Pizza Hut Buffet

[IAKnowyou]

Posting here to hopefully get some quick answers.

So I will be going to Pizza Hut for the buffet, at the weekend with my child for one of her friend's parties.
There's a few of us going, and I've had a look online and at weekends it is 15.99 per adult and 10.99 for children !
I am absolutely not going to eat 15.99 worth of pizza! And I doubt my child will eat £11 worth.
Would I be unreasonable to just pay for my child and maybe have a slice of pizza or 2?
I know they charge different per head to stop this. But how do they police this ??
It's not a huge deal, but I would definitely like to know before I go, and like to know if other people do this or not ?
Thanks !

It would still be stealing because it’s a buffet with an adult price and a child’s price and your child isn’t a baby.

normally buffets have a mimimum age and it free for those under that (not sure if this applies to Pizza Hut) so if she is very little then yes it would be acceptable but otherwise no.

you are not just paying for the pizza, but also the opportunity to sit in that location with your friends. Providing you with that table doesn’t come for free.

it may not be your first choice of place to go to but tough luck, it’s where your friend has chosen (unless you decline the invite and go somewhere else instead with your daughter)

Yes, yes, I know. OP is technically wrong etc etc. But my original point is why are so many people outraged by it? The vitriol towards OP was mad. It’s such a minor infringement, which pales into insignificance when compared with the way some customers will eat their own body weight at a buffet, and certainly doesn’t warrant the madness that this thread has unleashed. I always just find it distasteful just how eager some posters are to pile on an OP. It’s pathetic.

@BernardBlacksBreakfastWine
I agree with you 100%.

I don't understand why this conversation is still happening.

Um because it's comedy gold?
Within less than 12 hours we've had "scumsnet" and "Imagine one's character and integrity being worth less than £15"
If OP had hung her head in shame for her transgressions and not returned after page 2 then we would have missed all the moral indignation

I think it should be nominated for classics tbh....sociologists can look back on it in 50 years as an illustration of the national character in 2024...the divide of broken britain....when Gen Delta or whatever we'll be on by then ask about the collapse of the economy we can say "well it can all be traced back to mumsnet user @IAKnowyou "

Now THAT is brilliant 🤣

The conversation continued because the OP wanted to continue to provoke the outrage. I'm surprised that it's taken so long for someone to nominate it for Classics. People are easily amused I suppose.

I've lost my integrity many times in a Pizza Hut buffet 😢

🤣

@ilovesooty correct "provoking the outrage" to "making the most out of a pile on thread" as that's exactly what I was and am doing. I did find it rather funny in the end. It IS funny seeing how het up people get about silly things like this

I'm sure perceptions differ but at least you got a lot of attention.

In case you didn't see it, I mentioned several pages ago that this is a non conversation as your DD eats the buffet for free as long as you pay a minimum of £10 to eat something.

https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/restaurants/blog/kids-eat-free

I think its people don't like entitled people their has to be line. So op doesn't pay for a meal but everyone else should. Why is she so special. Then she doesn't pay for her shopping and everyone else does again because she thinks she's special. She's then setting this example to her child who then also think this is acceptable. Op has made it clear she can afford to pay and that she doesn't want to as she won't eat much as she's so teeny tiny. Most people don't get their moneys worth out of a buffet but you have a choice you either go or you don't. The business shouldn't have to change because op doesn't agree with it. I don't agree with lots of things I have to pay for but that's the price. I don't think I'm special and should be treated differently to any other person in this country.

But it’s only for one child and they are going as a group

But they are paying separately.

Exactly.

I do get this, yes. I realise that, as a society, we have to abide by the rules or it all falls down.

It’s just the vitriol and the delight in the pile-on that I find hard to take. I mean, these huge companies will always win in these situations- they make money out of the vast majority of buffet-eaters. They will have all these tricksy terms and conditions that screw you over (not just talking about PH here - any huge multinational). So when someone slightly struggling to afford things (and that’s many of us in this economic climate) wonder if, perhaps, we might turn the transaction to our favour this once, whilst certainly eating no more than a fair-sized man might, is it really in the spirit of the site to take such obvious joy in shutting her down? People are weird. Everyone is suddenly prepared to defend Pizza Hut to the death against a slightly struggling mum trying to celebrate a kid’s birthday 🙄

Your comment about ‘Why is she so special’ is interesting. Is that what people automatically think when someone gets a rare break? So much ill feeling.

"Turn the transaction to OUR favour for once"???

That's quite the euphemism.

You mean steal? Why not do it at Tesco and B&Q and the local garden centre, too, while you're at it?

No one is forced to patronize any business. That is how the consumer exercises control over the situation. Not by thieving, cheating and lying, once there.

She posted in aibu, are you new here. If she had posted in any other section she wouldn't of got this response but that's what she wanted so I'm not going to feel bad for her about that. It's not a rare break it's stealing just like she admits to stealing from Tesco after repeatedly saying she can afford these things. People who steal put the prices up for others who are genuinely struggling. These are business and just because their successful it doesn't mean others can steal from them just like if you started your own business you would set prices and they are the prices.

OP isn’t slightly struggling to afford things though and made that clear. She can afford it, she just didn’t want to spend the money.

Even if it was the case, it doesn’t justify not paying for something. That just isn’t how it works.

Yeah, because there’s no difference at all between wheeling an unpaid for trolley of groceries out of Tesco and eating a slice of pizza that’s paid for off someone else’s plate.

Or maybe there is 🤔

At OP’s buffet, the price is a nominal price for an unspecified amount of pizza. In Tesco, every item has to be paid and accounted for.

At the buffet, a child could load up their plate and then realise they were full and leave three slices of pizza go to waste. By your reckoning, if a parent swoops in and eats one of those, they are stealing. Net result to PH - the exact same. Only difference is less food is wasted and someone who doesn’t necessarily have £15 to spare gets to eat something.

So that’s what I meant by getting the upper hand for once. Sure, PH wants you to pay £15 to eat that leftover pizza. But that’s them being dicks.

Its been 20 years since I had the pizza hut buffet (back when I'm sure it was about £6.99!) However it's very clear you have never run a business, nor do you understand how businesses work. You apply that black and white thinking that justifies not paying for food you eat.

You said that you don't factor in things like overheads. Which is frankly, stupid. There's also people that go to buffets like this (and olive garden in the US) just to film themselves eating as much as possible to get clout/money for views.

So businesses have had to reassess. If pizza hut haven't set out clear rules, that's on them. As I say, I don't know. But with most buffet options, every head at the table pays. Its a gamble for the business, some people eat more, some eat less. You simply cannot pinch some of your kids food when you haven't paid for food, without it being stealing. Otherwise everyone would go to the all you can eat Chinese and just pay for one plate, and the whole party keeps eating from that one plate.

I know you think it's funny, but it isn't.

If a parent swoops in to eat their child’s pizza at a buffet without paying for an adults price, it means that the intent was always to avoid paying an adults price and allow their child to get more than they will typically eat.

It just isn’t how buffets work or everyone would be avoiding paying the adults price.

If you don’t have £15 to spare, you don’t go. Just like you don’t go to a restaurant and help yourself to food that they may throw away anyway.

However it's very clear you have never run a business, nor do you understand how businesses work. You apply that black and white thinking that justifies not paying for food you eat.

Not sure if this is to me or OP. No, I’ve never run a business. Not something I’d be interested in. But I think the ‘black and white thinking’ is on your side.

Life is more nuanced than that.

Look, I don’t really care that much. I just really hate posters who all pile on an OP. It’s worse, really, when they’re technically right, because the joy that emanates from their hastily typed bursts of venom is almost palpable.

But if you want to cheerlead for big, rubbish pizza companies, you’re of course welcome to. I just don’t get it.

For all those saying ‘OP can easily afford it - she said so’ - just think for a moment. Literally the first response was someone saying ‘You clearly can’t afford it love, stay home’ followed by someone telling her how embarrassed they were for her. FFS. If she was struggling for money she certainly wasn’t going to say it then!! So little imagination coming from some posters; just an iron-clad determination to clobber OP because they can.

There is no difference at all. Stealing is stealing.

The buffet cost is set as the price of admission to use the buffet, whether one eats nothing but a piece of lettuce, or 25 slices of pizza. Base cost of the food ingredients is only one factor in the price. The rest covers overhead, your use of the facility, and other factors. No doubt it's also deliberately set at a level that deters excessively greedy people from even showing up.

No one is forced to patronize the buffet, but scamming it no matter what whiny exucse one comes up with, from "big bad chain pizza places" to "my kid wasn't going to eat much anyway," is lowdown dishonesty.

Would you sneak into a theater without a ticket, on the justification that you might feel like leaving after a few minutes? Stow away on a train because you think the fares are exorbitant? Steal a bag of crisps because you aren't that keen on the flavour and might only eat half of the bag? Tell Tesco you're only willing to pay half the total at the till, because their merchandise is shit in your opinion, or that they are making too much profit for their shareholders?

Come on. Your power lies in the decision to patronize these places or not. Not to unilaterally steal as a means of protesting their prices.