Brambles cafe

dekbhoy

in Jervis street shopping centre , charging 2 euro 60 cent for their own brand 500ml bottle of water and it wasnt even cold...... complete rip off

reprazant

Did you buy it?

dekbhoy

yes i did ...... unfortunately ,well i paid for but my wife handed over the money . lesson learned.

Nanazolie

Brambles are well known for the poor value they offer. Their display looks attractive, but the food tastes average to fool and cost a fortune.

Was the price of the water displayed?

Dermo

Why bother complaining when you go and buy it yourself? Prices are set, usually, to the highest the majority of people will pay. You are a cause of the problem.

dekbhoy

Dermo wrote: »

Why bother complaining when you go and buy it yourself? Prices are set, usually, to the highest the majority of people will pay. You are a cause of the problem.

this is not necessarily true , due to circumstances i did pay and i hold my hand up for it. Was only made aware of the price after i read the receipt and the bottle was open otherwise i wouldnt have bought it . im regularly in dundrum SC and whilst there i sometimes would go to brambles, but not anymore simply due to the fact i was charged so much for the water , there is lots of competition out there and i have no problem boycotting a place where i feel i am getting ripped off. There is no way businesses can depend on one time consumers to sustain profits over the long term. People are not stupid

Dermo

dekbhoy wrote: »

this is not necessarily true , due to circumstances i did pay and i hold my hand up for it. Was only made aware of the price after i read the receipt and the bottle was open otherwise i wouldnt have bought it . im regularly in dundrum SC and whilst there i sometimes would go to brambles, but not anymore simply due to the fact i was charged so much for the water , there is lots of competition out there and i have no problem boycotting a place where i feel i am getting ripped off. There is no way businesses can depend on one time consumers to sustain profits over the long term. People are not stupid

In that case, you aren't at fault.
It just riles me when people complain about something which they could have easily walked away from and that's what I originally got from this thread.

Nanazolie

There is also the issue when prices are not properly displayed. Kileymore Café on O'Connell street, for instance, has "from...." for a range of items (danishes, scones, etc....). So you know you'll be charged a minimum of, say, 2.15, but unless you ask first the price of each item, you won't know their exact price.

Most cafés have a price list for coffees / teas but none for minerals. It's like custom-made sandwiches, where the price is "from....". Could be anything from 3.95 to 5.95, for instance. There should be a clearer price board that lists all items separately, and in the case of sandwiches, something in the lines of "bread of your choice + sauce + 2 fillings = 4.95". Some cafés manage it well, like the Rhubarb café in town

Most people are also too shocked / surprised / embarrassed when they reach the till and are quoted a ridiculous price to refuse. I've done it a couple of times, saying "no sorry, this is far too expensive". But when people have been caught and couldn't say a word, we should actually thank them for reporting their experience on this board. Because they will prevent others from falling into the same trap.

fro9etb8j5qsl2

Not sure if its the same chain or not but there used to be a brambles cafe in a shopping centre in limerick, i went in with a friend one day who ordered a sausage and chip. When we had sat down, she decided that she'd like 2 slices of bread to make a sandwich out of her sausages. So i go up to the counter and ask for them and get charged 1.20 for the privelige..... 1.20??? I could never understand why they went out of business seeing as they were making at least 8 euro profit on every sliced pan they used......

whippet

Jacoby Colossal Speedometer wrote: »

I could never understand why they went out of business seeing as they were making at least 8 euro profit on every sliced pan they used......

your 'understanding' wouldn't be the greatest if you think they were making a profit of €8 on each sliced pan .... their revenue would be about €8 if they sold each and every slice for the price your mate paid, but their 'profit' would be determined by many factors including things like

- staff cost
- rent
- light and heat
- wastage (food goes off very quickly)
- insurance
- rates

etc ... so the notion that the owner of the cafe had a cool €8 in his arse pocket from each and every sliced pan is so far off the mark.

maxer68

dekbhoy wrote: »

in Jervis street shopping centre , charging 2 euro 60 cent for their own brand 500ml bottle of water and it wasnt even cold...... complete rip off

I can never understand how people claim rip-off for something like this.

If it was a shop that you simply took the bottle from a fridge and drank it outside, yes, it would be a very clear rip off. But in a cafe in a high rent area, you simply have to pay towards the "package". Water is one part, the glass & ice if you want it is the second part, the seat and clean table for you to sit down and realax is the 3rd part. Every one of these things cost money and are part of the package you bought.

Do you complain about mc donalds charging 3.75 for a 1/4 pounder? - you can buy a rustlers 1/4pounder for 1.85 in tesco next door. But mcdonalds give you a seat and the product ready to eat, and charge for that.

Same with ready made sandwiches - 2 slices of bread (albeit catering grade - 50% denser) a slice of ham, a slice of cheese and a bit of tomato. Buy the same items from a grocery shop and use your own table at home and you're talking €1 - buy it in a cafe and use their seats / tables €3.50.

Coffee - about 15c of coffee grinds + 15c for the water / milk / sugar - (lower base cost than a bottle of water), yet €2.60 would be seen as quite good for a cafe.

Come on - lets hear about real rip-offs here, they guy cheating old people out of thousands for a crap driveway, the scammers fleecing people at scam auctions, the plumbers that overcharge for basic jobs etc etc.

Dermo

maxer68 wrote: »

I can never understand how people claim rip-off for something like this.

If it was a shop that you simply took the bottle from a fridge and drank it outside, yes, it would be a very clear rip off. But in a cafe in a high rent area, you simply have to pay towards the "package". Water is one part, the glass & ice if you want it is the second part, the seat and clean table for you to sit down and realax is the 3rd part. Every one of these things cost money and are part of the package you bought.

Do you complain about mc donalds charging 3.75 for a 1/4 pounder? - you can buy a rustlers 1/4pounder for 1.85 in tesco next door. But mcdonalds give you a seat and the product ready to eat, and charge for that.

Same with ready made sandwiches - 2 slices of bread (albeit catering grade - 50% denser) a slice of ham, a slice of cheese and a bit of tomato. Buy the same items from a grocery shop and use your own table at home and you're talking €1 - buy it in a cafe and use their seats / tables €3.50.

Coffee - about 15c of coffee grinds + 15c for the water / milk / sugar - (lower base cost than a bottle of water), yet €2.60 would be seen as quite good for a cafe.

Come on - lets hear about real rip-offs here, they guy cheating old people out of thousands for a crap driveway, the scammers fleecing people at scam auctions, the plumbers that overcharge for basic jobs etc etc.

All of your examples include the cooking/making of the food. The bottle of water is just that, a bottle of water. To properly make a comparison you should compare the bottle of water sold with water coming from your kitchen tap.
The complaint is about the price of a bottle of water compared to the price of a bottle of water.

edit: scammers and conmen are not rip offs, they are criminals

meditraitor

Brambles has to be one of the hangovers from the Celtic Tiger that Im most suprised survived.

Priced way over the top and average food....

Although if you buy the water at that price your the only one to blame.

My first experience with them was a bit different, went with the misses one day around midday for a snack, didnt bother to look at the prices.

2 pies (chicken something), 2 coffee's and 2 deserts (aplle tart type)... plus one crossaint for the little one.
€36, I would have compalined but the serving girl couldnt speak a word of english and the supervisor was of wandering the pavillions.

Im still to blame all the same for not checking the prices

Dermo

meditraitor wrote: »

2 pies (chicken something), 2 coffee's and 2 deserts (aplle tart type)... plus one crossaint for the little one.
€36, I would have compalined but the serving girl couldnt speak a word of english and the supervisor was of wandering the pavillions.

?!?!?

In my head, I'm trying to work that out. Did you also get part ownership of the shop or something else? That is ****ing excessive!

meditraitor

Dermo wrote: »

?!?!?

In my head, I'm trying to work that out. Did you also get part ownership of the shop or something else? That is ****ing excessive!

Imagine how I felt, apparently the pies were around €5, the apple tart things were nearly five, coffes €3 odd and a anoth 2 something for the crossaint,

maxer68

tis expensive - but the blame lies away from the cafe.

Taking the rents that Jervis were charging a couple of year ago, I'd say Brambles are paying €350 - €400,000 in rent. Add in service charges (cleaning centre, general management of centre) probably about €30,000 and then rates, the bug bear af all retailers (pays for street lighting, social housing, domestic water, road upkeep etc etc) I'd reckon about €60,000.

That table, you sit at for 30 minutes costs a lot.

The sooner lease regulation (upward only in leases signed before last year) the sooner prices can come down.

MajorMax

I stopped eating there for my lunch, I work quite close to Jervis st, when I saw one of the girls behind the counter trying to cut a just out of the toaster sandwich in half, she was putting her hand on it to steady it but it was too hot for hwer, she then pulled the front of her polo shirt out of her trousers and used that to protect her hand from the heat :eek:

Needless to say I made my excuses and left

Nanazolie

maxer68 wrote: »

I can never understand how people claim rip-off for something like this.

If it was a shop that you simply took the bottle from a fridge and drank it outside, yes, it would be a very clear rip off. But in a cafe in a high rent area, you simply have to pay towards the "package". Water is one part, the glass & ice if you want it is the second part, the seat and clean table for you to sit down and realax is the 3rd part. Every one of these things cost money and are part of the package you bought.

Do you complain about mc donalds charging 3.75 for a 1/4 pounder? - you can buy a rustlers 1/4pounder for 1.85 in tesco next door. But mcdonalds give you a seat and the product ready to eat, and charge for that.

Same with ready made sandwiches - 2 slices of bread (albeit catering grade - 50% denser) a slice of ham, a slice of cheese and a bit of tomato. Buy the same items from a grocery shop and use your own table at home and you're talking €1 - buy it in a cafe and use their seats / tables €3.50.

Coffee - about 15c of coffee grinds + 15c for the water / milk / sugar - (lower base cost than a bottle of water), yet €2.60 would be seen as quite good for a cafe.

Come on - lets hear about real rip-offs here, they guy cheating old people out of thousands for a crap driveway, the scammers fleecing people at scam auctions, the plumbers that overcharge for basic jobs etc etc.

I don't think anyone is claiming for a bottle of water priced the same as in Tesco. But there is no added value to the minerals, no labour or heating. The cost is the same whether you drink it in a glass sitting for hours at a table or taking it away (although you'd be stupid to buy a bottle of water in the café to take away when Tesco is across the floor). But people expect a "reasonable price". Having said that, bottled water is the most overpriced thing. I don't even understand why we drink it when a glass of filtered water is perfectly acceptable (and free - until next year, that is)

By the way, the coffee should also include the cost of heating / electricity / machine

rubadub

Nanazolie wrote: »

I don't think anyone is claiming for a bottle of water priced the same as in Tesco. But there is no added value to the minerals, no labour or heating. The cost is the same whether you drink it in a glass sitting for hours at a table or taking it away

It is similar to a pub really, pubs charge up to 8.60 for a pint bottle of bulmers, which would be a fraction of that in an off licence. And people taking up tables can "cost" the owner, the barman in my local told me he had to ask a bunch of foreign students to leave as they sat all day sipping 1 or 2 cokes, and lads came in and left to watch the match elsewhere as there were no decent seats.