Price of a pint !

Irish male mid 50s

Never a Guinness drinker, the reason I always reckon is because when I turned 18 and started properly drinking in pubs I was in London working for the summer.

So I got used to drinking largers and cider.

Guinness was not popular or quality back then.

I'd say it would be the opposite today.

I'd end up a Guinness drinker after a summer in London.

Going up by 4p and 0.0 not effected in the uk going by sky news. Yes the currency converter is a bit off

Remember back in the nineties staying in an English hotel and getting a pint pulled in one shot like a lager. Do they pull it properly now?

Jayus I won’t be switching to any of the above, don’t like any of those alternatives listed.But if there is a nice cheaper craft stout I would switch to that at a push. Sometimes can be interesting ones.
But for the most part I am stuck with Guinness.

1. I like the taste
2. It is easy on my stomach
3. I don’t like gassy beers

Irish Distillers follow on with price increase also

colleague of mine loves the Guinness nitro surge cans at 2 Euro a can, his local charges nearly 7 euro a pint

tells me they are normally 25 euro for ten but regularly on special offer 20 euro somewhere which is when he stocks up

I did a google gemini on this very subject. I believe they are completely taking the pee.

I hope I am allowed to paste in the AI return.

The psychology behind Guinness price increases in Ireland is a complex interplay of brand identity, cultural ritual, and behavioral economics. While a price hike usually decreases demand, Guinness occupies a unique "sacred" space in Irish consumer psychology that makes it relatively price-inelastic.

Here is an analysis of the psychological drivers that allow these price increases to persist.

1. The "Pratfall Effect" and Quality Signaling1

In psychology, the Pratfall Effect suggests that people find a brand more appealing when it acknowledges a minor flaw.2 Guinness has famously turned its "weakness"—the long, slow 119.5-second pour—into a hallmark of quality.

• Expectation Assimilation: Studies show that if people expect a drink to be high-quality (often signaled by a premium price), they actually perceive it as tasting better.

2. Cultural Anchoring and Loss Aversion

For many in Ireland, a pint of Guinness is not just a beverage; it is a cultural anchor.

• The Ritual: The specific ritual of the pour and the "settle" creates a psychological commitment. By the time the glass is handed over, the consumer has already invested time and anticipation.
• Loss Aversion: Psychologically, people feel the "pain" of losing a ritual more than the benefit of saving a few cents. Even as prices rise, the "cost" of switching to a cheaper, less culturally significant alternative (like a standard lager) feels like a personal or cultural loss.

3. Brand Ownership and "Irishness"

There is a rare psychological phenomenon in Ireland where the public feels a sense of collective ownership over Guinness.

• The Corporate Paradox: Despite being owned by the multinational giant Diageo, Guinness is viewed as a national symbol. This creates a love-hate relationship. While consumers "complain" about price hikes (often blaming "corporate greed"), they rarely boycott the brand because doing so feels like rejecting a part of Irish identity.
• Social Proof: Because "everyone" drinks it, the Bandwagon Effect ensures that even as the price hits €7 or €8 in Dublin, the social cost of being the only one not drinking the "standard" pint outweighs the financial cost.

4. Substitution and Mental Accounting

In economic terms, Guinness has very few close substitutes in the minds of its drinkers.

• The "One Choice" Bias: While Beamish or Murphy’s are available and often cheaper, many Guinness drinkers don't view them as interchangeable. In their mental accounting, a "pint" specifically means a "pint of Guinness."
• Margin of Tolerance: Price increases are often incremental (e.g., 7 to 15 cents). These small "nudges" stay below the just-noticeable difference (JND)—a threshold where the price change is small enough that it doesn't trigger a change in habitual behavior.

Summary of Psychological Factors

Large brewery companies controlling the pumps in pubs wont change until we get rid of the fixed number of licenses which makes opening a new bar or cafe bar so expensive.

This is also the reason things wont change.

We would get some smaller bars selling with more variety in Dublin. Plenty of people want to try different beers but its hard to find them in Ireland.

If set up costs were cheaper people could open small bottle bars like in the rest of europe.

Which one is it that closed recently?

The market is bigger if the new small bars were selling bottles and maybe sone craft beer at cheaper prices.

Lots of people are priced out of pubs now but small bottle bars selling varied beers for less than a fiver would open the market up and appeal to tourists at the same time.