£7.60 for a pint?

[phildo79]

Seems very reasonable to me. But then I live in Belfast, which is an expensive city for booze.

 

[obscure]

What do you all think of my prices?

Seems extremely reasonable to me but again Oxford isn’t exactly know for reasonably priced beer.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

What do you all think of my prices?

I like that half a pint is half the cost of a whole pint. It makes it better for those who want to have halves to be able to try more of what's on offer.

 

[Sadfield]

An initial 80% profit on kegged beer, i.e. the mark-up price.

Margin isn't profit. You aren't paying for just the beer, you are paying for the whole service. In the same way a starter in a restaurant may cost £7.60, when the ingredients cost pence, yet not claim customers are getting their 'eye wiped'.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I’m sure we’ll all look back on this thread in years to come and think “blimey, remember when a pint of beer was only £7.60”

 

[phildo79]

Margin isn't profit. You aren't paying for just the beer, you are paying for the whole service. In the same way a starter in a restaurant may cost £7.60, when the ingredients cost pence, yet not claim customers are getting their 'eye wiped'.

Hmmm, but you kind of know what to expect when you go into a restaurant. When I go into my local, I don't expect to pay £7.60 for a pint of kolsch. Not unless all the other draught options are of a similar price, which I am assuming they were not since the OP was shocked at the price.

The 80% margin was a guess. And I did say it would SEEM like customers are getting their eye wiped. I have no idea what margins this pub operates at or how much they paid for the keg. But it SEEMS like somewhere down the chain, someone is taking the p!ss when a pint of kolsch costs that much.

 

[Crappyfish]

You need to understand that in France, at least, you'll be fleeced to the very limits of what the market will bear. There's something a bit funny about how the French react to this: it's almost as if the price is proportional to the pleasure or the perceived worth. For example, I've found exactly the same product in three different parts of a supermarket with three different bar codes depending whether it's in gardening, baking, or cleaning and at a price range of 2.5 the cost of the cheapest.
The best value for decent (but too strong for my preferred consumption rate) beer is La Goudale or Trois Monts: cracking beers or something from La Choulette. Newbies on the market knock out their stuff at twice or more the price and, presumably, people buy it. I've tasted their stuff and by and large it's *****. Bière artisinale de merde à mon avis!
My advice would be that we should remember our student days when we didn't have dosh to chuck around and went for either strength or flavour and sometimes found both. These shysters are laughing up our sleeves at those of us who pay £7+ a pint.
DON'T GET SUCKED IN.

Rant over.

La Goudale is one of my favourites in France.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

So if we assume the bar was looking for an 80% profit on that keg (88 pints) of kolsch, then they only paid £133.76 for the keg. That means that after the first 17.6 pints, the rest was all profit. It does seem like the customer is getting their eye wiped somewhat. Of course, I could be way off with those margins but whatever way you look at it, the bar must have known that it was going to have to charge £7.60 a pint before they bought the keg. And it's kolsch ffs!

Pubs most definitely do not make that sort of profit on a pint of beer. That's why so many started selling food and why so many are closing.

 

[obscure]

Pubs most definitely do not make that sort of profit on a pint of beer. That's why so many started selling food and why so many are closing.

I suspect the gross margin for some pubs on beer is relatively high, but of course gross profit is not the same as net, it’s the overheads that are the real problem. Rent, utilities, staff etc.

 

[Binkei Huckaback]

Of course the prices are outrageous,Supermarket pricing proves that.Also most bar staff are also on circa minimum wage ..
Remember the old song 'Champagne tastes but only beer bottle pocket."
Well not any more.

Supermarket pricing proves nothing. It's a loss leader for them. The same as petrol and diesel. Supermarkets and Wetherspoons dictate what they pay suppliers. If everyone was paid a fair price or wage for the food they grow, pick, slaughter, cut, pack, stack the shelves with, I doubt many of us could afford to eat green beans in winter or meat seven days a week.

Do you know why meat in the USA is so cheap? One of the reasons is cheap, illegal labour in packing factories working so quickly on long shifts with insufficient breaks, meaning that cuts and missing fingers are common. However, anything packed in the same factories for export to the EU is more expensive. Workers prefer working
on days when they're packing meat bound for the EU. Why? The EU says that the food must be packed in a certain way, meaning the packing lines move slower, so fewer injuries.

The supermarkets do not sell items cheaper than anyone else for your benefit. They do it to create a cartel that stifles competition through economy of scale.

 

[AnimatedGIF]

Hmmm, but you kind of know what to expect when you go into a restaurant. When I go into my local, I don't expect to pay £7.60 for a pint of kolsch. Not unless all the other draught options are of a similar price, which I am assuming they were not since the OP was shocked at the price.

Indeed, a decent pint was available for £4.80, which I am happy to pay round here.

 

[Gerryjo]

My local does pints for about £3.70 but the selection is ****. It has had the exact same selection for over 20 years. Guinness, Harp, Carlsberg, Smithwicks and Strongbow (and pretty much the same in bottles, if you want to pay the same price for about half the amount of beer). Dreadful but I suppose a fair price for a pint ATM.

Went to a pub just a few miles down the road which fancies itself a bit as an iconic pub with hipster beers. Pint of Verdant Putty was £8. Pint of Kinnegar IPA was £7. Pint of Bullhouse NEIPA was £6.50. Now that could turn into quite an expensive night and the Verdant and Kinnegar were nowhere near worth that sort of money, IMO.

Kinnegar is brewed not far from me about 1/2 hour drive but it still costs over £3 a can.

 

[Clint]

Sounds a bit like vinegar..

 

[terrym]

I’m sure we’ll all look back on this thread in years to come and think “blimey, remember when a pint of beer was only £7.60”

Like when I say to myself I can remember when a pint of bitter cost about 1/9d (less than 9 'new pence') and mild about 1/6d.
Edit.. And further I can remember when no self respecting man would be seen drinking lager, it was almost exclusively a woman's drink.

 

[Clint]

The thing is if you think £7 odd is a great price for a pint well buy it..I think £300 is a reasonable price for a "decent" fishing rod as I've fished for years and would use it properly...although I do have a selection of many rods ranging from about £40 up to about £700...people whince when I say how much some kit cost..
I might be tempted to buy something as a treat but if it was £7 worth of average I'd take it back..
I would add a lot of pricing is in conjunction to what the perceived market is willing or able to pay...UK is priced quite expensive for designer stuff and labels...

 

[mickthetrick]

Last year myself and my best mate made the 7h trip from south somerset up to scarborough for the Gold cup motorcycle racing at Olivers Mount ,we went out for a few beers when we arrived and ordered two pints of local ale ,the barmaid asked for £4.30 and i replied that i would like two pints not the one ,and she replied that is two pints ! All in all a great weekend up north ,fantastic racing ,really cheap beer (and tasty) and the girls like to wear the shortest skirts i have ever seen !

i was there a few weeks back and was drinking m. old empire @ £1.69 a pint.
it was very nice too.
i would not go to a pub if i had to pay £7+ for a pint

 

[starseeker]

When you consider i brewed 42 pints of ESB last weekend which cost me about £12 in ingredients ,going to the pub now does make me think about the price ,also at home i am brewing and drinking the beers i love ,the pub rarely serves the styles i like . How many pubs could you get a dunkleweizen in ? or a Weiss (uk)

 

[Clint]

Agreed..but can you get a pint of bitter in pubs on the continent?
Still...£7 a pint isn't relative in terms of a lot of earnings..

 

[starseeker]

Agreed..but can you get a pint of bitter in pubs on the continent?
Still...£7 a pint isn't relative in terms of a lot of earnings..

Fair point there Clint :)

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Beer sales are mainly about marketing -create a new "style" and you can charge more for it

What's the difference between a stout and a porter - marketing

What's the difference between a pint of bitter and a "premium golden ale" - marketing

What on earth does craft ale mean?

There is no such a thing as the beer naming police - breweries call their beers what ever they think they need to in order to sell/charge more

Rant over - £5.67 is just too much for alcohol fermented from cereal crop