Eat In or Take Out?

By steve_truckle | Thursday, May 27, 2010, 08:30

I recently went to the Parsons Bakery in Thornbury and ordered three cakes for my children, the cakes were very well presented and reasonably priced.

CAKES

However with that said I was gobsmacked when I noticed that the company were charging an EXTRA 33p on each cake if I wanted to eat in. So to eat three cakes at an additional 33p each would cost 99p just to eat in the shop!

How can this charge be justified? What can the café possibly have to offer me to warrant charging me 33p to eat a bun in the café?

What are your views on this? Do you eat in at this café? Have you ever noticed the extra cost PER ITEM to eat in? are you happy with paying this cost? And finally do you know other places in the town that charge you extra per item to eat in?

With the high volume of cafés and fast food outlets in the town it does make me wonder why these companies are charging the customers extra for these benefits,

Ok I understand that they are providing a service ie a chair, table and a plate but at an additional ¼ of the price I find unacceptable.

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Comments

Hiya StanMor, yeah i understand the reasons for doing it but 33p is a little over the top i think.

i do agree tho, and if it was say 10-15p then yes i could understand, or if I was sat down for an hour reading the news paper ect.
I just think it is wrong to charge this amount.

By steve_truckle at 21:46 on 27/05/10
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The 'taken-ot' cake price is the cost of producing it plus the shops profit. Eating in there is the additional cost of servicing. You would use one plate per item, maybe a knife or spoon or serviette, you sit at a table that has to be provided and cleaned, you occupy floor space on which rent is charged, you benefit from heating/cooling, your discards are taken away, someone is running the dishwasher and so on. And yes, VAT intrudes. All this is effectively fixed overhead on your cake. If you had bought a more expensive one I'd guess the markup would be a much lesser percentage as the service cost would be much the same. Care to do a survey of all eateries in town? They'll be much the same.

By StanMor at 21:42 on 27/05/10
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yeah i think your right but i did think that charging an extra 33p PER ITEM was unfair. i will look into it further tho.

By steve_truckle at 12:05 on 27/05/10
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An extra 25% seems steep but an additional cost per item isn't entirely unusual - take any Starbucks for instance. Isn't there some rule where if you eat in then there's VAT to pay, but if you take it away it's VAT free - with I imagine the shop deciding whether to absorb the cost?

By Philip_Ruse at 08:44 on 27/05/10
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