One-year freeze on drink prices

Darragh29

What these guys need to do is take a step back, get a group of actual customers into a room and see where the value line actually is. To me, as Seamus said, if I can go out for 3 pints of Guiness and that'll cost me a tenner, grand, that to me is value for money. To go out for 4 pints of Heino and thst costs me 20 Euro, I don't think is value for money, so I won't bother...

Steve

Fuck them, they deserve everything they get the greedy bastards.

magill sanchez

Have to agree with most of the comments on here, I was always one for a having a few pints during the week in the local with a couple of mates watching the football and weekends out with the missus, first nail in the coffin for the pub trade was the smoking ban(alright in the summer-but for me it ruined the pubs... non-smokers don't jump on this point its been talked and talked about just my opinion) and second nail was obviously the publicans themselves with ridiculous prices being charged and service standards being dropped.

I was out last Friday night in Temple Bar and was actually quite shocked to see a few bars half full which in previous experiences were packed to the rafters, went into one of these bars... a pint of guinness for myself which cost €5.80 for a horrible mouldy pint of fecking piss and a vodka and a dash of mi wadi €6.40 for the missus, theres no value for money anymore!

I've always had a problem with having to pay for a dash but the quality of service in most of these pubs is just terrible and some staff have the cheek to question your taste buds when you tell em its a bad pint, they dont realise that you've been drinking guinness far longer than they've had the ability to grow silly looking stubble on their chin... in your local there would be no questions asked, the barman would taste it himself and give ye a fresh one.... not in town which I will be avoiding in future!

A local pub nearby seemed to get its act together... it closed down... only downside to it was a couple of people losing their jobs, the owner was a greedy miserable ****e, who had no problem charging ridiculous prices and raising prices after 12pm on a friday and saturday night... which in itself is a disgrace.

The only way publicans are going to get joe and molly punter flocking back into their establishments is not to freeze their already heavily inflated prices but to start giving better value for money and a better quality of service... how about bringing back happy hour but extending it from 11am-11.30pm!

gurramok

€5.80 for a pint of Guinness!! :mad:

Thing is, i was in Switzerland recently and the price of a half litre of their beer was about €5.70.
The Swiss have been known as the most expensive country in Europe for a reason, and look at Ireland in comparison, out of their league regarding standard of living with similar high prices!
It still amazes how there are a small minority of pubs who still charge under €4 for a pint(fair play) yet pubs nearby these places add 60c-€1 to the exact same drink, outrageous!

skyhighflyer

My local is €4.40 for a pint of beer, and it's a five minute walk away. As long as I can head out with €20 and have change for a bag of chips on the way home I'm happy :pac:

meglome

Seems to me they are fitting new locks on the stable door, quite a while after the horse has bolted.

Went into a centre pub a few months back and got a large bottle of bulmers which was €6.50, finished it and left, never went back even though I generally like the place. A Thomas Read group bar too.

Spaco

I was in a pub on Baggot Street recently and all half litre bottles of beer are €4 all the time. Have to say, i was well impressed with that.....
But seriously, pub drinking is getting insane. I have to cut back on going out for 2 / 3 weeks just for a weekend in town

witnessmenow

Terry you talked about pints costing €2.50 15 years ago and €4.50 now. Never mind inflation, how much has the Tax gone up since? How much has minimum wage gone up? It probably still doesnt add up but these need to be taking into consideration

I can tell you with 100% that the pub trade is not a profitable business where im from at the moment, places literally couldn't afford to drop the price of drink.

Give it til march and pubs will be closing their doors for good left, right and centre

Darragh29

witnessmenow wrote: »

Terry you talked about pints costing €2.50 15 years ago and €4.50 now. Never mind inflation, how much has the Tax gone up since? How much has minimum wage gone up? It probably still doesnt add up but these need to be taking into consideration

I can tell you with 100% that the pub trade is not a profitable business where im from at the moment, places literally couldn't afford to drop the price of drink.

Give it til march and pubs will be closing their doors for good left, right and centre

It's looking more like you can't afford not to drop prices...

meglome

witnessmenow wrote: »

Terry you talked about pints costing €2.50 15 years ago and €4.50 now. Never mind inflation, how much has the Tax gone up since? How much has minimum wage gone up? It probably still doesnt add up but these need to be taking into consideration

I can tell you with 100% that the pub trade is not a profitable business where im from at the moment, places literally couldn't afford to drop the price of drink.

Give it til march and pubs will be closing their doors for good left, right and centre

It's simple economics, if you charge a price for something that people won't pay then you won't stay in business. If you get smarter and more competitive then you have the best chance for doing good business.

It difficult to have any sympathy for publicans given some of the utter gouging that has gone on.

Quint

Exactly, look at Ryanair. If someone said 10 years ago that you'll be able to get a flight to mainland europe for €50 you'd have laughed at them. Sell cheap and get the numbers in.

A lot are talking about the price of a pint, never drink spirits! When you want a tiny measure of vodka and splash of coke and they charge €7-8 for it it's just mental. It's just too expensive to go out and and drink in a pub for a night.
My local always had cans of coke which would do 2 vodkas. But it change to bottles (those ****ty little glass bottles that i despise) and upped the price when it changed hands.
Don't get me started on those little bottles of coke, they're specially made for pubs to rip off customers. I hate pub owners, and have absolutly zero sympathy for them.
OK, there is a few out ther that are making an efford, but 99% of them, and all the ones in the town I live are hungry bastards and i couldn't give 2 ****s if all the pubs there closed their doors

Backflip_party

So pints will only be 5.20 for the next year ? Oh goody, thanks guys.

raindog.promo

Just to have a moan...... Noticed the price of a pint (Carlsberg for me) had gone up again. Then had my pint handed to me with about an inch and a half of head.
For the first time ever I handed it back and told the barman/teenager to knock the head off it. No excuses for that price. I've turned into a bit of a nazi about it now.

I love pub atmospheres and would enjoy sitting in a pub with a guinness or two reading a paper, but anything over a fiver before and after the recession is arse.

gurramok

witnessmenow wrote: »

Terry you talked about pints costing €2.50 15 years ago and €4.50 now. Never mind inflation, how much has the Tax gone up since? How much has minimum wage gone up? It probably still doesnt add up but these need to be taking into consideration

I can tell you with 100% that the pub trade is not a profitable business where im from at the moment, places literally couldn't afford to drop the price of drink.

Give it til march and pubs will be closing their doors for good left, right and centre

Then kindly explain why a pint of beer costs €4 in one pub and the exact same brand of beer costs €4.60 across the road in leafy D4?

Both offer the same type of entertainment as well. The cheaper pub has survived for years and the other, well gouging is the word.

Wertz

Piece on Matt Cooper on this just now, had someone from the LVA on touting for business...it was put to him by a listener that paid 5.80 for a bottle of Miller, why could he go down to Dunnes and buy a 24pk for 18 quid...the man from LVA reckoned he couldn't even buy his stock this cheaply.
How much of the rip off is being commited by wholesales drink suppliers and our very own Revenue Commisioners?

FWIW barring my b'day and two christmas parties I haven't so much as set foot in a pub in this country for about 2 1/2 years....there was a time when I'd be in one 2-3 nights of the week...the smoking ban was the start of it and then the never ending series of price hikes.
I miss the social aspects of the pub...houses just aren't the same even if you have a good crowd over...but I'll be f*cked if I'm going to pay the prices pubs are looking for, especially considering the levels of service that seem to have become the norm of late...

BTW When I worked bar in 91-92 a pint of Carlsberg was £1.65, Guinness was £1.45 and Bud was £1.70.
Bottles of Corona or the like (which were very trendy back then) were £2...heineken was about £1.55...I think bud longneck was £1.80.
Clear spirits usually about £1.50, brandy was £1.80...I don't recall mixer or soft drink prices.

ShooterSF

witnessmenow wrote: »

Terry you talked about pints costing €2.50 15 years ago and €4.50 now. Never mind inflation, how much has the Tax gone up since? How much has minimum wage gone up? It probably still doesnt add up but these need to be taking into consideration

I can tell you with 100% that the pub trade is not a profitable business where im from at the moment, places literally couldn't afford to drop the price of drink.

Give it til march and pubs will be closing their doors for good left, right and centre

I think your forgetting to factor increase sales by reducing prices.
They way you're looking at it is : I sell a 1000 pints at €1 profit per pint and after expenses Im left with 100 quid. If I drop my prices I'll be out of business.

However if reducing your costs brings back punters like myself and the posters above me you could make more e.g I sell 2000 pints at 60 cent profit and after the same expenses Im left with 300 euro profit.

But publicans prefer the other method i.e with less punters coming in ill charge more to get back to the same profits I was making last year.

SoupyNorman

I'm thankful my parents relocated to d'country 8years ago, although I must live and work in Dublin wild horses could not drag me into a pub here.

I love going down home as at any time during a weekend I can potter down to the local, meet up with friends and have a few slow ones. Guinness in one pub is €3.50 and is like mudders milk, they serve a perfect pint every time and actively practise table service.


Let the pubs close.

ShooterSF

Wertz wrote: »

Piece on Matt Cooper on this just now, had someone from the LVA on toting for business...it was put to him by a listener that paid 5.80 for a bottle of Miller, why could he go down to Dunnes and buy a 24pk for 18 quid...the man from LVA reckoned he couldn't even buy his stock this cheaply.

This is actually quite close to the truth. They stock it at such a cheap price in the hope of you buying shopping there to make their profits. I've heard stories of Dunnes trying to refuse to sell a pallet of Miller to a publican who was taking advantage of the price.

Domo230

Domo230 wrote: »

Even if the price went down I cant see young people heading to pubs.

Were used to knacker drinking and hanging out at peoples houses for a few drinks. Ive had a drink in a pub once, ended up paying through the roof.

No I think the day of the pub is over. Cant even have a smoke in one.

I think most people would much prefer to drink in pubs than in houses. Its just not the same drinking at home. You cant beat the craic on the beer in a pub. I still go to the pub at least twice a week and I havnt drank back at a house for ages. I think what really adds to the price of a night out is going on double this and treble that in the club.

meglome

Wertz wrote: »

Piece on Matt Cooper on this just now, had someone from the LVA on toting for business...it was put to him by a listener that paid 5.80 for a bottle of Miller, why could he go down to Dunnes and buy a 24pk for 18 quid...the man from LVA reckoned he couldn't even buy his stock this cheaply.
How much of the rip off is being commited by wholesales drink suppliers and our very own Revenue Commisioners?

Not sure how much I believe them but maybe the publicans instead of increasing their prices when the breweries did, they should have objected to the increases. And using the breweries as a smoke screen to jack up their own prices has come back on them spectacularly.

RoosterIllusion

thefloss wrote: »

Yeah. Callanan's pub on the quays in Cork, 3 euro for a Beam, 3.60 for Murphs and less than 4 for a Heineken. Best stout in the city too so it's win win.

€3.50 for the Heineken as of last Saturday night.

Long live Callanans.

They also have green tea

Boskowski

How much tax is on a pint of beer in Ireland?

In Germany you get a very decent .5l can of Pilsner for about 50c and they have just the VAT on it. Now if someone is telling me that a publican cannot buy 24 bottles of miller for 20 quid but I can (in Dunnes) then there's either the government or the wholesaler creaming massive money off the top or the publican is lying.

Ciaran500

Whats the tax on a pint in a pub compared to a can from the off license?

seamus

There's 47c excise on every pint and then VAT.

So if the publican buys the pints @ €1.15/pint and sells them @ €3.50, they're making €1.14 profit per pint after VAT and excise. Which is a 33% profit margin, which is very healthy by most businesses reckoning.

Current prices (say €5.50) mean that publicans are making a 49.5% profit margin. Which is extortion.

Though I'm pretty sure a pint costs the publican far less than €1.15. How much is a keg from Diageo these days?

Boskowski

seamus wrote: »

Though I'm pretty sure a pint costs the publican far less than €1.15. How much is a keg from Diageo these days?

Now I have no idea especially not about the DIAGEO stuff but before duties and tax the Carlsberg and Heineken Piss wholesale couldnt be more than 50c or so.

Ciaran500

https://www.tribune.ie/archive/article/2007/mar/25/publicans-mark-up-soft-drinks-by-600/
From 2007: A keg of Guinness typically costs publicans 140

So 150/90 = €1.67 a pint

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Just get pished before ye go out? all the pub atmosphere, none of the wallet raping Conceal a naggin somewhere on your person too if you want.

Way prefer drinking at home, especially at the moment seeing as it's ridiculously bloody cold and I smoke a LOT when I'm drunk. The price is a big factor too

mikemac

realcam wrote: »

Now I have no idea especially not about the DIAGEO stuff but before duties and tax the Carlsberg and Heineken Piss wholesale couldnt be more than 50c or so.

Carlsberg is Diageo

seamus

seamus wrote: »

There's 47c excise on every pint and then VAT.

Hrm... is the VAT increase today being passed onto punters or absorbed I wonder.

mikemac

Anytime I've seen an increase it's usually maybe 5c or 10c from Diageo or Heineken Ireland and the publicans lash on another 10c for themselves
And then blame the brewery for it all. We ain't fooled, especially as what the breweries are doing is well reported in the media.

Same goes with taxes though we've not seen that in a few years