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

The freeloading customers are probably not aware you only have set amount to give out. The cafè offer free samples, this family took them. Not your business, not your problem.
so I wouldn’t get too annoyed about it.

I agree with pp suggesting sign "one free sample per family only please"

what selfish cunts they are

So they sampled the free samples? If you only want certain people to eat the samples, why don't you keep them behind the counter? Daft thing to get cross about, and daft to have such massive samples.

Change the time of the free samples to either earlier than they arrive or after they've gone. Or put half the amount out in morning and half in afternoon.

They sound annoying but I don't know what they have done that means they should be banned. Presumably free samples are there for people to take and usually free samples are bite size. If there were 6 of them and they took a sample each I don't think they have done anything wrong.
If in future they pay take out prices and eat in. Just tell the you are charging the Extra. If they won't pay insist they take the food away

If your only putting out 6 samples the chance that of the 6 people who try someone will buy when they weren't going to anyway is pretty slim

The whole point is you cast a wide net, lots of little samples and a few people will bite. Just 6 quite large samples is just giving out free products

Either you're giving out a sample for free and it's up to those who take a piece each to choose whether or not to buy a whole one, or you're not.

This family have literally taken one each of something you put out to take for free.

I'd take one each per person. So if they're a family of 6, they're entitled to take one sample each, I would have thought. If they're regulars, I wouldn't say anything.

When you see the family coming in put out a sign next to the samples stating.

'For Display Purposes Only' !

I agree. If it’s not your cafe and the owner decided to give out free samples that are large enough to be shared, why do you care?

YABU.

first samples shouldn't be big enough to share.

It's perfectly reasonable to take one per person.

Remove when you see a family come in if you don't like it.

One person = one sample so if there were 6 or more people in the group YABU. If there were fewer of them and they had more than one each YANBU. I’ve never seen samples as only for people who want to buy, if a sample is there then I’ve always assumed it is free to be taken.

I have never seen food samples adevertised as « one per family », the done thing is to not have more than one per person, but in this situation they haven’t done anything wrong!

What the hell are samples for, if not for people to sample (eat)?

One sample per person (regardless of age) is fine and not CF in any way.
Samples should be single bite sized. If your business doesn't know the appropriate size of a sample, that's not the customers fault - most people don't share half eaten food with others, so expecting a sample to be shared is unreasonable, and frankly unhygienic and disgusting. (I'd be very concerned about the food hygiene training of any food server who thought two or more people munching on one item was to be encouraged).

These people are repeat customers, which generally equals good customers! They regularly come in and purchase things, which in turn pays your wages.

Your employer shouldn't be offering for free anything they don't want people to take for free! Don't want people to take free bits of cake? Don't put free bits of cake on the counter for customers to freely take!

You're only allowed to put out six samples a day? That's some business model there.

I don't know what your problem with it is, the samples were free, they were put out to be eaten and they were taken to be eaten. I wouldn't touch them, I never eat samples of anything but would buy the product if I wanted to.

Let the actual business owner worry about it and save your blood pressure.

Where this cafe @squashedalmondcroissant ? Me and my 22 kids fancy free cake 😆

I’d remove the samples next time they come in and make sure they do see you. There seem to be a lot of sample-snafflers on this thread.

If customers annoy you, find another job.

Oh come on, SIX samples taken, clearing the whole plate. That's piss taking.

I'd put up a sign saying "please ask for a taster" If you only put out samples of one cake then the sign should say something like "Today's taster cake is xxx please ask if you'd like to try it." your samples must be pretty big if you expect people to share them. If they decide to eat in after paying for takeaway then charge them the extra.

Your samples were too large, cut them smaller in future

It's not that family in Wales that keep going into restaurants, running up massive bills and then walking out without paying is it? https://twitter.com/On_The_News_Ltd/status/1781778597469901110

So what if they see you put them away again? 🤷

If they ask you you say we only have a limited number per day and I've been asked to spread them out a bit over the day.

If there were six of them I don't see the issue? Were they not very small? I think you either need to put more samples out or just accept that if you only put out 6, if 6 people come in, they'll all be gone.