Who was in the wrong - bakery or me?

[Doijb]

I take my kids to a bakery after swimming. Most of the time they choose sausage rolls or similar. There is a tiny table with two chairs. I plop one of my kids on my lap and we eat our treat. I prefer this as otherwise the flakes would go everywhere.

Anyway, after going every week to this place for a year one of the staff members tells me we’re not really a sit down food place. I inquire about the chairs and she said it’s more for people who wait.

I just found this odd. My kids are brilliantly behaved and I make sure not loud. My oldest will wipe down the table with a serviette.

Who is being weird?

Hang on - you say you didn't realise it wasn't for sitting and eating, but also that you'd give up the table if anyone disabled or elderly came in. It sounds like you DID know it was for waiting customers. Or would you also jump up from your table in a cafe mid meal if someone disabled or elderly came into the cafe? It's also odd to me that you never thought it was odd that a place where people could eat would only have one table. Kinda sounds like you knew it was a bit of a cheeky move and were being a bit entitled and didn't like being called out on it. That said - the cafe should have just taken away the table - job done.

If bakery food is being sold to eat in they have to add VAT. If they aren't set up to add VAT they shouldn't really have chairs there but they will get into serious legal trouble if they regularly charge any customer a non-VAT price and then let them eat-in.

I'm not familiar with the regulations covering food hygiene but it wouldn't surprise me if a bakery serving exclusively take-away food had a different kind of inspection regime to a cafe with eat-in seating.

I think you need to change what you do here - either eat your bakery treats at home/in the car or go to a proper cafe.

They are unreasonable for not having informed you of this much sooner.

I'd vote with my feet though. Take your business elsewhere.

Exactly! Honestly some comments are ridiculous.

I don’t know anybody who wouldn’t sit at a free table when no other customers are there just in case someone arrives who needs it more than them - of course this is an invisible disability, but severe enough for them to need to sit for the 2min it usually takes for a bakery order. And obviously the person needing to sit won’t ask but instead of will suffer in silence.

Agreed.

I don't think the table is for customers at all, waiting, eating a sausage roll or doing anything else, I think that it's for the staff.

Somewhere to sit with a coffee or a brew when there’s nobody in the shop, have an inpromtu little break, take care of a squashed sticky bun by eating it and so forth, hence the awkwardness of the exchange.

It would have been a much spicier AIBU if the bakery lady had said, "I'm fed up of you and your kids sitting here forever, taking up space, that's my table for er, stuff."

I would assume you could sit there. I don't think I've ever known a food establishment to have tables and chairs for only for waiting customers.

This! I would have assumed a table and chairs is to sit and eat at, most takeaway places would just have the chairs for waiting customers

This is true, but if the sausage rolls are sold hot and have been kept warm (as distinct from cooling to ambient temperature from the oven) then VAT is chargeable anyway, whether for takeaway or eating in.

I think you've cracked it. Thank goodness. I was going to waste all day wondering what the point of the table was.

I’d guess you and your kids are making a mess and they’ve had enough.

The fact that serviettes are provided suggests that this is indeed the case and therefore all debate about VAT is moot.

The table I think caused the misunderstanding. They should have told you a year ago if you were not allowed to sit there. Have you ever seen anyone else there eat at the table?

No one was wrong or weird (definitely not the bakery).

You we’re mistaken and thought it was a table to eat at.

They told you it was just for waiting customers.

Yes you were technically in the wrong but it was just a simple misunderstanding.
They weren’t being weird by telling you so.

If I was them I would remove the table and put a sign up saying it’s for waiting customers only.

There’s no harm done and now you know for next time.

One tiny table does not suggest you can eat in, come on.

Now this thread has really become ridiculous 😂.

OP is now a rude, selfish, entitled person and she and her precious brats have been mistreating cancer sufferers.

OP, YANBU. They've been unreasonable to wait a year to tell you that the table is just for waiting at. Unless their sausages rolls are really out of this world, I'd just find somewhere else to go.

I mean... how can the bakery be wrong here ?

How can the bakery be wrong as that is their policy?

You have said yourself it is a tiny little table.

I would assume I could sit there because of the table. If it is for waiting customers why the fuck do they need the table? Surely they would just put another chair there.

I would probably now find a nice cafe to sit in and eat their baked goods and give them my custom if I wanted to continue to treat the children after swimming.

Isn't it a VAT thing? They pay more if you sit inside and eat. Which is why Greggs asks you.

If you are in the uk, there are regulations depending on whether a place is registered as take away or eat-in. It’s to do with tax and insurance purposes. If they are registered as take away only, by you eating there they may be in breach of certain rules.

so the bakery is doing the right thing but it’s weird you were not told before. Probably the person behind the counter was not aware of the regulations so said nothing until probably one day the manager/owner became aware and told them not to let customers eat in.

They should put a sign up really.

I’m so confused.

you thought the seats were for sitting in. They informed you they were not

jib done right? I mean I’m so confused as to what the problem is ?

What's the table for? Decoration?

Wrong. It's totally weird to not say anything for an entire year.