ScoobyDriverWannabe

I know there are rules & regulations for pubs too follow in relation too spirits and alcohol measures but are soft drinks not included ?

Just took my parents out for a meal, i got the drinks in. Asked for a pint of fosters for me dad, orange juice for me mother & a pint of coke for me, as i was driving.

I got the reply sorry we dont sell pints of coke we only do one measure. The glass of coke she gave me was one of them daft slimline things which was 3 quarters of the way full as i said i didnt want ice.

Really begrudges me considering the coke was more expensive than the pint of Fosters.

Trying too do the sensible thing not drink driving but it would be cheeper too buy a pint of lager.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

/nerd mode on

Strictly speaking the loss of your licence would be much more expensive than a pint of Fosters...

/nerd mode off

I know what you mean by that - so do what I do... Orange juice and soda in a pint glass... between the two they make up a pint and it is VERY refreshing.

ScoobyDriverWannabe

Yer i do know that and i do value my licence hence me not taking any chances.

So orange juice 7 soda water is the way forward

Luan Pra bang

I sell coke in 200ml bottles. If you ask me for a pint I will give you three of them and charge you for 3 of them. £1.50 each. What else would you expect ?

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

It is totally frustrating. You are not to drink and drive, but it is either as expensive, if not more to do the right thing and buy a soft drink. I agree there are alternatives to say coke/pepsi etc, but it's annoying when you have to pay so much for what you would even think should cost less. Rights and wrongs excluded, you would think pubs would offer incentive to not drink and drive, after all many have the posters up about not doing that. Maybe it's about making a similar amount off people following the law, or of course, those who choose not to drink alcohol/can't.

Luan Pra bang

Why blame the pubs the majority are struggling to make money as it is and you think £1.50 is to much for a coke ?

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Pretty much hun. I'm not far away from you, and have bought just orange and water before (I don't like soda), and has cost me enough to wonder why I just didn't get a proper drink.

Not to mention a while ago now, I used to go out, didn't want to drink, so just always asked for a pint of tap water, until I was told in future I would have to buy bottled water.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Well when a can from the vending machine costs 50p - the same measure costing three times that is kind of taking the micky

moff1888

No but when a pint of coke costs more than any pint of lager how is that right. You serve 3 bottles as an equivelent at £4.50 a pint, holy crap!

moff1888

As i see it pubs are aware now of designated drivers and thus tan the **** off them with the price of non alcoholic drinks .

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Maybe the problems pubs face now aren't all down to themselves, but ridiculous prices for something that costs so little from shops ect is not really going to help is it. High prices to sit somewhere vs sit in the comfort of home for alot less, not alot of competition.Not to mention the effect of the smoking ban.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Totally agree, it's a matter of get everyone from every angle.

fast bloke

You could get 2 liters for 1.19 (thats 12p for 200 ml) in the garage and sell it for 50p for 200 ml. I think the prices you quote for coke are for the white powder stuff

WaltonWRX

iTrader: (4)

Sorry but if I asked for a pint of coke and the reply was "thats £4.50 please" I'd leave it on the bar and walk out.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Me too, and people wonder why the pub is dying.

Seriously I don't think most people expect them to have supermarket prices, but the mark up is ridiculous at times, especially at the moment when people are trying to claw back money (obviously that only applies to those who aren't minted).

ScoobyDriverWannabe

It was from a tap not bottles. Is it a pub or a shop you have ?. Dont think i have been in a pub that doesnt have soft drinks on draft. Do you sell pints made up out of 275ml bottles of lager ?

But i cant see why if you can buy a half or a pint of lager etc from tap why cant you do the same for soft drinks.

GC8

How about: 'Id expect not to be gypped by arrogant and greedy licencees'?

mykp

If somebody tried to charge me £4.50 for a coke, i'd be walking out as well.

Even if the landlord charges 100% markup on 2 cans of coke then thats £2.50 at the most, anything more than that and you should be wearing a mask and pointing pistols at your customers as its highway robbery, anything more than a pint of lager is too expensive.

I wouldnt mind but you dont even get a glass full as normally its full of ice, or if you ask for no ice you dont get a full glass!

AirConDave

I used to get asked this question a lot when I managed various pubs.

There are two different sorts of soft drinks (as there are beers) which affects the price.

I'm sure you've noticed that you can either buy a glass (in the size of your choice) or a bottled beer. In the trade we refer to anything in a bottle as packaged.

Soft drinks come in the same two categories. For instance if you ask for a Gin & Tonic, Vodka & Tonic etc, the price is higher as the mixer is supplied packaged.

If you happen to go to an outlet that only sells packaged soft drinks, you will pay premium prices for it.

The size of drinks served also depends on the brand of outlet that is selling the product. For instance, my old brand used to sell Coca-Cola in 330ml bottles at £1.55, but we served Pepsi on draught at a 14oz measure for £1.45. The amount of profit a pub/restaurant makes on these packaged drinks is a lot less than they do on the draft products.

Draught soft drinks are cheaper simply as you are supplied a box of concentrate e.g. Pepsi. The box contains 10 litres of syrup. This syrup is hooked up to a machine that adds 5 times as much soda to the syrup before it is dispensed into the glass, therefore giving a yield of 50 litres from a 10 litre box of syrup. This type of dispense is referred to as post mix.

If you asked for a pint of Pepsi in my old brand, we would inform you that we only serve it as a 14oz measure. The glass it would be served in was a 16oz glass to take into account the ice that the drink should be served with.

My advise is simply if that you are going to order carbonated soft drinks, make sure they are served on draft.

Failing that, non-alcoholic bottle of lager generally work out at a very similar price for the same quantity, and without the ice.

If you drink with the responsible retailers, you will see that many will offer free soft drinks for drivers. I have seen city centre brands such as Walkabout offer free soft drinks all night to designated drivers. The local brewery to me gives out 1 token per soft drink, which when you have collected 8 tokens, you can redeem them against a choice of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. The brand I used to manage, used to give away the draught soft drinks at Christmas and New Year to any drivers.

The reason many retailers don't push soft drinks is as they do not make as much money from them as they do from alcoholic drinks. I used to pay 41p a pint for Carling and sell it at £2.30 per pint. That's £1.89 per pint extra. Soft drinks come no where near it. Ever noticed that many pubs give draught alcoholic pints away rather than soft drinks as quiz prizes?

Touching on the subject of people cutting back on spending at the moment. You generally find that people go to the pub, or restaurant, as a luxury rather than a necessity. If you aren't willing to pay the prices simply drink, and cook, at home. No-one makes you go to the pub. I know that I would rather pay £14 for 24 cans of beer than the 6 pints I would get if I paid for them at the pub. At the end of the day, the pub/restaurants don't force you to visit them and make you hand over your money.

If at the end of the day you want a cheap soft drink, then I'd recommend either tap water - boring but generally free of charge, or cordial & soda which they will only charge for the cordial.

Shark Man

I've had a go at pubs (usually independant) that try selling coke in those tiny mixer bottles (afterall, the small bottles are meant to be for mixers). FFS that barely 1/3 of a pint, yet they charge the same prices as chain pubs who sell it in 14 fl/oz measures - which is well over half a pint.

I know running pubs is a very hard business to make money from (especially if you let the pub off the brewery and your crap at book-keeping; Golden rule - don't lease a pub!), but ripping off people is not the way to go about doing it. So I have great satisfaction of refusing the drink...after its been opened of course.

AirConDave

You do that just for small measures? If I've had to wait over 5 minutes to get served, I order a big round then order something from the other end of the bar. As soon as the bar staff go to fetch it, I walk out of the pub, leaving them with a huge amount of waste. Naughty, I know...

Shark Man

I like your style.

jjones

exactly vote with your feet and don't go to the places.

StickyMicky

to be honest, if i go out, i don't tend to worry about prices in bars and such, i simply do not care, i am obviously out for a good time, so why worry about costs?

if it costs a bit to much this round, then get something else for the next one, lesson learned, no need to get upset over it, much bigger things wrong with the world then a pint of coke costing £4.50 that you will only be paying once!!

its only bloody £4.50, its hardly going to bankrupt anybody

i would rather pay £4.50 for a pint of coke in a clean and decent pub, then £1.50 in a complete dive full of smack heads, obviously £1.50/clean place/no smack heads would be the ideal situation, but if that was not available, i would not lose sleep over it!

that reminds me, how much is a pint of coke in the "Dun Cow" pub that TTS have the scooby meetings in? because to be absolutly honest, i have never paid any attention, christ i get one everytime i am at the place as well lol

SirFozzalot

For 200ml, yes, I think its too much!

StickyMicky

markups don't really mean nothing

i buy my magic tree air fresheners in for 49p each and sell them for £1.00 does that mean i rip people off?

what does that make halfords who no doubt buy them at a cheaper rate due to the massive bulk orders, and then sell them for £1.99 ?


if he sells them for £1.50 then obviously somebody is paying that for them, or he would not have them set at that price ?

SirFozzalot

Mark-ups don't mean anything?

So if all the shops started increasing their prices for everything but were still buying their stock at the same price, that wouldn't bother you?

What about the mark-up on fuel....people don't seem to like that when the oil companies announce their massive profits!!

It's also the % of the mark-up. Don't get me wrong, everyone is in business to make profit, but it's the % of profit. Why should we have to pay so much for a product that is freely available elsewhere so much cheaper?

StickyMicky

not unless you know what sort of running costs they have.............................


some places have bigger mark ups because they have much higher costs, basic business sense

ps, see if you can find somebody who can show you a few reciepts from a supplier for stocks.

FWIW i did some number crunching a few weeks back and it was cheaper for me to buy a case of carling from netto, then it was a local cash anc carry (the same ones the local corner shops use to fill the stores with)

stuff like supermarkets running cheap drinks might be awesome for the average chap, but it really does have an effect on the other places that do not have the massive buying power.

SirFozzalot

It just seems some places chuck the extra cost on to soft drinks because they know drivers will have to pay it. They obviously won't put it on the beer because they know no-one will buy it.

StickyMicky

i wish i had a few old cash and carry recipts here to quote you, as i usually get a few crates of beers/ciders and a crates of pepsi max cans, the markup on the pepsi max cans used to be around 50% IIRC at SRP but last time i went in the prices had went up

the lager and beers all seamed to run at around 20/25% % for SRP

these are the same people that stock all the corner shops in the area, even the local post office gets the sweats/bread and such from them

thing is, the SRP is usually more then what a supermarket sells them at to be honest.

supermarkets are classed as good things by the majority for lowering prices, but they really destroy the smaller places as you get used to paying pennies for the same products.

i sometimes think that the local small shop owners must be struggling half of the time