell them it’s one per family and remove the rest. Don’t give them an inch.

This. Samples should be one bite and for one person.

Did they pick up one sample per person? Totally reasonable.

make your samples smaller if you think people should be splitting them into pieces and sharing them.

We do actually ban some customers from our shop just cos we find them annoying so that's what I'd do. I don't just work there though it's our own business

Remove the samples the second you see them

You should've stopped them or if it was too late, told them they can't do it next time 🤷‍♂️

Also, think about putting the samples somewhere the staff have to hand them out.

If they chose to sit in, walk over and ask them to pay the difference

I'm actually waiting for someone to post, "Perhaps that's all the family had to eat that day" 😁

Be careful banning them as they may try to give you bad publicity on local Facebook groups etc. Some people are like that. Agree, the samples should be bite size pieces or not much bigger.

Your samples should be tiny one bite size.

I'd be sympathetic to banning them, but be prepared for revenge such as a report to your local trading standards or an unfair review.

Can you quickly move the free samples if you see them arriving?

what type of behavior?

Six samples, six people means one sample each.

Is also chop downtown the size of your free samples so the are a bite size

Yeah I think the key thing is how big the samples are. They should be bite size for this reason.

If they took six biggish pieces then yes it’s cheeky but you can easily prevent by putting out small bits.