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?

Eh? Why does serviettes being provided prove that they are sold hot and not cooling?

I used to work in a cafe which sold "cooling" sausage rolls. We had napkins!

Yet on MN many many posters manage entire lifetimes unable to speak up.

It could be for waiting customers as well, as in, "There’s a queue and can my mum sit down for two minutes" but I would bet a sausage roll on it being the owner's or staff's little table where they can have a rest and still keep an eye out for customers when the shop is empty, or sit their own children at it to do homework or something quiet if we're assuming that it's a small family business.

It's the staff table, it's a thing. I could go out now and take photos of these in about ten different shops food and non food related in this village. Admittedly not in the UK but my reasoning still stands.

What are the seats for then?

There's quite a famous chippie in Southwold that has tables and chairs, but doesn't do service into that room - you have to walk outside to the takeaway counter around the corner and order there. Apparently it's for VAT, as they don't serve in, just offer some tables and chairs "for takeaway customers' convenience." I've no idea how that gets around the VAT law but they've been there for absolutely years, so I presume it does indeed comply.

There's a few chippies and kebab shops I can think of that have a single table and benches or chairs around it. I shouldn't think anybody wants to deal with charging VAT for a single table, so there must be ways to legally navigate it.

I think PP are being unfair. I don't think either of you are in the wrong.

Whilst I noticed a lot of places charge more to eat in- I didn't know that it was specifically due to VAT etc. Tbh, I just thought it stemmed from corporate greed as the 1st places that I saw it were chains such as costa coffee, pret etc.

Although having 1 table and chair, if they don't want people sitting to eat, then why have the table at all? Why not just have the 2 chairs? I highly doubt OP is the only one who has eaten there.

That's not a convention in the UK, so how would you know that the table is not for customers?

They are also very weird 🤨

Leaning on? Putting your shopping on? Resting a bag on whilst you put your purchase away?

Really? A bakery has a table and chairs and you think if it is available you should ask to use it?

The bakery is being weird and should remove the table if it doesnt want people to actually, you know, USE THE TABLE 😂

Which surely would give more room for chairs

How do you know someone doesn't look through the window, see there is no where to sit so missed out on their bakery treat?

As a pp said, there are VAT implications for eating in vs takeaway. You didn't know, so they politely informed you. No-one is being unreasonable in this situation, so I wouldn't give it another thought..

Agreed. Some of the responses on this thread are just bizarre. You should never sit down anywhere just in case someone has an invisible disability. You should be ‘mortified’ at not asking if you’re allowed to sit down. MN is a strange place sometimes.

It’s a bit odd on their part to put out tables and chairs if they don’t expect people to eat in. Maybe she wants to save on the crumbs! A few branches of Greggs seem to have not many chairs/tables but you can definitely eat in!

She’s politely asking you not to sit there.

Usually you'd just expect chairs if it was a waiting area, not a table.

Did you charge VAT?

And yet further into the realms of absurdity we descend, in the quest to cast the OP into the wrong.

Can I have a go too?

OP, you know those male oiks who steal all the chairs in antenatal units forcing pregnant women to stand or sit on the floor, well you and your children are essentially the bakery equivalent and you should be ashamed of yourselves for victimising the elderly and infirm in search of their flaky treat.

There, that's the OP told.

I would have assumed it was fine to eat at. Now you've been told it's not just don't eat there any more. It's not weird or a big deal.

If you eat on the premises, they are supposed to charge you VAT. However, if you take the sausage rolls away and eat them there is no VAT to pay. You should pay 20% more for the sausage rolls if you are going to eat them on the premises. Of course, it is quite possible their systems are not set up to cope with this. Even if they could cope, you clearly haven't been paying VAT. They could be fined if HMRC find out. They are therefore being perfectly reasonable.

Most posters have not said the OP was wrong, just that now she’s been told, they can’t sit there any longer.

Neither was being unreasonable, IMO.

This...

However if it was just a few chairs in a line I'd assume it was for those needing a sit down while being/waiting to be served.

I understand chairs for waiting, but why have they got a table/s? Of course it'll look like a sitting area similar to greggs etc. There should be a sign op? That is confusing imo, and I would honestly have thought it was a sit down area too, because of the table.
I would contact them with "constructive feedback" on their poor set up. That is not clear at all.

That could be thought - best not to have tables. Odd set up.

Never mind, I found this:

"Greggs bakes fresh daily, without retaining heat or marketing products as hot, to avoid VAT and keep prices lower. Hot sandwiches in heated cabinets are subject to VAT. "

Every day a schoolday....

Eating hot food inside would incur an additional VAT charge. It may be that the bakery staff weren't aware of this previously (as they are not a sit in venue) and so never bothered to pull you up on it, but it's recently been noticed and they've been told to put a stop to it.