Price of a pint !

No but they're selling to basically a completely different market and they know this simple fact.

See above response to other poster.

Which doesn't answer anything.

I'm starting to get the impression you like being screwed over somehow!

They charge them more because they're willing to pay it and have little other option in doing so. Whereas off-sales can and do (less so since DRS, due to admin costs, but some still do) import non domestic market versions of products. 440ml Guinness cans, 3.4% Carlsberg cans etc are not unseen here.

Ironically all the Guinness cans are canned in the UK no matter where they're sold, so the product has to be transhipped twice even for Irish market cans.

Your argument of "our customers are going to have a higher cost base to sell a version of our product that is cheaper to make, so lets charge them more to buy it off us" is ludicrous and trying to justify it is even more so.

If you don't want to get ripped off, spending days justifying why you're getting ripped off is a baffling way to go about it.

I know as I’ve said above.

However they are selling to a premises where there is more on offer than the liquid itself, therefore people will pay more for it than buying a can or bottle from an off licence so they can and do charge more.

I wish they didn’t but they do and are entitled to do it in this capitalist world we unfortunately live in.

So why have you been defending them so vociferously for multiple pages now anytime anyone says anything against them.

You are trying to tell me that you are arguing with people you claim to totally agree with.

I believe you said you are head of a large brewery sales team earlier and my experience of dealing with them was always the same. Pretending to my face to be on the little guys side but actually loved the game.

I never said anything like that, not in any role in the industry at all, that was a different poster.

I do just not believe that pints are a rip off. I believe that €45 (7 pints) for many hours in a nice environment with friends, football and live music is good value.

Obviously I'd prefer it to be cheaper as who doesn't enjoy having more money but if it's €45 or €41.50 I couldn't really care, I'll still enjoy myself.

The cost of gas and electric have far more of an impact on my wallet than 20c being put on a pint.

I said the following above.

"However they are selling to a premises where there is more on offer than the liquid itself, therefore people will pay more for it than buying a can or bottle from an off licence so they can and do charge more. I wish they didn’t but they do and are entitled to do it in this capitalist world we unfortunately live in."

€6.70 for a Guinness in the buglers in Rathfarnham but €6.10 for Beamish.
Didn’t realise this as they don’t advertise prices so I had to ask.
They also only have the beamish tap in the bar.
Good draw on it.

It's hard to disagree. 7 pints is a realistic if not significant amount for a lad in his 30's 40's etc. and a nice evening out. Once you can keep the taxi cost down and remove food from the equation it's not too bad.

That's if you can get seven pints for that money.

The issue really is that as things continue to compress with the pub environment you'll have less and less options of where to have those pints and potentially less and less competition between Venues for your custom.

Towns and villages across the country have been decimated over the past few decades when it comes to options forcing people to travel further(expense) for those few pints with many people making the decision not to bother for one reason or another.

Now I don't know whether less pubs is a good thing or a bad thing, but I do know there are certain rural areas that have suffered significantly as a result. Be that with the far more significant availability of other drugs, lack of regulated meeting places for late teens/twenty year olds/older people at a loose end etc etc.

Ara I dunno. Perhaps if Guinness and their ilk weren't making as many billions profit as they were people mightn't be as exercised by it either.

But it does seem like it hasn't taken very long for the price of a pint go from circa 5 euro to circa 7 euro on average which is a big overall increase in a relatively short space of time. Is that rate sustainable?

I always think in this discussion that it's good to remind people that pints of draught beer are being sold in central Dublin (profitably I assume) at €2.60 in 2025.

So that can be done.

Yes, it requires large-scale bulk purchasing power, but it just shows that even with high wage and energy costs, it is possible to have affordable pints.

I used to drink in Diceys regularly pre Covid as it was close to my work, €1.50 bottles, have 10 and have a great night out for €15.

Not really a fan of Wetherspoons environment to be honest. Don’t get me wrong they serve their purpose for people, and I’ve been to them every now and again, they’re just not what I want in a pub.

To me a pub isn’t just about the liquid in a glass.

Six JDW pubs in Dublin: three in city centre and three in suburbs.

In the suburbs the pints start at €2.10!!!!

You're missing the point here - the fact that a pint can be sold for €2.60 in Dublin just last year shows that is where the bottom of the market is - and that will be an attractive option for the customers you (probably quite rightly, turn your nose up at). Let's say most other pubs then, to 'dis-incentivise' said customers, popped a whopping 50% surcharge on those €2.60 pints and sold them for €3.90 instead, heck - round it up and make it €4 a pint.

Now, that's probably the floor for the lesser known/tried brands in a regular every-day pub. Pop on another 25% premium charge for the well-known brands and bam - €5 a pint which is probably the limit for alot of pub-goers right now.

There is a psychological price point for the majority of the paying public out there. After the last recession which pubs responded to somewhat (3 pints for a €10) and it courted business.

Same with €2 per litre road fuel.

There is an unwritten price point where the paying public really sit up and notice.

Diageo/Heineken are hoping that point is now €10 per pint in the psyche of the Irish consumer and are marching towards it with gusto. But I think they have burst the dam, the €5 pint is what the customer wants if they are to return to the pub.

Like a previous poster, I used to be a twice a weekend for pints person, now I'm once a month, twice at a push. The new prices have killed it for me, just not worth it at all.

If you want to use wage-cost ratio then let's really dig deeper into it.

Minimum wage in Spain is €9.26/hr at present, Ireland is €14.15/hr so a 34% difference.

Now, wages are not the overall cost of serving pints, but let's say that they are 50% of the cost to be overtly generous.

Therefore a pint should be 17% more expensive here than in Spain considering the labour input costs. Now, let's allow for higher excise duty here compared to Spain. We get roughly 50c per pint more tax than Spain.

The above photo was taken just last September in Madrid, just across the road from the Palace in the City Centre, so a bit of a tourist trap so to speak. Link to Google Maps for those with any doubt: https://maps.app.goo.gl/M8CgeXSjrEN8hhvo8

At €3 for a 500ml beer (and they throw in a few crisps/peanuts to boot) in Ireland the equivalent should cost €3.51 allowing for wage cost inputs, and a further 50c for tax purposes bringing that 500ml beer to €4.01 here. Now, we serve pints, not half litres, so add another 55c to allow for that. Result €4.56 per pint. That leaves 44c wriggle room to account for more expensive electricity and heating costs (note, the Spanish will have cooling costs) for the Irish pub.

TLDR - at €5.50 to €8.50 per pint, the Irish breweries/pubs are grossly overcharging Irish and tourist customers.