Beanscene policy

[percival]

There's a chain of coffee shops in Scotland, Beanscene, who has now posted an explicit policy on child visitors:
- Children are to be fully supervised at all times.
- Toddlers and small children have to sit at the table for the duration of the visit.
- Children must not sit on the floor.

All well and good, and perfectly fine, but ...

... Beanscene's Unique Selling Point is that they are a place where families with small children can go and relax a little. This is how they are marketing themselves - a destination cafe for mums and babies/toddlers/small kids. We used to love it when our DD was tiny! Any hot drinks to sit in are served by the staff, not taken away from the counter by the customers themselves. I don't know about you, but when I take my toddler to a cafe, I find that a bit of fully supervised floor time or a closely supervised trip to the toy box can work wonders, especially when there's more than one adult.

They do have toy boxes, but last time I visited one, half the toys were broken/unusable. The Stirling Beanscene is said to have no more toys.

Beanscene are expanding south of the border into England now. Will you believe the hype?

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

I can understand the "not on the floor" policy in a place where people are walking around a lot - customers getting their own take-away drinks, or servers bringing eat-in items - reduces the risk that someone will get stepped on, or an adult will trip and spill hot coffee/tea/cocoa everywhere (including on a child). But standing next to a table would be okay, I would think. And the "fully supervised" thing seems kind of silly and mean-spirited to spell out. I mean, wouldn't you think that parents would be doing that anyway?

[mincot.livejournal.com]

Apparently some parents are NOT superfvising their kids, and making life terrible for everyone else.

Any hot drinks to sit in are served by the staff,

You sit in your hot drinks over there? Me, I prefer a chair or the floor, but to each her own, I suppose :) :) :P

Seriously, I know what you meant, but the wording just tickled my funny bone this morning.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't have a quibble with "full supervision", and it's fine to be reminded of that. It's the other two points that I have some issues with, especially since they claim to be child friendly.

[joesther.livejournal.com]

I wonder what the difference is between "child friendly" and "child welcoming." Having never been to one of these coffeeshops, I can only guess that they want to keep their patronage to mainly adults since adults are the ones who buy their items, after all, but don't want to discourage those who have children from coming in. That said, they don't want to become the next Gymboree or McDonalds equivalent, and are instituting rules that will, they hope, prevent that from happening. Hm

[actionreplay.livejournal.com]

I wonder if this change in policy is because someone's kid got a hot drink spilled on them and the management got scared?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Possibly. But neither Starbucks nor Cafe Nero nor Costa has such a policy displayed prominently in their shops. Also, they should've thought that through before they started branding themselves. My hunch is that they're going for the student market now.

[piperx.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't feel welcome there. Having a toy box and expecting especially small children not to play on the floor is unrealistic IMO.

If they truly want to be family friendly, they should do what some coffee shops here do, which is have a designated area for children. One place has a separate room filled with toys and a television. But they don't need a separate room. Just some creatively placed furniture is sufficient to keep kids contained and not underfoot. Not coincidentally, these places are the only coffee shops I patronize. I'm lucky that we have an overabundance of coffee shops so I can be picky.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Yup, exactly - that's what a small church-based coffee place does where we always go after toddler gymnastics

[(Anonymous)]

Their website now seems to suggest they are going for the music-lovers' market... nothing about kids.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Well, in the recent Sunday Times profile of Beanscene's founder, they were certainly playing the family card very, very strongly ...