A trip to Sainsbury's cafe

[Anthony Butcher]

My girlfriend and I just took a trip to Sainsbury's and thought that we would get some lunch in the cafe. We were pleased to see that they had changed the breakfasts to use free range eggs, rather than battery farmed. During our last visit we had complained about their battery farmed egg use, so perhaps that had a small impact... who knows?

Anyway, the conversation at the till went something like this:

Us: Could we have two vegetarian breakfasts and a bowl of chips please?

Employee: Sorry, it is after 11.30, so we only do brunches now.

Us: OK, can we have two vegetarian brunches then please?

Employee: Sorry, we don't do vegetarian brunches.

Us: Can we just order fried eggs, chips and beans then please?

Employee: Sorry, We don't take individual orders anymore, they are too complicated for the kitchen.

Us: OK, can we order a non vegetarian brunch without the meat please?

Empoyee: Sorry, but we will have to include the meat and charge you the same amount.

Us: So what you are saying is that there is no way to order a vegetarian meal after 11.30?

Employee: Yes. Sorry.

Another Customer: You could order the vegetable canneloni from the specials board.

Us: Two teas please.

Why didn't we order the canneloni? Because the pasta probably contained battery farmed eggs. I almost bought a scone, but the jam that came with it wasn't labelled as vegetarian and didn't have an ingredients list. .

Further more, a queue was building up and the other customers were getting agitated at waiting. One woman even growled "come on" at us. So not only did Sainsbury's lose a sale, they also managed to annoy several customers by not having sufficient labelling on their food and discriminating against dietary minority groups.

[Alex McKee]

Serves you right for using a supermarket cafe, LOL.

Smaller cafe's and such will be more likely to alter their menus and/or go the extra length to please a customer.

[Astrocat]

Heh, that sounds pretty familiar to me.
I live on a little island filled with hicks, so even the small eateries are likely to take that sort of deterrant approach.

[Conserned Consumer]

I used to work in a Sainsbury's Cafe, so this is my turf. I'd like start off by saying that your experience in the Truro store would have been very different. I'll address your points one by one:

My girlfriend and I just took a trip to Sainsbury's and thought that we would get some lunch in the cafe. We were pleased to see that they had changed the breakfasts to use free range eggs, rather than battery farmed. During our last visit we had complained about their battery farmed egg use, so perhaps that had a small impact... who knows?

This came in a while ago (probably as a response to other supermarkets doing it first) along with Fairtrade Tea, Coffee, sugar etc.

Anyway, the conversation at the till went something like this:

Us: Could we have two vegetarian breakfasts and a bowl of chips please?

Employee: Sorry, it is after 11.30, so we only do brunches now.

This is true.

Us: OK, can we have two vegetarian brunches then please?

Employee: Sorry, we don't do vegetarian brunches.

That's a lie. I can tell you now that a Vegetarian Brunch consists of 2 hash browns, 2 eggs, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, chips and two slices of toast.

Us: Can we just order fried eggs, chips and beans then please?

Employee: Sorry, We don't take individual orders anymore, they are too complicated for the kitchen.

This is also a lie. Individual breakfast items are on the menu for 49p each, chips are 99p per portion.

Us: OK, can we order a non vegetarian brunch without the meat please?

Empoyee: Sorry, but we will have to include the meat and charge you the same amount.

Us: So what you are saying is that there is no way to order a vegetarian meal after 11.30?

Employee: Yes. Sorry.

Another lie, whilst true that you would have to be charged the same, there's NO reason they can't leave the meat off. Anyway, as said above, you CAN get a vegetarian brunch.

Another Customer: You could order the vegetable canneloni from the specials board.

Us: Two teas please.

Why didn't we order the canneloni? Because the pasta probably contained battery farmed eggs. I almost bought a scone, but the jam that came with it wasn't labelled as vegetarian and didn't have an ingredients list.

You should have asked to see the product information guide. That would tell you if the Cannelloni used free-range eggs or not (in addition to the other ingredients). As for the jam, the more detailed ingredients are available on the box. This is not Sainsbury's fault, it's how they are supplied to us.

[Astrocat]

This is not Sainsbury's fault, it's how they are supplied to us.

I would assume that Sainsbury's are able to choose their own jam suppliers, since that's the case for anything else they buy pretty much.

If Sainsbury's chooses to buy cheap jam in a generic tub and sell it loose, that is what they have chosen.

Equally, if they were to choose to instead buy fancy jam in elaborate little individual glass jars of the sort found in quaint restaurants frequently..... well, they could choose to do that as soon as they like and then the jam would come with ingredients on each jar.

Of course, even if you had the full ingredient list right there, the chances are that you're likely to be informed that it contains E120, or other e-numbers.... then you're on your own from there when figuring out what the contents actually are.

I have to say though, if i were going to eat mass-produced eggs from a clone-restaurant, then the technical labelling of the eggs wouldn't change my choice much, since as we were discussing in the free-range vegetarian topic, from an ethical perspective the conditions are likely to have been incredibly similar, regardless of the technical classification by the government ('battery' 'barn' 'free range' etc).