Restaurant pricing

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I sometimes go to the drive-thru Costa at Bushey Arches on my way back from swimming. I pay just over £4 for a large decaf mocha with squirty cream.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I baulk if a coffee costs over £2.50! I only drink it black though. Syrups, squirty cream and large sizes are understandably more expensive.
All these things exist because people have carefully considered whether or not they are worth it for a treat and fair play to those who provide the luxuries. I am so out of touch I recoil with horror at most prices. Someone local did a roaring trade over lockdown selling 4 fancy brownies in a box for £10. I thought that was extortionate but know it wasn't really. The thing is, I'm not fond of Brownies. If it had been something else, maybe I'd have felt differently!

Going back to the original subject. There seems to be a suggestion that food prices will rise over the next year due to Brexit. Awful news for those already struggling but I wonder if restaurants will have to consider even higher prices.

[herbidacious Profile]

I used to buy a Costa latte on my way into the office every day. (Then bought the means to make my own proper coffee at work and stopped.) A lot of people do similar. They don't regard it as a treat. Similarly at husband's penultimate (hedge fund) job in the city there were no drinks making facilities so they had to go out to buy all their coffees. (In husband's current job, if they leave a mug out at the end of the day, the cleaners are instructed to throw it away. They have vending machines with disposable cups )
A coffee is to me what tea is to most. Are tea prices the same?

Also are the prices in chain places the same everywhere? I often wondered about people drinking in outlets of places such as All Bar One (back in the day when I drank) in locations outside the south east. The standard price for a large glass of wine in London generally, including ABO, was about the same as a bottle of wine. So getting on for a fiver back in 2010. Cafe Rouge is another. Not very expensive in London but presumably quite pricey in Sheffield.

(Again no published prices on their websites. Is this because there is a price differential? I am sure there didn't used to be in ABO.)

[scullion Profile]

In husband's current job, if they leave a mug out at the end of the day, the cleaners are instructed to throw it away. They have vending machines with disposable cups :o

blimey, how affected is that‽‽

[Earthmaiden Profile]

In my workplace we moved into a new building and they got rid of vending machines and supplied each person with a mug and provided tea, instant coffee, sugar etc. Dirty mugs had to go into a dishwasher or a plastic box if dishwasher was in use. After a short while, the kitchen was a mess, people had littered it with their own cafetieres, coffee makers etc, no-one ever wanted to empty the dishwasher so dirty cups and plates overflowed from the box and around the work top and the poor cleaner, who came round twice a day, had to sort it out. At weekends and at night, older people usually got tired of it and cleaned up at the end of shift. There was no hot water tap at the sink which didn't help. I can quite see why a throw away cup policy might be implemented!

[aero280 Profile]

We had a similar dirty cup issue at our office. We had contract cleaners who were doing a good job of cleaning, but didn’t do dishes. Cleaning was outsourced, we asked the supervisor who said that our cleaning regime was to the company standard. In our isolated office we negotiated an extra for the cleaner to wash up. She got paid a bit more and was happy to do it.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

I can’t wait to get back to regular lunching out with friends. So much nicer (and cheaper) than dining in the evenings. Also, I suspect, better for the elderly digestion.

I read a newspaper article this morning (which I now can’t find) saying that British companies are having big problems recruiting truck drivers as a result of Brexit. There may be food shortages and prices are set to rise . . .

Re the workplace coffee, every school staff room I was ever in had two dishwashers. One of them was always on the go.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Found it. https://inews.co.uk/news/lack-truck-dri ... rn-1034254

[Earthmaiden Profile]

At least DS should stay employed .

I didn't want any, but noticed in Sainsburys today that the fabric conditioner aisle was almost bare.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

There was a feature on one of the TV News programmes about a lack of HGV drivers

[Binky Profile]

We have just come back from the British Museum. Tea, coffee, a sandwich and a muffin cost £11.80. This was in the Members dining area and I think they give a 10% discount to us aesthetes, but even at full price it is still good value for refreshments in central London.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

Very good value Binky!

[Pepper Pig Profile]

More on the current hospitality situation here. https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... nto-crisis

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I didn't think the member's room was open, the BM are rubbish at giving information

Yes, it's not a bad place to get a snack

[Binky Profile]

I didn't think the member's room was open, the BM are rubbish at giving information

Yes, it's not a bad place to get a snack

The cafe near the bookshop is open (the one with the tables where you can eat a picnic if you want) and the Members cafe is open but the other ones are still closed.

[jeral Profile]

More on the current hospitality situation . . .

Surely the plight of low-paid, back-of-house, AKA kitchen, staff is long overdue for reassessment.

There could be split shifts, overnight shifts for food prepping and/or cleaning which would attract some with childcare costs, job sharing. Also better ventilation, training (inhouse or external) to give career advancement prospects; maybe a specialism. Some incentive scale of pay rises based on ability or loyalty.

I heard that another company (Tesco?) had lost a court case brought by staff re equality between shop floor and warehouse staff, so maybe the tide is turning on cheapskate employers.

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I don't think it's as simple as that jeral. Of course people should have good working conditions and pay but the businesses would have to price themselves out of the market. £54 for a fish and chip supper for 4 (as reported somewhere today) might be the going rate but it's out of reach for a good many families. I am all for paying a fair price for things but perhaps overheads such as business rents should be controlled as well. There is more and more poverty (or inability to live on low wages in expensive cities etc). Food charities have good suggestions on what could be done to start improving things - the country has lost its way and needs to get on track pdw. Businesses and people might then have a chance to thrive. I'm afraid it might mean the shop floor being less affluent to give the warehouse workers a chance as well as the Fat Cats getting a new physique. I'm usually very middle of the road politically but despair at what I'm seeing.

[jeral Profile]

It's chickens coming home to roost. Reduction of labour/union rights, undercutting with migrant labour and a PM (Cameron) positively glowing about how migrants helped our economy. Only partly true as few of the profits are reinvested, meaning that GDP is a lousy measure.

A business can't survive if its model is effectively a bankruptcy plan in the first place due to high costs leaving only chains capable of absorbing losses -deemed worth it to maintain the name's presence.

I agree that there isn't an easy answer. If rates went down, rent would probably go up. Property owners prefer to sit on empty properties as capital-growth assets, or sell for housing. When money is king, and when community and people are seen merely as necessary annoyances, what will bring about change? My money's on more cuts in support and empty promises about retraining.

[Suelle Profile Website]

More on the current hospitality situation here. https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... nto-crisis

A very telling phrase towards the end of the article - “Finding experienced team members is tricky”

For far too long employers in all parts of the labour market - from heavy industry, through house building and down to the service industries - have been unwilling to invest in training people. So many job adverts stipulate that trained applicants are required, and now that there aren't experienced migrant workers to fill the vacancies this is coming back to bite employers.

Adult education, in the form of apprenticeships and other ways of learning a trade, have never received the support that degrees have, because, deep down they are seen as inferior, even though they train the types of people that society cannot function properly without.

Employers stopped being willing to give day release for relevant training many years ago, because it, and only getting 4 days work from someone still being trained to do the job properly was more expensive than employing an already trained person. This short-sighted view has crippled many industries post-Covid & -Brexit, not just the hospitality industry. No HGV drivers, no tradesmen for building and plumbing, no factory workers to produce materials for builders and plumbers to use.

Yet relatively high levels of youth unemployment!

[Earthmaiden Profile]

Hear hear, Suelle.

Totally agree, jeral.

I think the tide will turn, it always does. I hope its sooner rather than later. There's much to change this time round.