Minimum alcohol pricing is nigh

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

Asus X540L wrote: »

lol @ the Diaego comment.

They don't seem to care about all the pubs that sell Carslberg and Guinness that is absolute and utter muck. Another thing that pubs get away with murder with is the quality of the pint. You don't get it in local pubs cause the regs won't stand for it but the slop that city centre pubs sell must be downright illegal. People wake up dying and they may have a hangover but it's usually filfthy lines and detergent still in the pint glasses. A bad pint of stout can ruin your night.
Drink a good vodka at home or good German beer and you won't have anywhere near as bad a hangover.

Or dont drink in dirty Kips!

Cookie_Monster

ardinn wrote: »

Is that whats happening with the off licences? They are being limited as to the amount they can buy??

don't deflect, they don't have the same duty of care. you can buy for later consumption from an offo or for consuming on multiple occasions, you can't in a bar.

Cookie_Monster

ardinn wrote: »

Thats not an anecdote either!

I think it is, provide proof or admit you're just badmouthing the competition.

hatrickpatrick

ardinn wrote: »

You do realize now witherspoons buys up beer in bulk across europe that is or has just gone, or is going past it's best before.

One of the reasons Diageo will not put draught beer into their pubs is because they will not sell a poor product, a lot of people seem to think its witherspoons who dont do diageo because they are too dear - They have been refused service by diageo on about 8 occasions!

Witherspoons or wether or mayweatherspoons or whateverthe**** it is called serves a poor quality substitute at heavily discounted prices because the buy at heavily discounted prices brought on by buying up beer no-one else will sell.

Thats not an anecdote either!

Why can't the Irish pubs band together to create a bulk buying cartel and source similar discounts in this way? Make gigantic central bulk orders where each pub chips in and then orders one discounted batch, using all the bargaining power which would come with such a cartel?

Also, how do you justify regional disparities? For instance, would you agree that people being asked to hand over more than seven euro for a Guinness in some parts of Temple Bar is despicable? I'm sorry but that's not about margins or costs, that's deliberately and unashamedly taking advantage of tourists, plain and simple.

I'm not saying it's all the publicans' fault - I hold our government at least partly responsible for not tackling the high cost of living in Ireland compared to other EU countries. But if one busy Dublin pub can do me a Guinness for €4.50, I honestly see no justification for another busy Dublin pub charging €6 or more for it. They're taking the piss, and people rightly resent that.

EDIT: honest question: if you were to avail of one of tesco's "24 cans for €24" deals, let's say on Grolsh, and you indeed bought a bunch of them for €1 a can, how much would you have to mark these up when re-selling in order to break even?

Flex

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

I think it is, provide proof or admit you're just badmouthing the competition.

Hes completely incorrect. Diageo (and Heineken) had fallings out with Wetherspoons in Ireland because Wetherspoons werent charging €5-€6 for a pint of their brands, so other publicans saw that Wetherspoons were charging less and demanded Diageo/Heineken stop them because it was exposing the huge mark-ups they put on. Wetherspoons had to pay the same prices as any other outlet, but rather than falling out with thousands of pubs across Ireland, Diageo/Heineken Ireland took the easier option and stopped doing business with Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons were buying from the Irish based business units of Diageo and Heineken, so unless they were 'bulk buying all of their stock' for both the UK and Ireland from the Irish based distribution units of said companies, that claim is false :rolleyes:

Here's an example; take a double gin and tonic, and for simplicity lets pretend its all bought in an off license. O Briens have Bombay at €32 a bottle, which will give 20 shots, €1.60 a shot and a litre bottle of gin costs €1, giving roughly enough for 7 mixers, so 15 cent each. Cost including tax and duty is €3.35 for a double gin and tonic. A double Bombay gin and tonic in Wetherspoons costs €7.5, giving a very healthy margin and mark up. Compare to a typical Irish pub and it would be around €15 (€6 per measure (being very generous to the poor old Irish publican, likely closer to €8 measure for such a premium experience :rolleyes:) and €2.50 for the mixer (another disgusting price policy, Wetherspoons provide free mixers, they must be bulk buying all their mixers for all of Europe too!))

VinLieger

ardinn wrote: »

You do realize now witherspoons buys up beer in bulk across europe that is or has just gone, or is going past it's best before.

One of the reasons Diageo will not put draught beer into their pubs is because they will not sell a poor product, a lot of people seem to think its witherspoons who dont do diageo because they are too dear - They have been refused service by diageo on about 8 occasions!

Witherspoons or wether or mayweatherspoons or whateverthe**** it is called serves a poor quality substitute at heavily discounted prices because the buy at heavily discounted prices brought on by buying up beer no-one else will sell.

Thats not an anecdote either!

One of the reasons I go to wetherspoons is because the Diageo cartel arent in there, its hilarious you trying to use Diageo being absent from spoons as an example of how bad their pubs are.

You're agenda and bias shine through spectacularly in every post.

Lets try this again though do you honestly expect us to believe that the VFI care one iota for the publics health and their heavy heavy lobbying for this bill is not about yours and their bottom line.

listermint

ardinn wrote: »

But Leroy

Did we not have this conversation allready on costs etc.

Are you saying pubs are closing at a rate of 1 per day for the last 4 years as a result of overly high profit margins??

They must have run out of room to store all the money!!

Your not owed a living. Tastes change people drink less.
Are you trying to get people to drink more.

Ridiculous

CrankyHaus

ardinn wrote: »

Leroy42
Lastly I would like to point out this bill of legislation was drafted without any consultation with vintners or any publicans around the country. Groups that were involved or questions were MEAS, Drink Aware, and the RSA

Do you have any proof of this?

Vintners certainly did have their say. I just had a look at the Register of Lobbying (lobbying.ie) and both the Vintners Federation of Ireland and Licensed Vintners Federation of Ireland are on record as having lobbied on this issue.

https://www.lobbying.ie/app/home/search?currentPage=6&pageSize=10&queryText=alcohol%20minimum%20unit%20pricing&subjectMatters=&subjectMatterAreas=&period=&returnDateFrom=&returnDateTo=&lobbyistId=&dpo=&publicBodys=&jobTitles=&client=

VinLieger

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Do you have any proof of this?

Vintners certainly did have their say. I just had a look at the Register of Lobbying (lobbying.ie) and both the Vintners Federation of Ireland and Licensed Vintners Federation of Ireland are on record as having lobbied on this issue.

https://www.lobbying.ie/app/home/search?currentPage=6&pageSize=10&queryText=alcohol%20minimum%20unit%20pricing&subjectMatters=&subjectMatterAreas=&period=&returnDateFrom=&returnDateTo=&lobbyistId=&dpo=&publicBodys=&jobTitles=&client=

Note the register only goes back to January 2016 and they are both listed around 10+ times if i remember correctly for this time period, and this piece of legislation has been doing the rounds for a few years before that so we can assume the number of times they have officially lobbied on it is far more, not to mention any unofficial lobbying that was likely done

suicide_circus

Asus X540L wrote: »

I was drinking pints of Abbot's Ale in Wetherspoon's last night. - they even serve it in Coronation street glasses lol. €2.75 a pint. Exactly half of what I was paying in the pub before.

Some craic in that pub

weldoninhio

ardinn wrote: »

Leroy42

How about this

We run a small business - a bar, every year we are faced with hikes in every aspect of our costs - every single one - I would hazard a guess moreso than any other industry.

Instead of increasing prices, we have absorbed these costs for years, the bottom line does not lie in this regard.

We provide a good pub - A pub that we invested heavily in, and we are entitled as business people to try and make an honest living out of it.

We provide free entertainment

We provide Free food and snacks on weekends

We provide Sky sports - A facility that costs me €7000.00 per annum.

We provide a safe pub - We run a good show, a strict house, you will not see a row in our pub. we dont tolerate it

We provide free lifts home for customers if needed. I have personally driven some patrons over 15miles away.

The pure hatred for publicans is ridiculous, fueled by jealousy of times long forgotten where pubs were little gold mines, You can say we are now crying over poor performance but go and find where I have once complained on now over 60 odd replies in this thread.

I work hard for my business, my prices are too low to be making a profit, but I still dont put them up because I realise people like you cant afford it, but Iwas born into this way of life and will probably die in it. I love it.

But i'll be fúcked if im going to listen to the pure and utter scutter spouted by some of the yokes on this thread over there dutch gold goin up €1:30 odd on their fiver!

I am entitled to make a living - or at least try to make a living - Im unsure as to why the general public are so gleeful at the downturn in pubs fortunes and the truly devastating impact on jobs around the country it will have and is having as a result,

Lastly I would like to point out this bill of legislation was drafted without any consultation with vintners or any publicans around the country. Groups that were involved or questions were MEAS, Drink Aware, and the RSA

ardinn wrote: »

See the point is - You are limited financially in a pub, unless you have above average disposable income. And also, if you get locked in my pub i'll stop serving you and send you home, if you go to another pub the likelihood is you will be refused entry.

Example

A man used to drink in our place 3 nights a week, he'd have 3 pints and a half one and he would head home. he is an older man and needs his car, so when the big drink drive push happened he stopped drinking in the pub and started at home.

This man now buys a btl of Jameson EVERY day, has no social interaction in the evenings apart from talking to his dogs and is completely isolated where he is.

Now, this is a drink drive issue, but it shows what happens when people can buy cheap drink and consume with no time limit (closing time) no supervisions (barmen) very little price constraint (the bottle of J served in the pub as 35.5ml shots would be over €70)

That man would be a far healthier, happier, and better looked after by the community should he be in the pub 3 nights a week! No doubt about it.

Someone is talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Leroy42

ardinn wrote: »

Leroy42

How about this

We run a small business - a bar, every year we are faced with hikes in every aspect of our costs - every single one - I would hazard a guess moreso than any other industry.

Instead of increasing prices, we have absorbed these costs for years, the bottom line does not lie in this regard.

We provide a good pub - A pub that we invested heavily in, and we are entitled as business people to try and make an honest living out of it.

We provide free entertainment

We provide Free food and snacks on weekends

We provide Sky sports - A facility that costs me €7000.00 per annum.

We provide a safe pub - We run a good show, a strict house, you will not see a row in our pub. we dont tolerate it

We provide free lifts home for customers if needed. I have personally driven some patrons over 15miles away.

The pure hatred for publicans is ridiculous, fueled by jealousy of times long forgotten where pubs were little gold mines, You can say we are now crying over poor performance but go and find where I have once complained on now over 60 odd replies in this thread.

I work hard for my business, my prices are too low to be making a profit, but I still dont put them up because I realise people like you cant afford it, but Iwas born into this way of life and will probably die in it. I love it.

But i'll be fúcked if im going to listen to the pure and utter scutter spouted by some of the yokes on this thread over there dutch gold goin up €1:30 odd on their fiver!

I am entitled to make a living - or at least try to make a living - Im unsure as to why the general public are so gleeful at the downturn in pubs fortunes and the truly devastating impact on jobs around the country it will have and is having as a result,

Lastly I would like to point out this bill of legislation was drafted without any consultation with vintners or any publicans around the country. Groups that were involved or questions were MEAS, Drink Aware, and the RSA

As I have said before, I appreciate that you have costs, but you haven't pointed out where you suffer significant costs more than other business's trying to attract customers.

Lets pick up on Sky for a sec. €7,000 per annum is crazy. But why are the VFI etc not lobbying Sky to get that pushed down? But even on that based on the btl example, you need only to sll 2,000 extra bottles a year to cover that cost, 38 a week. If you aren't doing that, or similar, then you should stop with Sky.

People don't hate publicans, they are many customers that go the pub every week. Hardly a seething hatred. What it appears that customers don't like is the blatant price gouging that has gone on (even you alluded to the 'gold mines' of the past and people haven't forgotten that). Want to know why (or at least my opinion of why)? Because despite the clear evidence that drink is massively overcharged in pubs the best that you can come up with is that you haven't raised the prices.

And the justification for the high price? That you need to make money. And that is fine, and nobody has an issue with that but you seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that you have competition. And customers, in every area, will compare prices and you come out very high compared to the alternatives.

You mentioned that all these pubs are closing and that many are struggling but I haven't seen any acceptance of what is the reason behind it. For many, they simply paid too much for either the building or the licence during the boom and things have changed. For others it is simply a fall off in customers. Both of which are just market forces and nothing can be done about. It happens in every market. You make the case that you have tried everything, and you certainly seem like a very good pub, but is that in itself not telling you something?

Despite everything that you are doing you are still losing business. It is simply not sustainable in the current form. And why should customers continue to pay the high prices simply because you cannot come up with a business model that can compete?

Vintner associations need to start forcing price reductions from the brewers, that or take your custom elsewhere. If Diageo etc are not willing to work with you then ditch them. Instead of giving them the prominent position in the pub, placemats, position and number of the taps etc, start to reduce their control and influence. Its simply makes no sense that pubs continue to be slaves to a supplier that is ruining their business

If the offy have shown us anything, and this goes across many sectors, the Irish as not as wedded to brands as they once were. Look at the likes of the Porterhouse. They get by without any brands.

It is not a hatred of pubs or publicans, just that in the age of easy price comparison, where people fly off the Spain and see the same products for 1/2 price, people obviously are going to question why they should continue to spend money when cheaper alternatives are available.

You can continue to argue about your costs all you like, I don't dispute any of them, but you are totally missing the point. It is up to you to run your business, not your customers. If you really can't see a way to any possible future reduction in prices then I really can't see how you expect the situation to improve
.

Mr. teddywinkles

Iv often seen drunken toss pots falling up to the bar on a Saturday night and they still get served so whoever is ****eing on about sensible drinking in bars. Please stop.

McMurphy

ardinn wrote: »

Well I explained in some detail a few pages back why they need to be - If you missed it or dont understand I cant help you any further.

Your arrogant manner is keeping with the general manner of the vintners so it is.

Ref increasing costs, and rising prices.

When my suppliers up the cost, I source alternative ones.

Btw. Them tiny coke mixer bottles that are given in for next to fook all - most pubs sell them at €3.50+.

Nice mark up.

Caliden

Mr. teddywinkles wrote: »

Iv often seen drunken toss pots falling up to the bar on a Saturday night and they still get served so whoever is ****eing on about sensible drinking in bars. Please stop.

I'm not joking when I say I've never seen someone get refused a drink but being too drunk.

I've seen lads get refused because they were acting the maggot but lads that are barely able stand still get served.

PeterParker957

Caliden wrote: »

I'm not joking when I say I've never seen someone get refused a drink but being too drunk.

I've seen lads get refused because they were acting the maggot but lads that are barely able stand still get served.

I was in a bar just last night and someone was refused service.

They ended up getting kicked out for being abusive too. This was only at 5.30pm!

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

ardinn wrote: »

Leroy42

How about this

We run a small business - a bar, every year we are faced with hikes in every aspect of our costs - every single one - I would hazard a guess moreso than any other industry.

Instead of increasing prices, we have absorbed these costs for years, the bottom line does not lie in this regard.

We provide a good pub - A pub that we invested heavily in, and we are entitled as business people to try and make an honest living out of it.

We provide free entertainment

We provide Free food and snacks on weekends

We provide Sky sports - A facility that costs me €7000.00 per annum.

We provide a safe pub - We run a good show, a strict house, you will not see a row in our pub. we dont tolerate it

We provide free lifts home for customers if needed. I have personally driven some patrons over 15miles away.

The pure hatred for publicans is ridiculous, fueled by jealousy of times long forgotten where pubs were little gold mines, You can say we are now crying over poor performance but go and find where I have once complained on now over 60 odd replies in this thread.

I work hard for my business, my prices are too low to be making a profit, but I still dont put them up because I realise people like you cant afford it, but Iwas born into this way of life and will probably die in it. I love it.

But i'll be fúcked if im going to listen to the pure and utter scutter spouted by some of the yokes on this thread over there dutch gold goin up €1:30 odd on their fiver!

I am entitled to make a living - or at least try to make a living - Im unsure as to why the general public are so gleeful at the downturn in pubs fortunes and the truly devastating impact on jobs around the country it will have and is having as a result,

Lastly I would like to point out this bill of legislation was drafted without any consultation with vintners or any publicans around the country. Groups that were involved or questions were MEAS, Drink Aware, and the RSA

Most of that I provide when my friends call over.

IN any case, it's not hatred for publicans, it's hatred for the Vintners, which is being seen as a cartel telling us that we need them and they need new laws to give them a market advantage (you never answered: do you feel publicans are getting an advantage here even if you believe it's not the aim of the actual law?)

And as to the vintners not being consulted, a few of them, it has been said in this thread (and open to correction here in fairness) are the very TDs and Senators who drafted this bill.

As I said earlier: if you want to reduce alchohol consumption, why not do it across the board?

Sofiztikated

ardinn wrote: »

You do realize now witherspoons buys up beer in bulk across europe that is or has just gone, or is going past it's best before.

One of the reasons Diageo will not put draught beer into their pubs is because they will not sell a poor product, a lot of people seem to think its witherspoons who dont do diageo because they are too dear - They have been refused service by diageo on about 8 occasions!

Witherspoons or wether or mayweatherspoons or whateverthe**** it is called serves a poor quality substitute at heavily discounted prices because the buy at heavily discounted prices brought on by buying up beer no-one else will sell.

Thats not an anecdote either!

I'm not anti pub owner, because I have family and friends that own/run bars.

But that claim about Wetherspoons is absolute horse****.

The reason Diageo products are not in Wetherspoons in Ireland is because Wetherspoons found it cheaper to import Diageo products from the UK, and pay the fees and duties, than to buy from Diageo Ireland, but were unable to due to their contract. So they stopped stocking the product.

https://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/wetherspoon-won-t-stock-diageo-unless-brewer-cuts-prices-1.1877342

They had a similar spat with Heineken over the supply of their drinks, and pulled the drinks from 900 odd bars in England, Heineken backed down.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/05/wetherspoon-settles-heineken-dispute

If the pub owners worked on getting a better price from suppliers, they'd be better off, but they don't. Because individual pubs don't have the same clout as the likes of Wetherspoons. The VFI and LVA would have that kind of presence, but each bar is left to it's own devices. Even hotel groups can negotiate a better price then Johnny Nobody, and this is done on a yearly basis.

I know a few lads running a bar, and doing a great trade on their food. The food isn't fancy, but well cooked and presented. They get food stock from wherever is cheapest, and the menu is small, and changes depending on what they get on special.

I know other bars that are struggling because they are afraid of change. One in particular, it's karaoke then a "dj" Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And people are sick of it, numbers are dwindling, but still he won't stray from it. And the same 4 or 5 bands do rotation in the rest. People are bored of them too.

There's a massive Polish community around here, but they're not targeted by the pubs. And lord knows, they can drink. No Polish bands, no Polish beers, no Polish food. It's "Drink these Diageo/Heineken products, and eat food supplied from Pallas Foods."

I don't mean to be an arse, but pub owners/managers need to innovate. The market is changing, the public is changing, but for the most part, you (not you in particular, but bars) are slow to change.

cadaliac

I was in Killarney recently and the Glen Eagle hotel would only sell Guinness Products. No Heineken etc. 
How is that helping the customer? 
How is my local pub unable to purchase a bottle of whiskey from the Vintlers as cheaply as a customer can purchase it from the supermarket? No, the supermarket is not using it as a loss leader either. The Whiskey bottle is at normal price and not is a sale etc.

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

Flex wrote: »

Hes completely incorrect. Diageo (and Heineken) had fallings out with Wetherspoons in Ireland because Wetherspoons werent charging €5-€6 for a pint of their brands, so other publicans saw that Wetherspoons were charging less and demanded Diageo/Heineken stop them because it was exposing the huge mark-ups they put on. Wetherspoons had to pay the same prices as any other outlet, but rather than falling out with thousands of pubs across Ireland, Diageo/Heineken Ireland took the easier option and stopped doing business with Wetherspoons

Wetherspoons were buying from the Irish based business units of Diageo and Heineken, so unless they were 'bulk buying all of their stock' for both the UK and Ireland from the Irish based distribution units of said companies, that claim is false :rolleyes:

Here's an example; take a double gin and tonic, and for simplicity lets pretend its all bought in an off license. O Briens have Bombay at €32 a bottle, which will give 20 shots, €1.60 a shot and a litre bottle of gin costs €1, giving roughly enough for 7 mixers, so 15 cent each. Cost including tax and duty is €3.35 for a double gin and tonic. A double Bombay gin and tonic in Wetherspoons costs €7.5, giving a very healthy margin and mark up. Compare to a typical Irish pub and it would be around €15 (€6 per measure (being very generous to the poor old Irish publican, likely closer to €8 measure for such a premium experience :rolleyes:) and €2.50 for the mixer (another disgusting price policy, Wetherspoons provide free mixers, they must be bulk buying all their mixers for all of Europe too!))

There is so much wrong in the above I genuinely dont know where to begin.

You are wrong about everything above.

I'm not sure I have seen so many wrongs in one post.

I'll give you a bombay Gin and Schweppes Tonic for €5.80 - €15/16??? - Are you confusing Ireland with Monaco - Laughable - Idiotic post in all it's point! Of course im sure one or two pubs charge the above - it says a lot that you actually paid it!

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

VinLieger wrote: »

One of the reasons I go to wetherspoons is because the Diageo cartel arent in there, its hilarious you trying to use Diageo being absent from spoons as an example of how bad their pubs are.

You're agenda and bias shine through spectacularly in every post.

Lets try this again though do you honestly expect us to believe that the VFI care one iota for the publics health and their heavy heavy lobbying for this bill is not about yours and their bottom line.

Welcome back - missed you

xxx

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Do you have any proof of this?

Vintners certainly did have their say. I just had a look at the Register of Lobbying (lobbying.ie) and both the Vintners Federation of Ireland and Licensed Vintners Federation of Ireland are on record as having lobbied on this issue.

https://www.lobbying.ie/app/home/search?currentPage=6&pageSize=10&queryText=alcohol%20minimum%20unit%20pricing&subjectMatters=&subjectMatterAreas=&period=&returnDateFrom=&returnDateTo=&lobbyistId=&dpo=&publicBodys=&jobTitles=&client=

I said consulted / involved. but I get the mistake!

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

weldoninhio wrote: »

Someone is talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Read it all again - you will get the idea!!

VinLieger

ardinn wrote: »

I said consulted / involved. but I get the mistake!

So when the VFI and LVF were lobbying against price increases we can thank them directly for there being none but when they were lobbying directly for this legislation it had nothing to do with them......

DEFTLEFTHAND

Asus X540L wrote: »

I was drinking pints of Abbot's Ale in Wetherspoon's last night. - they even serve it in Coronation street glasses lol. €2.75 a pint. Exactly half of what I was paying in the pub before.

Value for money. I'd happily drink all night long in Wetherspoon's for those type of prices.

elperello

This from https://www.her.ie/news/irelands-proposed-alcohol-bill-postponed-321543

They are still beating the drum for a €1 minimum per standard drink and pretending it wouldn't affect ordinary drinkers.



A study by the Royal College of Surgeons and the Health Research Board found that, of the 3,187 Irish adults between the ages of 18 and 75 surveyed, one in seven Irish adults purchases alcohol at less than €1 per standard drink.

It also found, crucially, that the cheapest alcoholic drinks were favoured by the heaviest drinkers.

Lead researcher Dr Gráinne Cousins said "The primary objective of the introduction of a minimum unit price for alcohol is to reduce alcohol-attributable harm.

"Some opponents of minimum unit pricing are concerned that consumers using alcohol in a low risk manner will be punished with higher prices.

"Our findings do not support these concerns, as unlike tax or excise measures, the introduction of a minimum unit price would affect less than 14% of the population.

"More importantly, from a population health perspective, we have shown that a minimum unit price of €1 per standard drink will primarily target high-risk drinkers."

hawkelady

ardinn wrote: »

There is so much wrong in the above I genuinely dont know where to begin.

You are wrong about everything above.

I'm not sure I have seen so many wrongs in one post.

I'll give you a bombay Gin and Schweppes Tonic for €5.80 - €15/16??? - Are you confusing Ireland with Monaco - Laughable - Idiotic post in all it's point! Of course im sure one or two pubs charge the above - it says a lot that you actually paid it!

Maybe you should read it again...... he said DOUBLE gin and tonic..

ardinn

I disagree, the "drinking problems" are myths from the government.

hawkelady wrote: »

Maybe you should read it again...... he said DOUBLE gin and tonic..

My mistake - €9.60 then!

hatrickpatrick

Ardinn have a look at my post over the page about the formation of a bulk buying cartel - in all honesty why has this not been considered? Strikes me as a no brainer in terms of negotiating power.

And also, do you have any comment on what is in my opinion obvious and shameless fleecing going on in the Temple Bar area - where I recently paid €7.20 for a pint of guinness? A five minute walk around the corner onto Dame St and I could have had the same pint for €4.50. That's a markup which is in my view impossible to justify, unless the rents being paid in Temple Bar are utterly astronomical compared to the rents paid just a few streets over...

Ipso

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Ardinn have a look at my post over the page about the formation of a bulk buying cartel - in all honesty why has this not been considered? Strikes me as a no brainer in terms of negotiating power.

And also, do you have any comment on what is in my opinion obvious and shameless fleecing going on in the Temple Bar area - where I recently paid €7.20 for a pint of guinness? A five minute walk around the corner onto Dame St and I could have had the same pint for €4.50. That's a markup which is in my view impossible to justify, unless the rents being paid in Temple Bar are utterly astronomical compared to the rents paid just a few streets over...

The only way they will stop is if people stop paying the price.