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...

That does seem a lot but I was watching the clientele in our local garden centre. Lunchtime, a fair few in wheelchairs, centre is very disabled friendly. A fair few young families too, with prams etc. It’s ok for a treat now and then?

You’d have to eat and drink in your car.

I haven't been there for decades. Thanks.
I used to like the Albion.

Garden centers are always more expensive than local coffee shops.
Prices are making things unafordable for many of us. I can't no longer justify the price for a take out a month.

Honestly, that's average where we live, and that's not central London. The price of all eating out has gone through the roof!

How much were the toasties?

Its not average even in Costa!

A very popular cafe in a garden centre here in Mid Norfolk has a homemade sausage roll with a salad for £10 99, chips would be an extra £3.49 and you don't get a lot of chips, coffees are around £3.50, making about £18 in total.
It's always packed and they operate a virtual queuing system!

We live in an area where things are pretty expensive, but, not quite that dear!
That said, if I was worried about the cost, I'd price check before ordering.
Average here for a pub/café sarnie is around a tenner , not including drinks

I don't understand the fascination with dining in garden centres. I mean who wants to eat in a greenhouse, on horrible chairs with awful clattery acoustics?
The one near us does a mug of the cheapest veggie soup (usually potato and leek) with a basic sandwich for £18.95 🤣 and people pay it!
Or you can go to the lovely nearby local restaurant and have 3 tapas for £12.

This is why I avoid food at garden centres. They are always over priced.

I was going to write a response but I was too busy choking over the price.

There's no nearby tapas restaurant...

Pay £12 for ... ! £12! ...

Try Bill Rimmer’s in Southport! I was taken for brunch last month and it was fab. (Also big fan of Spoons 😄)

DIdn't Dobbies close a couple of years ago? The 'restaurant' in the one we sometimes went to was awful.

Wow! You can get a restaurant lunch here for that! We are going to a very nice Italian for lunch this weekend. Their lunch menu is 2 courses for £16 & the food is amazing! Rarely go to cafes as I think they are expensive for what they are! Most cafe food you can do at home easily.

Dobbies is still around

I would never ever pay that. Shockingly expensive. U r absolutely not being unreasonable.

Because that is very miserable. People should be able to go out and not pay so much for a snack.

The sad thing is that more and more people will not want to be ripped off or will simply not be able to afford to pay the prices soon. Which will hurt the economy and close a lot of restaurants pubs and cafés.

We lost something like 150 pubs per week over the beginning of this year I think(can't remember the exact figures but something like that).

Most people should be able to afford to go out for a treat every couple of weeks. It will get more expensive and life can start to feel joyless.

£18 for a sausage roll, salad, chips and a coffee seems a bit much but I bet people pay it because they are there. It’s always convenient to just pay it instead of travelling elsewhere

This type of treat is no longer affordable if you live on a basic state pension, but THEIR costs have increased so it is a vicious circle . Another shop (300 stores) has hit the buffers today citing minimum wage and NI increase plus business rates.

Would you prefer it if retail and hospitality staff got paid too little to live on?

Depends where you live. I come from a part of the country where prices are relatively low. My daughter lives in Esher - her local garden centre's prices are eye watering by comparison.

Garsons by any chance? I once heard their cafe’s weekly take was £30k . . .