Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
Hi there,
There is an issue with role permissions that is being worked on at the moment.
If you are having trouble with access or permissions on regional forums please post here to get access: https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058365403/you-do-not-have-permission-for-that#latest

Price of drink in the pubs, no wonder we're drinking at home more.

  • 08-02-2014 8:09am
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭


    I had to attend a 21st birthday party last night in a well known hotel in Tallaght.

    I was driving, so wasn't drinking (pint of iced water did me ok) but the price of drinks has gotten mad recently.

    I went up to the bar, ordered 2 x vodka, Soda and lime, left a tenner on the bar, with some coins in my hand for back up in case it was more. Barman lifted my tenner, walk to the till and returned with change (dunno how much exactly, about 40c say)

    So, anyway I headed back to the bar 20 mins later again, this time for one vodka Soda and lime, €6.60 yer man asked for this time (same bartender), I was in the middle of paying him when I copped the price difference. How could I get two for less than a tenner but one for 6.60? He said something about the dispenser for the Soda water not working and charging me for the bottle of soda water.

    Seriously though, I don't drink spirits in the pub too often, but holy jebus, is that the going rate for a single measure of vodka (smirnoff), with a wedge of lime and some Soda water? Six, fcuking, SIXTY :confused:

    Are publicans still baffled to the decline in trade?

    Some profit margin right there lads.


«13

Comments

  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    Thats nothing. It's about 8.70 where I am.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,782 ✭✭✭dmc17


    It's 8:15 here


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Daveysil15 wrote: »
    Thats nothing. It's about 8.70 where I am.
    dmc17 wrote: »
    It's 8:15 here

    Jesus guys, I've been out of the pub scene for far too long. :eek: How the actual fcuk do people afford that on a night out?

    If I was on the vodkas (which I rarely drink) I reckon I'd need 10 of at least to be merry, that's the guts of one hundred quid for booze alone on a night out?

    Thank god drink pints (when out)

    Also Thank god, Lidl are selling 4 x 500ml bottles of Fransikaner (wheat beer) for a fiver at the minute.

    That's shocking altogether, no wonder the arse has fell out of our pub trade tbh.

    Edit. 8.15, I see what you did there lol.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    Jesus guys, I've been out of the pub scene for far too long. :eek: How the actual fcuk do people afford that on a night out?

    If I was on the vodkas (which I rarely drink) I reckon I'd need 10 of at least to be merry, that's the guts of one hundred quid for booze alone on a night out?

    Thank god drink pints (when out)

    Also Thank god, Lidl are selling 4 x 500ml bottles of Fransikaner (wheat beer) for a fiver at the minute.

    That's shocking altogether, no wonder the arse has fell out of our pub trade tbh.

    Tis shocking. Shur you'd get a high class escort for that money.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,592 ✭✭✭drumswan


    They charge these prices because people like you pay them. It's not rocket science


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,620 ✭✭✭Heroditas


    Booze in pubs is the same price relative to wages as it ever was.
    The big thing is the massive difference between on and off-licence prices.

    When I started boozing in college in 1992, I earned about £2.50 an hour in my part time job. Pints were about £2 then.
    Cans in the off licence were anywhere from 70p to £1

    Nowadays the minimum wage us about €8 and pints are anywhere from €4 to €6.
    However you can now pick up a slab of cans for €20!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    drumswan wrote: »
    They charge these prices because people like you pay them. It's not rocket science

    Well paying for them was preferable than :

    A, telling my niece (who's birthday party it was) and my wife to fcuk off when they told me what to order them at the bar.


    B, disappearing with the drinks into the crowd without paying the barman, like some scumbag.

    Or

    C, taking a naggin into the pub with me and pouring my own.

    I already said I don't drink spirits in the bar, but was kinda caught by the short and curlies last night when buying for others.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,568 ✭✭✭Chinasea


    Jesus guys, I've been out of the pub scene for far too long. :eek: How the actual fcuk do people afford that on a night out?
    no wonder the arse has fell out of our pub trade tbh.

    More like how have any pubs managed to stay open.

    OK, so why don't you try if you think you can do it cheaper.

    Have you any idea how much it costs to run a pub? Pay overheads? Pay insurance, pay rates, heat the vast half empty spaces, plan to server food and end up throwing it away when the weather turns bad and not a sinner turns up? Honestly.

    I am not saying that the price you pay in a pub or restaurant is cheap, but get real. Report back please once you've done so. You take a chance and open a pub with your home laid down as a guarantee to the bank and hang around and wait for the punters to turn up.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,180 ✭✭✭EyeSight


    It's not just the price that annoys me on a night out. It's the lack of staff meaning you've to wait an age to get served. Also the smart ass bouncers you need to encounter and the long lines for the toilet(i hate pubs/clubs with 1 or 2 toilets for a huge busy place)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 13,925 ✭✭✭✭anncoates


    To be fair, a hotel will cost more than a local pub, especially at an event even though I agree it's shockingly expensive.


  • Advertisement
  • Posts: 0 [Deleted User]


    Not all bars rip people off thankfully.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 906 ✭✭✭Eight Ball


    The bar trade is the only business I know of that works against itself. They keep hiring their prices and then wonder why they have no customers.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Chinasea wrote: »
    More like how have any pubs managed to stay open.

    OK, so why don't you try if you think you can do it cheaper.

    Have you any idea how much it costs to run a pub? Pay overheads? Pay insurance, pay rates, heat the vast half empty spaces, plan to server food and end up throwing it away when the weather turns bad and not a sinner turns up? Honestly.

    I am not saying that the price you pay in a pub or restaurant is cheap, but get real. Report back please once you've done so. You take a chance and open a pub with your home laid down as a guarantee to the bank and hang around and wait for the punters to turn up.

    Wait a minute.

    Are you saying that I'm prohibited from making an observation of how expensive the price of a vodka has become unless im prepared to set up my own pub?

    Thank god my thread didn't involve the price of Diamonds.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,294 ✭✭✭thee glitz


    Eight Ball wrote: »
    The bar trade is the only business I know of that works against itself. They keep hiring their prices and then wonder why they have no customers.
    CIE do this too.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 9,425 ✭✭✭FearDark


    When I first started drinking it was four pints for a tenner.
    In my early 20's it was three.
    Now it's two.

    Going out for a "few" sociables at the weekend is long gone for me. I can't afford it.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 906 ✭✭✭Eight Ball


    thee glitz wrote: »
    CIE do this too.

    Ok but with CIE in a lot of cases people have no choice with the bar business you do. I could never justify paying the prices bars charge for a simple vodka and diet coke. 7 bloody euro when you can buy a whole bottle in lidl for 12. Feck off.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    thee glitz wrote: »
    CIE do this too.

    They follow Government practice. Introduce water rates to conserve water but if you don't use enough of it they will raise the price


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    Pubs are no longer customer friendly, TV blaring sports, banging music, overpriced beer that tastes like piss, usual choice of pub snacks, surly staff & you can't smoke/vape :mad:

    The alternative of having a few friends over for decent beers at reasonable off sale prices, conversation flowing, munchies, game of cards/darts, smoke what you like & no closing time...which would you prefer?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 209 ✭✭Jaggy


    I work in an offie, people certainly aren't drinking more at home. It's more likely a case of just not drinking at all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    Jaggy wrote: »
    I work in an offie, people certainly aren't drinking more at home. It's more likely a case of just not drinking at all.
    Tell that to the select off-licences specialising in craft beers, they can't keep up with demand.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,611 ✭✭✭Valetta


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    Pubs are no longer customer friendly, TV blaring sports, banging music, overpriced beer that tastes like piss, usual choice of pub snacks, surly staff & you can't smoke/vape :mad:

    The alternative of having a few friends over for decent beers at reasonable off sale prices, conversation flowing, munchies, game of cards/darts, smoke what you like & no closing time...which would you prefer?

    These are the pubs that are packed out every weekend with .... Yeah customers: which makes them .... Customer friendly.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    Pubs are no longer customer friendly, TV blaring sports, banging music, overpriced beer that tastes like piss, usual choice of pub snacks, surly staff & you can't smoke/vape :mad:

    The alternative of having a few friends over for decent beers at reasonable off sale prices, conversation flowing, munchies, game of cards/darts, smoke what you like & no closing time...which would you prefer?

    If there's going to be smoke in the room I'd actually prefer the pub.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    Daveysil15 wrote: »
    If there's going to be smoke in the room I'd actually prefer the pub.
    You're not invited so :P


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 906 ✭✭✭Eight Ball


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    Pubs are no longer customer friendly, TV blaring sports, banging music, overpriced beer that tastes like piss, usual choice of pub snacks, surly staff & you can't smoke/vape :mad:

    The alternative of having a few friends over for decent beers at reasonable off sale prices, conversation flowing, munchies, game of cards/darts, smoke what you like & no closing time...which would you prefer?

    No choice really is it.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 209 ✭✭Jaggy


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    Tell that to the select off-licences specialising in craft beers, they can't keep up with demand.

    We have a lot of craft beers, but I dunno about keeping up with demand. Get your orders right and that isn't an issue. Generally speaking people aren't frequenting the off trade or the on trade. Even if foot fall is the same, people are spending less, buying 1 or 2 bottles when before it might have been 3 or 4, it's all relative.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    And to make things worse, the wimmin expect you to buy them drinks all night. :eek:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    Valetta wrote: »
    These are the pubs that are packed out every weekend with .... Yeah customers: which makes them .... Customer friendly.
    Not my type of pubs, I much prefer sociable pubs where you can actually hear a conversation with someone else, have a chat with the bar staff & there's more on offer than macros, crisps & jaxes without toilet seats & ass wipe.

    Different strokes for different folks I suppose, to each their own.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    Not my type of pubs, I much prefer sociable pubs where you can actually hear a conversation with someone else, have a chat with the bar staff & there's more on offer than macros, crisps & jaxes without toilet seats & ass wipe.

    Different strokes for different folks I suppose, to each their own.

    :pac: Where in the name of jasus would you see that?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Valetta wrote: »
    These are the pubs that are packed out every weekend with .... Yeah customers: which makes them .... Customer friendly.

    Customers does not necessarily mean people parting with money.

    Lots getting tanked up at home now, going to the pub already drunk.
    Naggin/can smugglers.

    Hence why publicans complain about the decline in trade.

    Just saying.


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    Daveysil15 wrote: »
    :pac: Where in the name of jasus would you see that?
    You'd be surprised :pac::pac::pac:


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,301 ✭✭✭Daveysil15


    MonstaMash wrote: »
    You'd be surprised :pac::pac::pac:

    I remember I was in a cubicle in a nightclub a few years ago when the wall from the adjoining cubicle collapsed on top of me. It was like cardboard; you could have talked it into coming down. Although the young couple who were riding up against it obviously didn't help matters. :D


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7,347 ✭✭✭LynnGrace



    So, anyway I headed back to the bar 20 mins later again, this time for one vodka Soda and lime, €6.60 yer man asked for this time (same bartender), I was in the middle of paying him when I copped the price difference. How could I get two for less than a tenner but one for 6.60? He said something about the dispenser for the Soda water not working and charging me for the bottle of soda water.

    That sounds like a mean stunt, why should the customer end up paying more because the dispenser for soda water isn't working? I wonder what else goes on, especially once customers have had a few drinks and are taking less notice of what they are being charged.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Daveysil15 wrote: »
    I remember I was in a cubicle in a nightclub a few years ago when the wall from the adjoining cubicle collapsed on top of me. It was like cardboard; you could have talked it into coming down . Although the young couple who were riding up against it obviously didn't help matters. :D

    :pac::pac::D

    That is gold.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,402 ✭✭✭keeponhurling


    ^ Shabby workmanship. Shabby, shabby, shabby


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,402 ✭✭✭keeponhurling


    I see some people in the thread comparing prices between pubs and the supermarket.

    Can ye not see that these are entirely different products?

    Well, the drink itself might be the same, but you're paying for the pub, the seat, the large tv or whatever else

    And of course it is supply and demand. If you don't like it, don't go there


  • Advertisement
  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 454 ✭✭Il Trap


    I was in the Viscount pub in Whitehall in Dublin about two weeks ago. First time drinking in the place. It was a Tuesday night and there were about 5 people, presumably mostly locals, dotted around an otherwise empty and atmosphere-less lounge area.

    I ordered a pint of Heineken and handed the bar man a fiver and said thanks. Next thing the barman tips me on the shoulder and says, 'Sorry, do you have another 30c'?

    5.30! for a pint in a pub on the outskirts of the city. Absolute thieves! A grand pub otherwise but the price of the pint was ridiculous.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,443 ✭✭✭MonstaMash


    I see some people in the thread comparing prices between pubs and the supermarket.

    Can ye not see that these are entirely different products?

    Well, the drink itself might be the same, but you're paying for the pub, the seat, the large tv or whatever else

    And of course it is supply and demand. If you don't like it, don't go there
    The point of the thread is to debate/determine why more people are choosing to drink at home & not drink in pubs.

    The difference between supermarket/off-licence/pub prices etc., is one of the multitude of reasons why some of us choose to no longer go there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 16,500 ✭✭✭✭DEFTLEFTHAND


    At some of the rural hotspots:rolleyes: that I frequent they run decent promotions at the weekend, things like 3 single measure vodkas for a tenner, or 3 pints of Harp or Tuborg for ten. The tenner buys you three tokens which you can use for either, so you don't have to get 3 drinks at the same time. The offer only stands for a limited period in the night, a happy hour system but it does tend to get younger people in earlier in the evening.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,496 ✭✭✭Boombastic


    Have you seen the price of tea bags and the prices the cafes are charging?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,380 ✭✭✭✭Banjo String


    Boombastic wrote: »
    Have you seen the price of tea bags and the prices the cafes are charging?

    When did cafe owners last complain about a decline of business to the Govt, due to people boiling their kettles, and Drinkin tay at home though :pac:


  • Advertisement
  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    I think cafes will get busier when the water meters come in as consuming water for tay and hot whiskeys will get expensive in the home.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 24,465 ✭✭✭✭darkpagandeath


    Lets just ponder why the government wants minimum pricing on off-licence/supermarket alcohol.. I will let that just sink in guys. And yet again I will say Ireland is the 2nd most expensive for alcohol and 1st most expensive for cigarettes In Europe. But the government will tell you it's all this cheep drink that's bad for us.....


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 14,311 ✭✭✭✭weldoninhio


    I see some people in the thread comparing prices between pubs and the supermarket.

    Can ye not see that these are entirely different products?

    Well, the drink itself might be the same, but you're paying for the pub, the seat, the large tv or whatever else

    And of course it is supply and demand. If you don't like it, don't go there

    I'll make a deal with ya, I won't go there, if you can get the publicans to stop whinging about me (and others) not going there.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,180 ✭✭✭EyeSight


    I see some people in the thread comparing prices between pubs and the supermarket.

    Can ye not see that these are entirely different products?

    Well, the drink itself might be the same, but you're paying for the pub, the seat, the large tv or whatever else

    And of course it is supply and demand. If you don't like it, don't go there

    And have bar owners constantly moaning to the government and treating stay at home drinkingers like criminals? Asking for Offie prices to be raised?


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 4,719 ✭✭✭dundalkfc10


    Reason people drink at home

    Go pub 8-10 pints, €36-45 Euro
    Stay In 8-10 Cans, €15 tops


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,301 ✭✭✭Pwindedd


    My pub sells me a large litre bottle of tonic for 3.50 as oppose to 2.50 for a little 250 ml. The gin is 4.40 a shot. It's still not cheap but a happy compromise.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 6,720 ✭✭✭Sir Arthur Daley


    You cant beat pints in a pub though, having tins at home is not the thing.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 24,465 ✭✭✭✭darkpagandeath


    Pwindedd wrote: »
    My pub sells me a large litre bottle of tonic for 3.50 as oppose to 2.50 for a little 250 ml. The gin is 4.40 a shot. It's still not cheap but a happy compromise.

    there 2 for €2 in my local centra at the moment


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,215 ✭✭✭harney


    Lets just ponder why the government wants minimum pricing on off-licence/supermarket alcohol.. I will let that just sink in guys. And yet again I will say Ireland is the 2nd most expensive for alcohol and 1st most expensive for cigarettes In Europe. But the government will tell you it's all this cheep drink that's bad for us.....

    It was around €6.70 in Finland last month for a 1/2 litre of beer in more than one pub. Between €7 and €9 for a 1/2 litre of beer in Paris in December, unless you went to the hotel bar where it was €14 per 1/2 litre. It is apparently more expensive in Norway than Finland for beer, not to mention prices in Sweden, so perhaps you should go check your facts?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 9,371 ✭✭✭Phoebas


    I don't mind paying the fiver for the spirit, but having to buy an individual mini mixer is taking the piss. Can't they just take it out of a two litre bottle of coke or whatever?
    WikiHow wrote: »
    I think cafes will get busier when the water meters come in as consuming water for tay and hot whiskeys will get expensive in the home.

    You must drink an awful lot of tea and whiskey.


  • Advertisement
Advertisement