This was expensive?

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Local garden center..

2 toasted sandwiches with tiny side salad. The sandwich consisted of 2 pieces of bread with meat/cheese.
2 teas
1 fruit tea
£32 😬 for a quick bite to eat...

It’s the same here in the local garden centre . Daylight robbery

Garden centre cafes always seem ridiculously overpriced. £9 for a jacket potato at one near us! They are always packed though (with rich pensioners).

Ha, rich pensioners? If only …

Growing up in 60's visiting cafes was considered a treat for most people and restaurant dinning was special occasions only. Sadly, it looks like that will be the norm again. 😏

I know it’s almost criminal isn’t it. But that’s the cost of things these days. We don’t eat out as often as we used to.

I think this just proves that it won't ever get to a point where people refuse to pay those prices! I remember about 20 years when I went to the London Wetlands Centre, going into the cafe to buy a bottle of drink. When I saw they were charging £2 for a 500 ml bottle of diet coke I thought forget it! I know that nowadays that seems about normal but back then,the average price was around 80 pence per bottle. There was no shortage of customers prepared to pay this price though. When I mentioned it to my DM a couple of days later,she said well if people stopped buying them at those ridiculous prices,they'd have to reduce the cost. I said judging by the number of people buying not just one bottle,but 3 or 4 if them,I didn't think that was ever likely to happen.

Why ARE garden centres always ridiculously overpriced?!

Because people go there to look at plants, buy gifts like pencil cases for their grandchildren or a coat for their dog, then go for a nice cup of tea and a bite to eat.

Cos the world is full of suckers who will pay their prices! The Planters near me is stupidly overpriced and yet they have been in business for donkeys years.

Always seems to be full of "people of a certain age". Him in red chinos and her in white capri pants and a "fun" top with 3/4 length sleeves spending three times what it would cost for the same plants if they went to B&Q. Went there so much cos the kids liked seeing the fish and there is a nice (free!) play area.

Goodness, I’d have checked the menu before ordering. Did you not see the prices? 😂

Because they wanted a snack whilst shopping! Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I always find garden centre cafes annoyingly more expensive than regular places!

Yes, this is true. Even having a cup of tea at the department store canteen was considered a bit indulgent.

By the time I was in sixth form (early 70s) a Wimpy had opened in town. We girls used to go there for coffee a couple of times a week, a burger if we had money. The place was quite shabby and very cheap, but it made us feel all independent - and our mums were startled that teenagers could suddenly afford to go 'out' for a coffee 😂

It was a pretty dour existence, though everything's exciting for teens! But in between that period and the mid-eighties explosion of café culture, there were restaurants for 'working people' which were incredible value. I think they were a hangover from wartime (?) but proliferated around that time. The menus were limited - spag bol, cottage pie type of thing - and cooked very well on the premises. Tables were crammed together, service was brusque but cheerful, portions large and prices low.

It'd be great if they came back, imo, but I'm not sure today's customer would appreciate the no-frills experience. Maybe after a few more years of inflation?

Or you could go to our hospital shop where the prices are similar.....
Best buy is the sparkling water at £1.15 for 1litre.

Wow even out costa franchise is only £5.95 for a toastie with hot drink. I do find garden centre excessive though. Went to one recently as it was opposite where we were using office space for work. Nearly died at the price of food. But we weren’t close to anywhere else and hasn’t taken packed lunch.

Pretty sure that's Garden centre coffee shop prices. I took my daughter to one as a treat for her birthday, she was 11, she loved the environment and the difference to regular cafe. I hated the price, hated the coffee and the food wasn't all that. All her grandparents were there too, they were all stunned by the poor quality, to the point we had uncontrollable giggles flying over my happy daughters head.

Moral of that story...Garden Centres are great just not the food.

I'm a pensioner ( what an outdated term) I can't afford not would I pay £9.00 for a potato. I loathe large garden centres.

@bafta16 , don't go to them then. It's not compulsory.

I'm not retired and like a good garden centre but a lot of them are not that good. I wouldn't go to eat in one. I'd prefer to go to a country pub.

I wouldn't pay that because I hate being ripped off, but you (and others) did, and that's why they are in business. Let's face it, eating out (even a sandwich in a garden centre) is a luxury. You could have gone home and made your own sandwich for about a pound, but you chose not to, so why complain afterwards? Either pay the money, see it as a treat and don't give it any further thought, or look at the price list, and leave.

Yes expensive! But everywhere is now. Took my two teens to a local ‘milk shed’ cafe recently. They had scrambled egg on sourdough each, one with bacon, one with beans, two scoops of ice cream each, and I just had a pot of tea……£50!!!! They didn’t even have a drink, just the free water. Not so long ago the three of us could have a proper meal out for that!!

I agree but I don't think eating out is a rip-off. You are paying a lot more but you're paying for more than just the food - it's sourcing and preparation, the location etc.

That’s really outrageous.

I didn't say that eating out in general was a rip off. I said that I hate being ripped off so I wouldn't pay that much for what they had.

Indeed. Being a fully paid up member of the flask and packed lunch brigade I'm beginning to feel extremely smug. Fiver for a cup of coffee, not likely i say. Alternatively on a nice sunny day coffee and a muffin takeaway from Greggs is cheaper than that.

I suspect that many will pay this because they like garden centres anyway, and the cafés feel friendly and safe, a very well behaved demographic on the whole, so maybe they can put up with such high prices for the sake of comfort and safety. I understand that.

I mostly avoid chain cafes these days, they are expensive and not always pleasant places to be in. I had a coffee thrown at me in a Cafe Nero in Stratford Westfield by a horrible unkempt man who was sleeping in a chair there, and the staff were not remotely interested. I have boycotted Nero ever since. I strongly suspect that a garden centre cafe would always be much safer.