Beer-o-nomics

Last night at the Suede concert, I was rather put out to get rinsed £6.90 for a small can of Camden Pale. I was expecting a fiver, but even knowing today's eye-watering prices for everything, I was taken aback at being asked to cough up nearly £7 for 330ml of mass-produced beer, albeit at the better end of the taste scale, in a provincial student union. Needless to say I didn't go back for a second can, which got me thinking about the economic wisdom of charging such unreasonable prices, even in a concert venue.

Camden Pale costs £1.25 a can in the supermarket, so I'm assuming it's less than that for bars to buy it in. Even if we use £1.25 as our starting point, the mark-up is around 5.5 times, well over the 3 to 3.5 times you'd expect in a restaurant. For comparison, the pubs and bars that serve proper craft ales in Lincoln charge between £6.50 and £8 a pint. This sounds a lot, but these are beers that sell for between £3 and £4 a 440ml can in the shops, so the mark up is actually less than 100%. Granted if you don't like the prices in a bar you can just move to the next one or go home, but that's still a huge disparity. As it was I exercised my free choice in a different way - I didn't drink any more beer. Not a difficult decision when I was there primarily for the music and it was a Sunday.

I know that there are a few people on here who work in the world of brewing, pubs, hospitality etc, so I'd be really interested in your views. If the cans had been more sensibly priced, say £5, I'd have probably had one more. If we assume cost price is £1, then one sold at £6.90.is £5.90 profit. If they were going for Merde Tete's RRP and I'd bought two, the profit would have been £8.

I'm guessing the reality isn't that simple, but surely there must be a price point where the inflated margin ceases to make economic sense, as people just stop buying.

 

I have a similar thought about ticket pricing with football... if you lower the ticket prices would you get bigger attendances and more spending on the concourse etc, or would it make little difference?

 

I believe they call it a captive market, because you can't go anywhere else to buy it, so essentially they charge whatever they want.

I was at Manchester arena a few months ago, and a 2 pint cup of whatever generic lager they had on (maybe Amsel) was £16. Of course, I paid it because I'd had a couple of pints before hand and was in the mood for a couple more. Had I been stone cold sober when I went in, I'd have not bothered I reckon.

 

Definitely. That's what I'm curious about, at what point to people just stop paying even when there's a captive market. Or they buy just the bare minimum, where if the items were priced even vaguely sensibly, far greater profits would be made through volume of sales.

 

I don't think it makes much of a difference, which is why the club hasn't lowered ticket prices over a sustained period. I've always said that the best way to try and improve the attendance at Oakwell, is to target the element of our attendance who would be more likely to come with more competitive pricing, and thats the away fans. Realistically, the attendance in the home end won't exceed, at most, a couple of thousand more if we regularly have ticket prices at £20 or below. But it could add a couple of thousand extra on the away attendance.

 

It's difficult, because even when I was in Manchester playing £8 a pint the other week, the queues were massive. I queued about 15 minutes for those two, and when I dipped out to the toilet during a song I wasn't bothered about, the queues in the concourse were still reasonably long considering it was mid gig. The demand for it remains, even with unreasonable pricing.

I do remember going to the O2 academy in Sheffield about 12 years ago and refusing to buy a pint because it was £4.50. Those were the days.

 

About 10 years ago we went to a venue in Manchester and Birmingham - I think both were O2 but they were owned by the same brand - and ordered some alcohol for the wife and a soft drink for me (driving). There was £2 difference (Manchester was cheaper!) - but most of that was on the soft drink. Obviously nobody drives to concerts anymore and wants to purchase a drink that costs the venue literal pennies.

Although I did go to the Brudenhall the other week in Leeds and got two diet cokes and change from £3.

 

I'm quite choosy about my beer, so you'd be hard pushed to get me to pay much more than a quid for a pint of Amstel no matter what the circumstances! I'd probably cough up £8 for Punk, though I'd be very unlikely to buy more than one pint at that price. Maybe the majority of people do just have one or two drinks at a concert, so it makes sense to squeeze every last drop out of the punters, no pun intended!

 

Hope you had a small bottle of very cheap whisky in your pocket, student style!

 

I'm, unfortunately, the only driver so I can only drink when we have a hotel booked. Although last time in London I forgot to actually drink alcohol...

 

That must have saved you an absolute fortune.

 

£7.15 for two pints of Belgian Blue and a pint of Pepsi in Joseph Brammahs yesterday afternoon

 

Brudenell is such a great venue. I'm usually driving when I go there and they have an alcohol-free beer on draught there that's the best one I've tasted. Most other places sell cans, of varying standards, as the alcohol-free options.

 

I'm the same up to a point. I'd been on the IPA prior, but from memory, it's Amsel or Dark fruits only in the Men (or whatever its called now), and Amsel aggrivates my stomach problems the least out of the two.

 

I brew my own beer from grain and leaf hops (have been doing for more than 35 years - eeek!) and I reckon I pay no more than 45p per pint with everything costed in , including leccy. I wouldn't pay £8 a pint for any beer anywhere. Proper Yorkshire!!

 

Your spot on with your economics this also applies to other products, IE ticket sales cost on theatres.

 

Seems to have worked at Bradford (Attendances, not success on the pitch)

 

In 2018 I worked in a pub in Burton (the best one, Cooper's Tavern near the station). At that time, a pint of Draught Bass was £3, probably over £4 now. I think the hospitality business have been playing the COVID card excessively. I accept that they were badly hit by it but they're not exactly encouraging people back to the pubs are they? If Wetherspoons can sell a decent pint of real ale for £2.45 I really don't know why the rest can't at least be a bit more reasonable.

Edit, I read a guardian article about what they called greedflation. Inflation is being significantly driven by profiteering.

 

Leeds arena to watch Madness Friday night. 2 x 2 pint vessels of San Miguel & 2 x double rum and diet coke. £59.90