Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

the beer revolu · 02-10-2025 08:16AM

While we're on pub pricing matters, I'm aghast at what some pubs charge for a half pint compared to the price of a pint! Should be illegal to charge more than 50% pint price.

breezy1985 · 02-10-2025 08:24AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123868468#Comment_123868468

That's not just an Irish thing. Pretty standard pub culture anywhere that has pubs.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869155#Comment_123869155

Same with wine. You will be told its because a pint takes less serving time than two halves but in reality it's just an upwell technique.

the beer revolu · 02-10-2025 09:19AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869171#Comment_123869171

As you mention wine, it's also a problem that no one seems to be able to agree on how many mls are in a "glass". Order a "glass" of wine and you have no idea what you are going to get.

irish_goat · 02-10-2025 09:25AM

That's fairly standard even in wine countries though. Ask for a glass somewhere and you might get a choice of 1cl or 2cl, or you might get a free pour of whatever amount.

L1011 · 02-10-2025 09:28AM

I think the given size of a glass also has to be on the almost mythical statutory price list; and definitely on the actually mythical full price list available-on-request no pub ever has!

My local actually has a huge one up - some template sent out by a supplier that's bigger than A3 size was obviously the next one lying around the office last time they put the prices up - but even then it's not much use.

As its the statutory list, it has the price of the cheapest of each category on it, none of which I buy. The only other stuff in the pub clearly priced is the premium whiskey and tequila.

I also imagine the list is unenforceable and just an "invitation to treat" like shop prices; cause I've seen somewhere with it so comically out of date before I should probably have chanced my arm, sub-€4 for stout when they were charging nearer to 6.

techman1 · 02-10-2025 09:31AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123868926#Comment_123868926

They are taking advantage of the Irish social pressure not to portrayed as stingy or tight especially in social settings which you usually are in in a pub. The brits don't have those hang ups that's why they enjoy lower prices. Also the high taxation from government is a factor

02-10-2025 09:44AM

On the price list thing or lack of a price list thing.

I think it goes back a few decades when the price of the pint was a bell weather for the state of the nation.

Anyone who was going into a pub knew the price of a pint, because everyone knew the price of a pint.

The price of the pint was the news, not only on budget day but also in any news related to the economy, inflation etc etc.

Just like house prices or rent prices today.

So there was no need for any extensive price lists, everyone knew already.

In some pubs you see those old framed posters of "The price of the pint through the years"

They stop at around 1993. That's because it's around then that we started getting wealthy and the price of the pint no longer mattered as much anymore.

breezy1985 · 02-10-2025 09:51AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869330#Comment_123869330

That's nonsense about "the brits". I worked hospitality in both countries and they are famous for being even more shy than we are about asking for things or complaining about them.

They also don't enjoy lower prices except in Spoons.

99% of the time any "only in Ireland" comment is pure bollix.

BeerNut · 02-10-2025 10:33AM

It's just as well nobody said "only in Ireland", that would have been embarrassing.

Ireland does, however, have an effective cartel of pub owners who have consciously chosen not to compete with each other on price. Pubs in Britain do have price competition. Wetherspoon may be the most visible player in that game, but there are other chains in the high street doing it, and smaller operations which try to present themselves in similar way, with price-led promotions, to get people in the door. You won't find many VFI/LVA members doing that.

Hotblack Desiato · 02-10-2025 10:41AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869317#Comment_123869317

The Porterhouse used to have a menu with the price of everything on it. Hundreds of beers

breezy1985 · 02-10-2025 10:48AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869592#Comment_123869592

Still do. It's normal for craft beer places because the range is always changing and the prices are as diverse as the menu.

L1011 · 02-10-2025 12:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869592#Comment_123869592

Pretty much every craft beer place does; its normal pubs that just ignore the legal requirement for it.

Hotblack Desiato · 02-10-2025 12:43PM

Last time I was in Porterhouse Central the range had been cut drastically

the beer revolu · 02-10-2025 03:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123870056#Comment_123870056

I wonder if Rising Sons (Cork) have started to display prices. They didn't for a long time.

Geuze · 02-10-2025 03:20PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869330#Comment_123869330

When discussing prices in pubs, bear in mind that exxcise duty on beer in Ireland is similar, or lower than UK rates.

Excise in Ireland = €22.55 per 100L per %, or 22.55 cent per litre per %

Which means 12.8 cent per pint per %

For a 4.2% beer, that's 54 cent per pint.

UK excise is £21.78 per litre of pure alcohol (beers 3.5% up to 8.4%)

That's 52 pence for a 4.2% beer.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/alcohol-duty-rates

So excise duty is lower in Ireland, and higher in the UK.

Yet I can buy pints in pubs in the West Midlands (non-Spoons) for £2.90 - £3.80.

BeerNut · 02-10-2025 04:18PM

Throw VAT onto that and how does it look, per pint?

L1011 · 02-10-2025 04:39PM

With the 3% VAT difference, it's only cheaper overall on high ABV products I think. Although there's much rumours of a VAT hike coming in their budget, they also like performative "penny off the pint" micro cuts to duty recently.

UK also has the =<3.4% ABV band which a lot of mass market products are in now, which is significantly less than it is here.

Blut2 · 02-10-2025 06:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123870757#Comment_123870757

Irish pubs seem to get particularly bad prices from their suppliers - Diageo etc - which is the main factor now. Duty on alcohol hasn't increased here since way back in 2013.

I don't know why the LVI hasn't established some sort of buying group to help give them far more negotiating power to overcome this. They've already got the organisation in place, surely it would be a very easy win.

For publicans, and the general public, and even for politicians who know how much the price of a pint plays into people's inflation experience.

Wetherspoons and the much lower prices they get when buying for 900~ pubs shows how powerful it would be.

L1011 · 02-10-2025 06:28PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123871274#Comment_123871274

Diageo would probably manage to get any such group considered a cartel. The VFI/LVA agreed a price cut in the crash and were found to be acting as a cartel in doing so.

BeerNut · 02-10-2025 07:40PM

IMO, Diageo only charges high prices to Irish publicans because the publicans themselves charge high retail prices, and the producer feels entitled to a cut of that. Diageo has no problem selling Guinness in bulk to JD Wetherspoon in Britain, to be sold at a low retail price, because both producer and retailer are getting an equitable margin on that. It couldn't be done in Ireland because Wetherspoon would have undercut Diageo's Irish customers, and demonstrated that the price of a pint of Guinness in Ireland is far higher than it needs to be. There's absolutely nothing stopping Diageo and the Irish publicans absolutely slashing the price of a pint, but they don't have to, so it keeps going up, and the customers keep paying it.

The publicans do complain about wholesale pricing, but it's a system they've built and maintained themselves, so I don't believe they're genuinely bothered by it. The senior LVA members have done the buying group thing, just not with Diageo. First it was the deal with C&C which put cheap (for them) Five Lamps beers on their taps, and now they've set up their own production facility with Changing Times.

Hotblack Desiato · 02-10-2025 10:23PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123871274#Comment_123871274

I don't know why the LVI hasn't established some sort of buying group to help give them far more negotiating power to overcome this.

For one reason and one reason only - 95% if not more of punters despite complaining about the price of a pint won't go to pubs that don't have Guinness or Heineken. Of course Diageo Ireland and Heineken Ireland know this and price accordingly. They always increase prices in lockstep with each other, too.

Pub drinkers are such brand queens in this country it's beyond a joke.

techman1 · 03-10-2025 11:05AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123871329#Comment_123871329

I bet if they did succeed in forming a buyer group to have buying power and reduce prices in the pubs we would have all these government agencies like the competition authority and ngos like alcohol awareness Ireland weighing in to get prices pushed back up or getting the government to increase taxes or VAT. The whole establishment in Ireland conspires indirectly to keep prices high for everything. These organisations also get loads of unquestioned time in the media

antimatterx · 03-10-2025 11:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123872064#Comment_123872064

I mean I'd love a Rascals or Wicklow Wolf but craft taps aren't common.

Feisar · 03-10-2025 11:30AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123869155#Comment_123869155

Why?

the beer revolu · 03-10-2025 12:01PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123873243#Comment_123873243

Because it is a blatant rip off and doesn't encourage sensible drinking or trying several different beers. Why should I pay a substantial premium because I chose to drink halves? A double spirit shot is twice the price of a single. Why? All the arguments for a half pint costing more would be applicable here but it's not the case with spirits. Why?

irish_goat · 03-10-2025 12:04PM

It's standard across loads of industries though. You don't pay half price for ordering a small coffee, small steak or a smaller piece of clothing.

Even in a supermarket, a 330ml bottle of beer is never half the price of a 660ml (rare as they are). You're paying for a multitude of things and the amount of liquid you are getting is only a portion of the price.

adaminho · 03-10-2025 12:31PM

Wait till you see the difference between a long neck cider and a pint bottle!

the beer revolu · 03-10-2025 12:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123873403#Comment_123873403

There are already lots of restrictions and rules on how, when and where alcohol can be sold and served. Alcohol isn't like other industries. It would be very easy to implement a ban on volume incentives.

irish_goat · 03-10-2025 01:04PM

Publicans would just put the price of the pint up. They'd argue they make less margin off a half pint.

breezy1985 · 03-10-2025 04:43PM

I know guys who order their wife a pint with an empty half pint glass. Being doing it long before the prices got so high too.

The real effective GP of a half pint is probably close to nothing in most pubs anyway due tk how few are sold so it's kinda pointless for the publican to add the extra.

Man your pumps, Wetherspoons are coming

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