A pint of Guinness and a bottle of Heineken: €11.80

Bricriu

Sorry Moderators: I put this in the Feedback section by mistake. It should be in this section.

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I visited Dublin from Connemara last Friday and went to a pub in Killester.

I ordered a pint of Guinness and a bottle of Heineken.

Cost: €11.80; to say I was shocked is an understatement. This is robbery - no other words describe it. It is also unsustainable for the customer. I won't be back. I haven't had a pay rise since the early noughties.

This anti-Irish, evil government, with its high tax on alcohol, is either trying to make us all emigrate or to have us stay at home to watch the Late Late Show so that we get brain-rot and end up as zombies. The pubs are also getting their cut, of course. And don't lecture me about Temple Bar - it is a corrupt area that fleeces dumb tourists.

Pubs, especially in rural areas are closing one after the other. I remember when the drink-driving law was changed to reduce alcohol amounts while driving, the politicians were on radio promising to introduce a mini-bus service to get customers home from the pub. As usual with scum politicians' promises - no service was set up - anywhere - as far as I know.

Rural Ireland is dying rapidly, with the old, especially, staying at home because they can't get home at closing time, with depression and loneliness being huge problems.

Incidentally, I was not given a receipt in Killester. Embarasment on the part of the pub?

L1011

There's rather a lot to go through here:

• Tax on alcohol hasn't gone up in about a decade - price rises of late are down primarily to the big three breweries who have ratcheted prices, while making record profits.
• If you haven't had a pay rise in ~20 years, you need to change employer or career. The minimum wage has gone up from €6.35 20 years ago to €11.30 now. In 2007 I was earning less than half of what I am now for roughly the same job.
• Hideously, €11.80 is pretty cheap for a Guinness and a bottle of Heineken in Dublin. I wouldn't be surprised to see closer to €13. Bottled beers are massively overpriced in pubs
• Rural pubs will be cheaper than Dublin so I'm not sure how they're relevant to your Dublin price
• Pubs don't generally issue receipts unless you ask for it.

Xander10

I was assuming it was €11.80 each

Pretty standard that

fritzelly

Don't go to Temple Bar whatever you do!

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312447/a-pint-of-guinness-and-a-bottle-of-heineken-11-80

That price is about right.

You went in and ordered the drinks.

No robbery involved.

Murph85

"The minimum wage has gone up from €6.35 20 years ago to €11.30"

Relatively the minimum wage twenty years ago , probably gave you way more purchasing power...

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121074329#Comment_121074329

What has that to do with the point that minimum wage has risen while the OP maintains he hasn't had a rise in 20 years?

Thespoofer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058312447/a-pint-of-guinness-and-a-bottle-of-heineken-11-80

While we're on the subject of rip off, have you seen the price of these Connemara socks ?

Screenshot_20230905-221952_Chrome.jpg

RurtBeynolds

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121074342#Comment_121074342

Maybe the op wasn't on minimum wage?

kippy

Pubs are essentially dying out for numerous reasons - outside of busy city centres they are done and this is one of the reasons why. It's also a hellish "career" for rural pupowners with the younger people not wanting to take on pubs these days.

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121074432#Comment_121074432

Nobody said he was. Maybe read the posts again, 🙄

Bricriu

Poster here: I wasn't on the minimum wage. I retired on a fairly good salary in 2010, having not had a pay rise in several years, and received a non-state pension; that pension has not risen since, and I'm still paying the dreaded USC that was used to bail-out gamblers in banks.

But, Jaysus, lads, some of you seem to be be very accepting of high prices! Are you members of political parties or supporters of same?

A lot of the public have been taking it in the rear-end for years, and all they do is cry into their pints as they end up being screwed.

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076503#Comment_121076503

It's not a question of being accepting of high prices or political supporters.

The simple truth is that's what a pint of stout and a bottle of Heineken in a pub in a fairly salubrious suburb of Dublin costs.

It's not a rip off.

cap.in.hand.

I'd question how much the bottle of Heineken was..that's usually a rip off in pubs whatever about a pint of Guinness

Markus Antonius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076503#Comment_121076503

There are a lot of FF-FG-SF shillbots on boards...

sydthebeat

You'd have been better off buying a pint of Guinness and a glass of Heineken.

Would have cost you about €2.50 less for pretty much the same product.

You leave The Beachcomber alone. Good thing you didn't walk down to Harry Byrne's, would have been more than €12

lalababa

The cost to do stuff in Ireland is very high. The 4 big ticket items (usually) house, car, rent, entertainment are way above many EU countries, and these big items have an knock on effect on everything else. The causes are red tape regulations , insurance, taxes, and the 'Catholic irish' attitude to spending and economising.

We really are being sold a tale when a private individual or council can't get a house built for less than 300k.

As regards drinks in pubs n restaurants, that's another tale of cultural woe. I can order beer ingredients and make a good pint at home for 20cents in a 10L batch. Imagine what a pint costs when they're making batches of 200,000 pints?

Jim_Hodge

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081141#Comment_121081141

You can't reasonably compare home brewing costs. Consider Energy, Excise duty, vat, manufacturing labour, distribution, retail rates, labour, and a required profit margin at all stages. I'm not saying beer is good value but the comparison is worthless.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076503#Comment_121076503

No rip off at all here. Just naiveity on your part.

Staff wages are quite high in Dublin, all Ng with higher rates, insurance, security etc.etc.

Nothing wrong with those prices at all.

tayto lover

anyone know why the pubs don't sell Tuberg anymore? It was a lovely lager and cheap too.

waterwelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081441#Comment_121081441

Because it tends to attract the wrong type of client. Suited to places that have a bookies next door and do well on dole day.

Lads that might be into cocaine, insurance claims and fighting will drink it.

Better off going for the premium part of the market. A woman drinking G+T is worth 3 Tuborg drinkers.

So they block a lot of seats too.

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081476#Comment_121081476

If that's the case then they might be glad of that type of client in the future. My mates used to drink it and they wouldn't know what cocaine was and don't bet either. I think you have it very wrong.

Doodah7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081441#Comment_121081441

Because it's awful??

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081441#Comment_121081441

Because it tastes like piss, and there isn’t much of a market for beer that tastes like piss, even if it’s cheap.

rubadub

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121085005#Comment_121085005

what has that got to do with anything? pubs are full of beers that many describe as awful, be it guinness, budweiser, heineken, carlsberg, the list goes on...

arsebiscuits82

I live in Cork and was up home in Donegal recently.

I can't understand how a pint of Heineken brewed in cork, and delivered to Donegal is €4.90 whereas it’s €5.70 less than 20 miles from where it’s produced.

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121081441#Comment_121081441

Diageo are pushing Harp to that market again

tayto lover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226290#Comment_121226290

You can get Harp in nearly every pub in Dundalk for the last few years. I liked the Tuborg though. It had a good 'cut' to it.

suave.4u

Had a smithwicks recently for Eur 6.50. Its taste has really gone down. Back to Heineken I guess

TrishaBurnett

nice post

accensi0n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226102#Comment_121226102

Different local costs like rent

Different market

Capitalism, ability to sell at a higher price and not lose customers

Etc.

?

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121226102#Comment_121226102

You couldn't really have thought this was any way relevant to the price of a pint. Like, there is just no way you're being genuine here.

What a thread, jesus.

BraveDonut

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121076503#Comment_121076503

Sounds like you retired from buying pints in pubs in 2010 too

artanevilla

A what point where you robbed in this story? Did the barman pull out a gun?

Leroy42

The key question is, is there a point at which the costs of providing the service and product surpass the ability of the customer to pay?

One can cite wages, rent, rates etc etc all day long, but the reality is that it would appear, from the number of pubs closing, that the consumer has reached a point where paying the price isn't worth it. Certainly not to the volume previously.

The previous practice of simply raising the price up to try to cover the shortfall seems like a losing strategy. Pubs need to think outside the box. Looking for special VAT treatment, or looking for government intervention, is not going to work long term.

You will always have those individual pubs that by dint of history, special meaning, particular location etc will do well, but as a whole, the industry seems to be suffering and, at least from my POV, doesn't appear to have any ideas on how to address the issues.

One way forward is the amalgamation of pubs, from single owner/operator to groups owned by a large corporation but managed locally. This way they can at least look at bulk buying discounts, cross over of staff around different pubs to cover for illness/leave etc. Instead of offering every product available, only stock those that are willing to give you special pricing. Instead of all three pubs in a village being opened during the day, only 1 at a time. Grouping together would help in terms of a bus service for example. Place a minimum spend and below that charge a fee. Or arrange for a taxi company to give a minimum service level so that customers can use the pub app to book a taxi home.

Strumms

A post on social media, a very very very average pub on Dame St in Dublin…. Poof by way of the receipt and pint…. 1 pint of Guinness… €7.20

elperello

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121352529#Comment_121352529

The OPs couple of drinks were never a rip off to start with.

If the thread goes on for another two months they are going to look like a bargain.