Temple Bar Pub

rubadub

keithclancy wrote: »

I did this in JFK Airport, I got the response "Well if you have to ask Sir then you probably cannot afford it" They didn't have prices on anything :P

Cringeworthy crap, and making himself look like a gobshite as its usually said about high cost items, certainly not $11.

"If you don't have the prices up you're probably trying to charge ridiculous amounts"

JustAddWater

rubadub wrote: »

To maximise profits, which is the goal of most businesses. I think it was the very first thing I was taught in commerce class when I was 12 or 13.

My point exactly. Nothing to do with costs of this or that, just pure gouging in most cases

They can stick their €6 odd pints of generic beers and dont come crying when the supermarket is the blame for selling more range at much better value

Just silly when publicans look to blame everyone and everything else but themselves when they only have to look at the ridiculous price they want for a beer

sandin

Just back from Birmingham uk - standard half decent bar in broad street. Price of pint = £4.80! Glass of wine 175ml £5.50.

Service level - sh1te.

2 weeks ago I was in usa in 4 different cities - non tourist- average price of pint including tax but excluding tip in a standard bar $8.50 (about €6.20)

Business acquaintances from usa here last Nov thought temple bar wss very good value!!

Frynge

sandin wrote: »

Just back from Birmingham uk - standard half decent bar in broad street. Price of pint = £4.80! Glass of wine 175ml £5.50.

Service level - sh1te.

2 weeks ago I was in usa in 4 different cities - non tourist- average price of pint including tax but excluding tip in a standard bar $8.50 (about €6.20)

Business acquaintances from usa here last Nov thought temple bar wss very good value!!

Come on now, stop it, you can't be letting reality get in the way of a good moan.

sandin

Frynge wrote: »

Come on now, stop it, you can't be letting reality get in the way of a good moan.

exactly - most people seem to think prices elsewhere have never increased since the eighties.

In the US, initially I thought I just happened on an expensive bar in the US (cleveland city) - then next night was in Akron and it was more expensive (Akron is a boring family suburb of Cleveland), then I was in Maryland and prices were similar and Seattle, it was higher at $8.50 + tax + you sort of have to give a $1 tip - so $10+

Birmingham - I though it was expensive at £4.50 last year, it went up to £4.80 and you'd find it hard to get a word of thanks from them, and definitely no conversation or a smile!

Ouch - I was so happy to get back to my local with their cheap €4.20 pint of creamy, cold guinness served with smile, genuine thanks and without BS:p

rubadub

sandin wrote: »

exactly - most people seem to think prices elsewhere have never increased since the eighties.

Not sure about the 80s, but part of the problem is off licence beer is cheaper than it was in the early 90's. I remember starting drinking and the cheap stuff was cider and royal dutch. You could get cans of beer for £1, €1.27. This was about as low as they went, low % weird stuff might go for less, cider was 6 for £5. The duty on cider since went up.

So many people have lived through this price reduction and not appreciated it, like people who moan about buses always being late, and not appreciating when it comes in time, only remember the bad stuff.

The guinness price index is good to look at, showing a ratio of pint prices vs wages
http://www.finfacts.ie/Private/bestprice/guinnessindex.htm

When I started drinking and had little money we would have it all worked out, have a few cans in someones house, then 1-2 on the bus to town and have it all figured out. It was roughly twice the price for pints than cans, so you didn't feel too ripped off. I can fully understand how this pre-pub drinking culture is even more prevalent nowadays, even if you're a middle aged multi millionaire you would feel hard done by when comparing prices.

Geuze

sandin wrote: »

Just back from Birmingham uk - standard half decent bar in broad street. Price of pint = £4.80! Glass of wine 175ml £5.50.

Service level - sh1te.

2 weeks ago I was in usa in 4 different cities - non tourist- average price of pint including tax but excluding tip in a standard bar $8.50 (about €6.20)

Business acquaintances from usa here last Nov thought temple bar wss very good value!!

Fair enough, pints can be dearer than expected in the UK.

In 2012 I paid 2.70 stg in London, BUT that was in a Samuel Smith's pub. Normal prices easily 3.50, and I'd say 4.00 stg is common now.

NY city - yes, other than happy hours, beer can be expensive.

At 4.00e in Ireland pints are not that bad compared to Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels.

Now rural Bavaria.............heaven for value............I paid 1.80 for 50cl at Easter 2013.

Geuze

rubadub wrote: »

N

When I started drinking and had little money we would have it all worked out, have a few cans in someones house, then 1-2 on the bus to town and have it all figured out. It was roughly twice the price for pints than cans, so you didn't feel too ripped off. I can fully understand how this pre-pub drinking culture is even more prevalent nowadays, even if you're a middle aged multi millionaire you would feel hard done by when comparing prices.

This is a key point.

When I was in college, mid 1990s, 50cl cans were, as you say, approx 1 pound. A pint was approx 2 pounds.

But in 2013, you can get 50cl cans of Guinness, in multi-pack deals for 1 e at Christmas, and 1.50 at many other times.

In a provincial pub it's 4.00 per pint, in Dublin, what 4.50-4.80??

So the relative prices have moved much further apart.

Geuze

Take last Sat night.

I could have gone to the pub for:

O'Hara's double IPA or Leann Follain = 5.50
Pint of Bo Bristle = 5.00
Pint bottle of Guinness = 4.30

But what did I do?

I had a 4-pack of Leffe 33cl for the same price as one 50cl bottle in the pub!!

Frynge

That is fine if it is what you enjoy doing, but it is a bit rich for people to take in all the the pub has to offer and get up the next day with the sole purpose of bitchin and moanin about it.

Everyone understands some people dont like going to the pub and paying their hard earned money for some thing they can get cheaper else where but for the love of god would these people stop going to the pub and more importantly just quit with the giving out about it.

sawdoubters

I would gladly pay €6.80 a pint if it sent the riff raff running out the door

BRYAN Is Ainm Dom

In China at moment and most bottle sizes are 500ml and works out roughly less than one euro each.

sandin

Geuze wrote: »

Take last Sat night.

I could have gone to the pub for:

O'Hara's double IPA or Leann Follain = 5.50
Pint of Bo Bristle = 5.00
Pint bottle of Guinness = 4.30

But what did I do?

I had a 4-pack of Leffe 33cl for the same price as one 50cl bottle in the pub!!

I could buy a ready meal in Tesco for €3 or i could go to a restaurant and pay €12.

I could buy a pre-made burger in a supermarket for €1.20 that just needs re-heating or I could go to Mc donalds and pay €4.

Basically you are comparing one aspect without taking into account anything else. How much did the lighting and heating cost you at home for that evening? - I know I'll go though a bale of briquettes on a evening to keep the room warm - if I was at the pub, I'd be saving €4. If I wanted to watch a football match, I'd have to pay an extra €20 a month or so to SKY -the Pub will show this to me at no extra cost.

At home - my entertainment is TV /hifi or talking to herself. In the pub i can mix with people, catch up with friends, learn what is happening, have a laugh, listen to live music (depending on place) and enjoy a break from home life.

You see - there's a lot more to a pub than just purely the drink - just like a restaurant or a luxury car versus public transport. Or a Taxi versus walking.

Most people understand this - here some people still go to the pub purely to skull back as many pints as possible and get pissed, in that case, drinking at home is your better option - but most people go to wind down, relax and have an enjoyable evening and are prepared to pay for that. For me 3 drinks over an evening will cost less than €15. €15 for a good entertaining night is good value. - But that's just my own opinion.

sandin

BRYAN Is Ainm Dom wrote: »

In China at moment and most bottle sizes are 500ml and works out roughly less than one euro each.

and how long does an average worker have to work for to earn the cost of that drink.

In Ireland, the average worker has to work about 15minutes to earn the after tax cost of a pint. So in relative terms (China does not pay an average of €4 an hour) China is very expensive.

rubadub

sandin wrote: »

I could buy a ready meal in Tesco for €3 or i could go to a restaurant and pay €12.

I could buy a pre-made burger in a supermarket for €1.20 that just needs re-heating or I could go to Mc donalds and pay €4.

I would not go back to a restaurant that sold €3 tesco microwaved ready meals for €12, most ready meals are tiny and not that nice. This is what the pubs are offering, the same product.

I had an old post in reply to yourself 2 years ago about the burgers.

rubadub wrote: »

Lets compare. The cheapest twin pack of microwave burgers in lidl are €2. In mcdonalds I can get a nicer same size burger for €1, same price going back years now, in mcdonalds I also get more ketchup, I get a nicer choice of seats that my local pub (many mcdonalds have lovely movable seats now), I also get to sit down with a newspaper they supply -my 2 local pubs don't even have papers like that. The mcdonalds have similar overheads, and usually far better kept toilets too.

It would be ridiculous to ignore supermarket prices though, my mate is a barman and the owner buys most of his longnecks in the supermarket. The local centra was doing 20 heineken for €15, 75cent a bottle. I have seen heineken longnecks going for 5.50 in the city centre. A small tub of pringles in tesco is 1.09, so if you multiplied it directly up to the same 75c Vs 5.50 (7.33 times the price) then it is similar to asking for €7.99 for a small tub of pringles in the pub. This is why it is perfectly legitimate to compare them, one product has a ludicrously high difference in markup

If the 5.50 longneck pub was working on the same 7.33times pricing they would be microwaving the lidl burger and asking €7.33 for it. This is the proper comparison, it is not like comparing restaurants where the chef is skilled and will probably do a better job than most at cooking the same set of ingredients that could be bought less elsewhere. Opening a bottle is a totally unskilled job, and you are getting the EXACT same product as you do in a supermarket..

I am surprised places charging corkage have not sprung up more, or a cover charge. I know some bowling alleys have BYO nights now. Many build in a cover charge on the pints, so the big drinkers are paying well over the odds as they are in effect paying mulitple cover charges.

Koptain Liverpool

sandin wrote: »

Birmingham - I though it was expensive at £4.50 last year, it went up to £4.80 and you'd find it hard to get a word of thanks from them, and definitely no conversation or a smile!

Ouch - I was so happy to get back to my local with their cheap €4.20 pint of creamy, cold guinness served with smile, genuine thanks and without BS:p

Just because you have a tendency to gravitate towards rip off bars isn't valid evidence that prices in the US and UK are higher than here.

I was in London last week and never paid more than £4 for a pint and often only paid around £3..........

gucci

sandin wrote: »

Just back from Birmingham uk - standard half decent bar in broad street. Price of pint = £4.80! Glass of wine 175ml £5.50.

Service level - ****e

There is no half decent bar on broad street, thats why your booze was served with such a substandard service level.

Broad Street also has some venues where they hike the price after 11 similar to tourist / party trap pubs in Dublin.

As a birmingham resident, there is much better value to be found and alot better service!

BRYAN Is Ainm Dom

sandin wrote: »

and how long does an average worker have to work for to earn the cost of that drink.

In Ireland, the average worker has to work about 15minutes to earn the after tax cost of a pint. So in relative terms (China does not pay an average of €4 an hour) China is very expensive.

I dont disagree with anything you said but simply facts is Ireland is the ultimate rip off country especially in the drinks industry.

keithclancy

BRYAN Is Ainm Dom wrote: »

I dont disagree with anything you said but simply facts is Ireland is the ultimate rip off country especially in the drinks industry.

I don't believe so.

Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, UAE, Japan, Indonesia to just name a few would overall be more expensive for Beer/Spirits.

Other places like the Netherlands/Germany/France/Belgium depends pretty much where or what you are comparing.

People have this mad notion that beer is cheaper in the Netherlands but they forget they are drinking a Vaasje or an Amsterdammer as they call it up north and paying between 2.40 and 2.60 for it, so between 4.80 and 5.20 for a half liter (not even a pint) of Heineken p1ss.

Ireland is far from a rip off, I constantly see some mad bulk purchasing deal in the supermarkets.

Geuze

Please note that I agree with much that Sandin said.

I know that pubs have huge overheads and the experience is not the same as consuming at home.

I am just saying that the fall in the relative price of off-trade explains some of the huge shift to home drinking.

A 2-to-1 gap has become a 4-to-1 price difference.

I love pubs, I'm not complaining about them.

I defend pubs, it's the large brewers I blame for charging the pubs too much.

Geuze

keithclancy wrote: »

People have this mad notion that beer is cheaper in the Netherlands but they forget they are drinking a Vaasje or an Amsterdammer as they call it up north and paying between 2.40 and 2.60 for it, so between 4.80 and 5.20 for a half liter (not even a pint) of Heineken p1ss.

Ireland is far from a rip off, I constantly see some mad bulk purchasing deal in the supermarkets.

Beer is not cheap in NL, as you say.

Can I ask, is a Vaasje 25cl, 30cl or 33cl??

Geuze

Yes, turning a wholesale 33cl bottle into a pub-served 33cl bottle takes not that much.

Comparing an Aldi/DS/Tesco steak price to a restaurant steak price is not quite the same comparison.

Guy:Incognito

keithclancy wrote: »

I don't believe so.

Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, UAE, Japan, Indonesia to just name a few would overall be more expensive for Beer/Spirits.
.

I was in Bergen last year and went out to watch the Wales game in the 6 nations. Got a pint bottle of Bulmers, the UK one, not our Bulmers/Magners. Cost me €13.50. The others were drinking pints of Heineken, was about €8.50

keithclancy

Geuze wrote: »

Beer is not cheap in NL, as you say.

Can I ask, is a Vaasje 25cl, 30cl or 33cl??

In the South (Brabant) a Vaasje is 250ml.

rubadub

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I was in Bergen

I know of a guy who lives in norway and has found cheap enough pubs. I know another in copehagen who has also found cheap pubs.

In places like Paris you hear about a coffee costing €6 in one shop and €1.50 in a similar looking one. Its the same with beer in many countries too, in Ireland we traditionally did have similar enough prices between pubs, now we are going the way of the other europeans, huge variation in prices. You can still get pints for €2 in dublin city centre, including paulaner (typically more expensive).

Perhaps this old tradition of little variance is what caused us to have this odd tradition of refusing to even think of asking the price of a pint before ordering.

So the OP starts off with

shed head wrote: »

€6.80 a pint, we declined the drink and left, no f'ing way!

I suggested simply asking in future, thinking his lesson may be learnt, but the response is

shed head wrote: »

Do you drink mate? I am not asking the price and then order a pint should the price be right!!!

nobody else batted an eyelid at this response, if this was ANY other product being sold in a retail environment I expect he would have been told to cop the fuck on.

The publicans know of this bizarre refusal, and so take full advantage of it.

rubadub

rubadub wrote: »

I am surprised places charging corkage have not sprung up more, or a cover charge. I know some bowling alleys have BYO nights now. Many build in a cover charge on the pints, so the big drinkers are paying well over the odds as they are in effect paying mulitple cover charges.

I know an Indian restaurant that's always been BYO. With Indians being pretty expensive anyway it takes the edge off nicely.

rubadub

Deleted User wrote: »

I know an Indian restaurant that's always been BYO. With Indians being pretty expensive anyway it takes the edge off nicely.

I know 2 guys who had a joint 30th birthday party in one in monkstown, it was a private thing so no other customers let in and they had it packed out. Saved a fortune, everybody wins. Also with BYO you actually get the drink you want rather than the pathetic range in most pubs.

Imagine being a vodka fan and going to russia and only seeing smirnoff red in pubs, or going to the Caribbean and only getting bacardi standard white rum. -This is what tourist fans of stout must feel like coming here with many pubs only have a single mediocre bland stout -guinness.

Gringo180

rubadub wrote: »

I know of a guy who lives in norway and has found cheap enough pubs. I know another in copehagen who has also found cheap pubs.

In places like Paris you hear about a coffee costing €6 in one shop and €1.50 in a similar looking one. Its the same with beer in many countries too, in Ireland we traditionally did have similar enough prices between pubs, now we are going the way of the other europeans, huge variation in prices. You can still get pints for €2 in dublin city centre, including paulaner (typically more expensive).

Perhaps this old tradition of little variance is what caused us to have this odd tradition of refusing to even think of asking the price of a pint before ordering.

So the OP starts off with

I suggested simply asking in future, thinking his lesson may be learnt, but the response is


nobody else batted an eyelid at this response, if this was ANY other product being sold in a retail environment I expect he would have been told to cop the fuck on.

The publicans know of this bizarre refusal, and so take full advantage of it.

What pubs in the city centre sell 2 euro pints?

rubadub

Gringo180 wrote: »

What pubs in the city centre sell 2 euro pints?

Only 1 place I know of, diceys in the russell court hotel on certain days. They also have/had really cheap food. No doubt people will be along to bad mouth it of course, wasn't too fond of the place but it was most certainly not an unclean dive or anything. I never got food there, looked better than some pubs though.

Not sure what days it is now, as it got to more popular days like thursday or friday it used to be €3 or maybe 3.50
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Diceys-Garden/121548581235236

La Haine

3 quid for a can of Coke in O'Donoghue's on Baggot Street last Wednesday.