The cost of food at cafes

Discussion of Family, Wellbeing, Education, Justice and Sexuality
Post Reply
stevebrooks
Posts: 840
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2023 11:38 am

The cost of food at cafes

Post by stevebrooks »

Oh dear, another rant at the cost of food at cafes and why is it so expensive.
I hate when people come to my work and only buy water because why is it $6.80 for water? I feel awful selling it,wrote another.


Well the simple answer is this, it costs the same to serve you a glass of water while you occupy a table as it does the same person or group of persons occupying that table and spending several hundred on a full meal. (minus the cost of ingredients and cooking). So if you occupy a table and order a glass of water and sit there for 30 minutes the waitstaff don't suddenly work for 1/10th the price, the girl behind the till doesn't work for 1/10th the price and the person wiping down your table doesn't work for 1/10th the price just because you only wanted a glass of water. If you sit at the table and get glass of water for 50c the cafe probably loses money on you, so prices are adjusted to take this into account.

Basically if you want cheap juice pop into the supermarket/deli a few shops down, buy it in a carton and sit on a public bench to drink it, you get the same experience, and the cafe isn't paying for it.

While the cashier/waitstaff may feel awful charging for it, if they don't they are essentially working for free because the cafe gets nothing from that customer to contribute to their wages. Yes costs are high, but so is the cost of actually owning and running a cafe, I don't think all cafe owners are sitting on a pile of gold coins rubbing their hands together and going Mwhuahaha. I've known people running cafes, and many of the are working 12 hour days because they can't afford to pay extra staff.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/young-a ... 9642087ced
User avatar
Irrev-Black
Posts: 2747
Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2023 5:54 pm
Location: Between pilcrow and interrobang.

Re: The cost of food at cafes

Post by Irrev-Black »

This should not go unmentioned:

The cafe owners are also mostly subject to landlords and rent.

That'll fuck anyone up.
Greedy fuckers cannot self-regulate.
Prove me wrong.
stevebrooks
Posts: 840
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2023 11:38 am

Re: The cost of food at cafes

Post by stevebrooks »

Irrev-Black wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2024 3:22 pm This should not go unmentioned:

The cafe owners are also mostly subject to landlords and rent.

That'll fuck anyone up.
And if they rent in a shopping mall they are often required to be open as long as the shopping mall is open, so even if there are zero customers they still have to stay open and have food preppers and waitstaff sitting there being paid for nothing. It's a dream for many people, but I have seen cafe's and food places open and close in the same location over and over again, sometimes dreams turn to crap through no fault of your own.
Post Reply