To feel ripped off

[Bunny2607]

Nipped out to a local cafe at work today for some lunch to take back and eat at my desk. Very rarely buy lunch as either take it with me or nip home but circumstances today meant i ended up buying it.
small independent cafe, i got a mocha coffee, flapjack slice and a soup to take away. £12.60!!! I paid and didn’t say anything but i was so shocked at the price. Its been bugging me all day and tbh i don’t think i will go back due to the prices, it was only average at best as well.
when did you last feel ripped off?

Its been bugging me all day

Seriously?

£27 for 2 hot chocs, waffle and Bagel. 🥴

Interesting comments about staff being young, wonder if employing school kids under 18 at £6.40 an hour is helping them employ staff. £5 an hour difference between a young teen and a 21 yr old is a big difference.
I also take food/drink (like my mum did)
If you want a treat, too good to go app has Greggs bags £3.15.

Seems fairly standard to me. Is it a long time since you were in a cafe?

The increase in price is a direct reflection of the increase in their overheads but I totally agree with you OP that is a crazy amount to pay for what you get and my mind boggles at how those on lower incomes can afford it

We have fancy coffee machine at home and I love cooking and baking so make at homr and refuse to pay inflated cafe prices because of the poor value. It really stings to pay more than £3.50 for a coffee when they make it poorly or £5 for a watery soup when I could have done it better at home!

I will eat out at restaurants when socialising and take kids in holidays but not for impromptu visits

That's why we don't have breakfast or lunch out lots - mind you Wetherspoons breakfast muffin and lovely lavazza coffee we do treat ourselves to every now and again

I take a lovely flask of coffee to work and a homemade sandwich or a M&S pasta meal

I'm nearly always shocked at the price of a coffee because I don't often go out for one. Last time I did, the coffee was £3.50, which is sort of what I expected, but two shortbread biscuits was £1. Im sure I could buy a packet of them for not much more than that!

My friend runs a bakery and my life is she taking the piss with her prices. You can't get a coffee and a pastry for less than £10. She did a Christmas morning graze box. Couple of mince pies, some mini pastries, 2 tiny portions of granola, coffee beans and seasonal fruit. I know for a fact the seasonal fruit was from lidl. Also strawberries and red grapes are not seasonal fruit in the UK in December. Oh this was yours for the daylight robbery price of £35!

did you not look at the prices before ordering? They're legally obliged to post them. There's no way you should be surprised.

when did you last feel ripped off?

Every time I go to a supermarket 😳

I don't think that's too bad. I'm still aggrieved that I went to try a new cafe for breakfast the other day. Cost me and DP £35 and it was absolutely vile 😭 my food was stone cold too.

YANBU, prices are astronomical now! A few weeks ago we went out to eat at Pizza Express. As a rare treat we each had a dessert. I knew from the menu that they were £7.95 each, which was shocking in itself but what really took the piss was each dessert was about 4 spoonfuls. The size of them was absolutely ridiculous for the price. We won't be making that mistake again!!

I never buy takeaway lunch from a sit down cafe as you will pretty much always pay the same price (chains tend to show takeaway price as its worth their while applying differing vat rates) and I think that was probably your mistake.

I think you just need to write it off in your mind as doing your bit for supporting local business.

I tend to go to places that offer a meal deal if I treat myself to lunch at work.

The Seattle coffee in the Asda supermarket, cost nearly 3 pounds and tasted like warm water with a faint taste of coffee, never again. It sounded so good. I now go to Waitrose which have free coffee with a member card, it’s really good tasty Nero coffee as well.

And this is why I don't buy lunch out of the house, and if I really am gasping for a coffee if I have had to spend the day in the big town, I go to Mc Ds for it rather then the costa next door. Usually have a cold drink in the car anyways

For work, we have a selection of flasks, insulated cups, take out containers and we take left overs, HM soups, wraps, salads etc

We have lots of coffee shops in our wee town and they are bunged, but the busiest place is the wee family run and owned place which cooks proper food at proper prices . You can get a proper dinner - shepherds pie, chicken, beef etc, spuds , veggies and a pot of tea ( with top ups ) for £8, and you couldn't throw a stone over it as we say. Its not posh, they don't have a coffee machine, its tea, drip or instant, but lunch in there is worth every penny.

Just laughing at my use of "proper" I mean good basic homestyle food at a price that you are happy to pay

I quite often work in cafes and they have far fewer customers now than before covid. A combination of higher prices and worse value and service. I like working in caffs so will always do it, but to spend the thick end of a tenner on two coffees is clearly untenable!

Why we rarely eat out for breakfast or lunch... just not good value.

weve pretty much stopped eating out whether restaurant, cafe or coffee shop as the prices are ridiculous and the quality shocking. I honestly wouldn’t mind paying high prices if I enjoyed it but more often than not I just feel cheated because it’s average at best.

i just feel we can do better at home for a fraction of the cost. Made a carrot cake on the weekend with cream cheese frosting and it’s still going now.

We tend to avoid eating out too much now. Even make the children home made Mc Muffins.

Just leave feeling like I’ve always paid a lot for something that actually was not any better than a frozen ready meal half the time, or the service which is why eating out also costs more was just meh and then again I wish I’d just brought the steak and cooked it at home and drank a whole bottle of wine for the same price as one glass.

Mugged everywhere we go.

I hate the coffee chains like Costa and Starbucks. Starbucks in particular always seems grubby to me. £4.50 for a coffee is too expensive IMHO except as an ocasional treat but whenever I go into coffee shops I see people who have completely the opposite view.

Who drinks a mocha coffee with soup?

Someone told me yesterday that they paid FIFTEEN POUNDS for a smallish jacket potato with beans and a teaspoon of salad garnish on the side. This was at a local garden centre. I know places have vastly increased running costs to face, but jaysus, a potato is such a basic thing. Not £15 territory at all.

i think optimistic to think you can buy soup for £3. It’s more like £6.50-8.50 now.

It's a damn sight cheaper than an office, or sitting at home with your own heating on all day long. I think buying two coffees is the least you can do.

My son before Christmas worked in a pub with "restaurant seating" , warned us not to order a cheesecake as a desert, they came from the freezer and defrosted in microwave. I guess all puddings in pubs and pizza restaurants are like that.