AIBU to expect cafés to stay open after 4pm?

I have often wondered why when English afternoon tea is traditionally 4pm the cafés close at that very moment.
Even in cities there is a dead time between cafes closing and restaurants opening.
I found a cafe in Edinburgh's, Stockbridge (not Costa or Starbucks) where a lovely lady served me tea and a hotdog at 5.30pm recently.

BlueBelle

I think the days of afternoon teatime are long gone LLFL

Not at the Midland hotel in Morecambe, we were there on Thursday and a very steady stream of delectables found very happy diners.

Many hotels and tea rooms here in Essex serve afternoon tea, usually from 2pm - 5pm as do most decent hotels in London.

Love the Mudland, PamelaJ1

Or even The Midland!!

all the Cafés in our Midlands market town stay open until 5 or 6 pm

The two in our village close at 3pm! Which I think is unreasonable. A friend and I would have a class that finished at 2.30pm - we were turned away from both cafes (both seconds walk away),because "we close at 3" .....

A lot of cafes round her don't seem to be open even until 4, even the coffee shops. It's a shame, I'd love to take my granddaughter out for a snack but now I buy something from the supermarket instead.

M0nica

If cafes could do enough business after 4.00pm, then they would stay open.

Many cafes also open quite early in the morning, some as early as 7.00am to do breakfasts. It can be a long day and they need at least an hour after shut down to clean up and make sure there cleanliness etc adheres to the highest standards.

Many cafes are run by couples or families, often without extra staff, or a few waitresses at busiest times.

If you want tea or coffee all hours go to a Starbucks or Costa Coffee or Cafe nero.

Our local Costa isn't always open either when I pick my granddaughter up. I think it may depend on whether they have the staff, they do open very early. Even if I catch them open they often have very little left to eat.

I’ve experienced the same. One small town closed everything by 3pm and it was a bank holiday weekend. THere were 3 cafes but none were able to offer us tea and cake after 3pm. We love walking holidays in the UK so the tea and cake is what we look forward to after a day’s walking I’m sure it must be for financial reasons, having read your comments. Such a shame.

It's not uncommon now and I can understand why.A lot of cafes and restaurants are struggling to get staff and retain them.And their running costs have shot up.We were in Anglesey recently and a cafe we have visited many times opens later and closes earlier.And locally several of our favourite restaurants close 2 /3 days a week rather than one.

Washerwoman

It's not uncommon now and I can understand why.A lot of cafes and restaurants are struggling to get staff and retain them.And their running costs have shot up.We were in Anglesey recently and a cafe we have visited many times opens later and closes earlier.And locally several of our favourite restaurants close 2 /3 days a week rather than one.

Costs of most businesses have shot up, must make a profit or cease doing business. In my husband's business his cost of goods sold is exponentially higher and his income less. Cutting hours is significant saving.

YYABU, they know their busy times and have adjusted their opening times to suit. Maybe more people go out for coffee in the mornings rather than Afternoon Tea? So most places will be open early and close early.

I imagine that in the Winter considerable savings will be made on heating and lighting costs.

Our local very successful cafe struggles to get staff and a few months ago closed completely for a week to allow everyone to have some time off. They close at 4pm but open a few evenings at 5pm for dinners

As cafes are private enterprises, I'm not sure we can 'expect' anything of them.

We were in the Brecon Beacons recently and so disappointed with this!
I love high tea, or even tea, scones and or cake mid to late afternoon. Im Sure there’s is money to made with this service.

In my small town, lack of staff is the main problem. Rural coastal and heavily reliant on tourism but second homes and many airbnbs mean that there are few places for locals to rent. Less families here so less teenagers to work in hospitality.

Lol the place I ran we shut at 4 but we were working from 6 in the morning baking bread etc that’s 9hrs as most ppl go home from shops before that it’s not worth staying open any longer financial wise

I don't think you are. In the 'low' seasons maybe close early, but now you'd think they'd open as long as they could.

Sometimes it's a local chamber of trade decision to allow businesses that are not cafes e.g. pubs, to get a share of the custom..

I used to work in a cafe, I was the one full time person. The other staff were usually 4 hour shifts. We tried staying open till 5 but it just wasnt viable for the few people that basically just wanted a cup of tea or coffee, and we were in a tourist area. It was hard enough to get staff willing to work the part time hours especially an afternoon shift of say 2 till 6. Doing a full time day with those hours would mean starting at 8 to make scones and not getting out till after 6 with clearing up, that coupled with the fact you never got proper lunch breaks as it was the busiest time mean it was quite a hard going job. Im sure now most hotels would serve teas/coffee all day and many do proper afternoon teas that last till 5.

My daughters own a cafe and they close at 3pm. Over a 6 month period they did extensive research into costs and number of customers and it worked out that after 3pm they were actually losing money.

I don't think they are being unreasonable to close but I also wish they wouldn't.

Kartush

My daughters own a cafe and they close at 3pm. Over a 6 month period they did extensive research into costs and number of customers and it worked out that after 3pm they were actually losing money.

A local cafe owner here said exactly the same thing. It's just not worth their while to be open later than that.

our local Morrisons has closed it small coffee/cake place, many of us disgusted,, but what can we do, have to travel some ways to get a coffee and snack at any time of the day... life has so changed... I am sad!