Rip-off soft drinks

unreggd

How the hell can they charge so much?

A typical bottle of Coke/7UP etc in a bar is 280ml and costs around €2.90+

A can from a newsagents is 330ml and costs a euro! sometimes less!

Why cant they just stock cans and sell them for like 2 euro??

Also, I heard profits are much higher on soft drinks as theres no tax on them, and there is tax on alcohol, is that true??

Surely recycling cans is more efficient than having to have glass bottles washed, refilled and re-capped


FIGHT THE POWWA

R0ot

Well working in a bar part time for the last .... 6 years I think it is now... i've come to learn that this is where the profit is, although if someone is out with a group and says they are the designated driver we are to give them free Coca Cola, have no idea where this came from whether its law or what but we do it.

Obviously prices are still a lot cheaper up here in Donegal compared to further down the country, but the profit margin that bars make off the soft drinks and other mixers is still phenomenal. e.g. we charge 2.20 for coke/7up/lucozade/football special and 1.90 for the babys like White Lemonade/Ginger Ale/Soda Water etc. We also have dashs at like 60p per drink. It sucks royally for the customer but its not going to get better ever. :pac: On the tax part i'm pretty sure their is tax on the soft drinks just the alcohol tax is a hell of a lot more severe.

EDIT: And it actually costs more for the cans to be recycled than the whole bottles washed, refilled and re-capped.

Kamili

It almost makes it cheaper to drink, and people wonder why the irish are such heavy drinkers!!

I rarely buy any soft drinks when I' out in a bar anymore, usually preferring to go for tap water with ice, which has to be served by law... cheap, prevents headaches and doesn't burn a hole in my wallet

R0ot

Kamili wrote: »

It almost makes it cheaper to drink, and people wonder why the irish are such heavy drinkers!!

I rarely buy any soft drinks when I' out in a bar anymore, usually preferring to go for tap water with ice, which has to be served by law... cheap, prevents headaches and doesn't burn a hole in my wallet

You can't beat the local tap water imo, buncrana water

af_thefragile

Cause when people buy cheap drinks for like 2eur or something, they tend to buy atleast 8 or more of them in a night. Which would come up to like atleast 16eur or higher. (though i've seen people blowing off close to 40eur on drinks in a night).

While a person who buys a soft drink at a bar would only get about 4 or 5 to the most (After that you stomach will start exploding with gasses n you'll consciously start feeling sick!). Which would only be about 10eur to the max if they sold it at the normal 2eur/can. So to maximise profit they make them more expensive at 2.80eur n such. So now they can make about 15eur of the same person.

So where's the profit?! Cheap drinks and rip off soft drinks!

here.from.day.1

Kamili wrote: »

It almost makes it cheaper to drink, and people wonder why the irish are such heavy drinkers!!

I rarely buy any soft drinks when I' out in a bar anymore, usually preferring to go for tap water with ice, which has to be served by law... cheap, prevents headaches and doesn't burn a hole in my wallet

+1, also if they're nice they'll give you a dash for free.

worded

In Czech republic now and it about 70 cent for a beer.
We got 8 bottles of wine in the Wine region for 20 euros , that was a take away.

Like most things in Ireland, drink is over priced. The govt is taking a huge cut as well.

The end result in all this is less people are going to the pubs. Went to the hole in the wall a few weeks back on a Sat night. Were 25 people there inc the door man. A few years prior was wall to wall ppl

Also the variety of fruit juices. There is a brand of fruit juice called Cappy, Coca Cola owns it. About 10 diff types. The bottled Multivitamin is absolutely fab.
In Ireland they usually look at you when you ask if you have anything else apart from orange juice.

Blisterman

Relatively speaking, it's not that expensive, compared to beer.

€1 for a can of coke in the shop, €3 in a pub. 3 times the price
€1.50 for a can of beer, €5 in a pub. Over 3 times the price.

unreggd

Blisterman wrote: »

Relatively speaking, it's not that expensive, compared to beer.

€1 for a can of coke in the shop, €3 in a pub. 3 times the price
€1.50 for a can of beer, €5 in a pub. Over 3 times the price.

But a can and a pint of beer are the same [a pint!]

Soft drinks are like 380ml cans in shops, and 270ml in pubs

taram

worded wrote: »

Also the variety of fruit juices. There is a brand of fruit juice called Cappy, Coca Cola owns it. About 10 diff types. The bottled Multivitamin is absolutely fab.
In Ireland they usually look at you when you ask if you have anything else apart from orange juice.

+1 and the juice they serve is usually disgusting! Had pineapple the other day, swear to god it tasted like broccoli. My friends and I had a laugh out of it, but I was still disgusted. It's also crap when you try to order a diet drink and they don't have any, so you're stuck with water for the night. Noticed this twice in the last month in two different places, bit weird.

Feeonaw

taram wrote: »

+1 and the juice they serve is usually disgusting! Had pineapple the other day, swear to god it tasted like broccoli. My friends and I had a laugh out of it, but I was still disgusted. It's also crap when you try to order a diet drink and they don't have any, so you're stuck with water for the night. Noticed this twice in the last month in two different places, bit weird.

I've said it before & I'll say it again. Take my advice and stay away from the diet drinks - artificial sweeteners are really bad for you!

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-information.html

mikemac

unreggd wrote: »

But a can and a pint of beer are the same [a pint!]

Soft drinks are like 380ml cans in shops, and 270ml in pubs

A can of beer is 500ml, a pint is 563ml afaik
A can of coke is 330ml, a pub bottle is 250ml. Actually Pepsi is 280ml so better value to buy Pepsi than coke if you see it in a pub

And yes, soft drinks in a pub is a rip-off, especially those tiny bottles that people use as mixers. And publicans wonder why their trade is going down.......

taram

Feeonaw wrote: »

I've said it before & I'll say it again. Take my advice and stay away from the diet drinks - artificial sweeteners are really bad for you!

http://www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-information.html

Pretty hard to avoid it as a diabetic. There's more methanol in some fruit digestion than diet coke, so moderation = win

Tabnabs

Sparkling water FTW, the stuff is just disgusting and so you'll drink it very slowly all night :pac:

larryone

If you compare prices on the basis of volume, soft drinks are alot more expensife.
Go order a pint of rock shandy and a pint of stout in almost any bar, you'll see the difference.
Personally, I'd rather drink something more than just water or overpriced cordial.
The free coke thing started as a promotion they had last year. I think it's officially 2 free cokes for the designated driver in a group.
But this applies only to coke products.

I know that in Germany they have to have at least one non-alcoholic drink cheaper than alcoholic, but then again they are allowed to charge for tap water, so I suppose we're lucky that tap water is free.
But It'd be great to see such a law in Ireland. It would reduce the temptation to risk drink driving, it would make life a little easier for the non-drinker.

Curlypinkie

Well there is one solution to boycott the rip-off, drink tap water. Maybe I'm a cheap-skank when doing so, but I really don't want to get plastered every time I go out and I will NOT pay 2.80 for a (small!) battle of lukewarm Fanta when a glass of Guinness is cheaper in comparison.
Totally ridicouous...
*walks away shaking head*

Hagar

micmclo wrote: »

A can of beer is 500ml, a pint is 563ml afaik

Did you ever pour a can into a pint glass? Surprising it fills it just as well as the so called "pint" with a big head of bubbles on it in a pub. Order a pint in the UK and you get it in a glass bigger than a pint but with a pint mark on the side which the liquid must reach. Try pouring the contents of a Irish pint into a UK pint glass or vice versa. You will be shocked. That's where the real rip off is.

Blisterman

I agree Hagar. Camra, the Campaign for Real Ale in England, ran an advertising scheme advising drinkers to demand the full pint they paid for.
If my beer is served with too big a head, I often ask the bartender politely to top it up. 9 times out of 10 they will.

But that's really going off topic.

Dockfive

Just recently I decided to give up booze. Havn't had a hangover now in nine months and feel great.

One problem though, what do you replace alcohol with? 1 soft drink is ok but any more than that and you feel that you are rotting your teeth away rather than your liver. I feel cheap when I ask for a tap water ...

Any suggestions on an acceptable non alcoholic/non sugar drink to imbibe with your alcohol swilling buddies?

af_thefragile

Dockfive wrote: »

Just recently I decided to give up booze. Havn't had a hangover now in nine months and feel great.

One problem though, what do you replace alcohol with? 1 soft drink is ok but any more than that and you feel that you are rotting your teeth away rather than your liver. I feel cheap when I ask for a tap water ...

Any suggestions on an acceptable non alcoholic/non sugar drink to imbibe with your alcohol swilling buddies?

I tried to make a thread for list of non alcoholic drinks which could be accaptable n all here:
http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055304114

Maybe you could contribute something to it too...

Mark Hamill

Dockfive wrote: »

Just recently I decided to give up booze. Havn't had a hangover now in nine months and feel great.

One problem though, what do you replace alcohol with? 1 soft drink is ok but any more than that and you feel that you are rotting your teeth away rather than your liver. I feel cheap when I ask for a tap water ...

Any suggestions on an acceptable non alcoholic/non sugar drink to imbibe with your alcohol swilling buddies?

Why drink anything at all? I usually never drink anything when I go out (I don't drink alcohol and wont drink rip-off soft drinks). Why do people seem to need to have a drink in hand when they out?

lostexpectation

if theres more profit in soft drink,why do they sell alchohol, at all, alot of these companies sell soft and alcohol drinks so they no beholden to one or the other.


i usually drink about 2 or three cokes in full night, pepsi actually, it goes down easier orange is too much, i don't think that is too much liquid and pint of water at the end of the night if your being dancing,

now drinkings pints of liqud that i can't undersatnd and would have trouble doing, do people who rink ever have trouble simply drinking that much liquid? if your having more then 3 pints?

rubadub

Blisterman wrote: »

Relatively speaking, it's not that expensive, compared to beer.

€1 for a can of coke in the shop, €3 in a pub. 3 times the price
€1.50 for a can of beer, €5 in a pub. Over 3 times the price.

but prices vary all over the place. I would drink 6 pints in the pub, my mate would be on vodka. Shots are an absolute ripoff, 6pints has over 10 shots worth of smirnoff red in it. So if he drank a 200ml bottle with each of his 10 shots it is 10x€2.80=€28 for 2L of coke, which is usually €1.60-2 in a supermarket, so more like 15 times the price.

People forget about the volumes like this, in a supermarket a 500ml coke is only slightly less than a 2L, while a 2L of cider is about the same per ml as a can.

For the sake of storage, energy costs etc, a pub should offer those 1.25 or 1.5L bottles of coke, or even a 2L which people could share. You see this in local rugby/GAA pubs for the kids, or just a 2L of coke and charging a reasonable splash rate.

do people who rink ever have trouble simply drinking that much liquid? if your having more then 3 pints?

alcohol is a diuretic (makes you pee), so you are constantly flushing your system out. This is what causes the dehyration from booze.

Why do people seem to need to have a drink in hand when they out?

To contribute towards the overheads of the pub I suppose, you are possibly taking up a seat of a potentially big spender. I was actually asked to leave a pub for not drinking, all my mates were there drinking, ready to go to the cinema so just finishing up, the barman came over asked if I wanted a drink, I said no thanks, and he asked me to leave! said I have to buy something. I just went as they were about to leave anyway, place was half empty and I was not even sitting down. Barman is a right miserable sod, like Moe in the simpsons.

I am a heavy drinker and have been thrown out of the odd pub for being pissed, so I got some slagging for been thrown out of a pub for not drinking enough!