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Increasing pub prices

I for one am getting totally annoyed with the increasing drink prices that pubs and nightclubs are charging nowadays. 

I enjoy a night out as much as anyone, but £3 for a pint of lager/bitter, £3.20 for an alcopop, £2.50 for a bottle of orange juice, £1.50 for half a pint of coke, etc, etc. 
I could go on forever. 

I find it amazing that so many people are still prepared to pay this kind of money for a night out at their local pub or nightclub every single week. 

I very rarely spend less than £40 on a night out, and that is without going for a meal, or getting a taxi there and back. 
And on a night out with my wife we can sometimes spend as much as £60 in one night. 

This seems unbelievable to think that so many people are in exactly the same boat, and when you think of just how much pubs and clubs actually pay for their drinks, it is even more unbelievable just how much some of them make in just one night. 

Lets take draught beer to start with. My local pubs and nightclubs charge from between £2.60 and £3.00 for a pint of beer. I know for a fact that these pubs and clubs only pay about 60p a pint for lager/bitter (60p a pint @ the price of a barrel). Some bars may even pay less than this. 

I understand that these establishments have wages and many other costs to pay, but does this really warrant over £2 profit on each pint that they sell. Especially when you take into account that they can afford to sell drinks at less than half price on a week day. 

Alcopops are even worse, £2.80 - £3.20 for a small bottle of vk, reef or bacardi breezer in my area. I can buy these from my local cash and carry for 60p a bottle, and I imagine that pubs and clubs pay even less than this, as they buy in bulk. 

This to me is daylight robbery, but yet we still pay these ridiculous prices. why? because we all need a good night out once in a while (Or every week for most people). 

My local pub (Which is a very popular pub), has just started selling lager and bitter at £1 a pint on Friday nights, and alcopops are buy one get one free. This alone only proves to me just how much these pubs are making, Why?. Because how can a pub afford to do this when it is packed out (Believe me it is packed every Friday without fail), the reason is because even at £1 a pint, they are making a profit. 

On top of that we get charged £5 - £10 to enter a nightclub and some pubs in my area even charge to get in. 
So for 2 of you to enter a nightclub and buy 2 drinks you are talking about £15 - £20. 

I have become so angry at pub and club prices recently that there are now only 2 pubs in my area that I will go in for a Saturday night out, and that is because they offer drinks at £1.50 - £2.00. 

I have become totally disillusioned with nightclubs, and will only go once every few weeks. 
Many of my friends have also now taken the same stance as me, and we now only go to a club on special occasions (Birthdays, etc ). 

I would urge anyone who is annoyed with what they have to pay when they go out, to boycott their pubs and clubs more often. Believe me, the prices will soon go down if nobody pays today's prices every week. 

To prove my point: My local pub which I now go to, used to charge £2.80 a pint, and £2.80 for an alcopop. 
About a year ago they suddenly lost nearly all of their regulars, and struggled to get 20 people in on a Saturday night. 
They then pushed a massive promotion in which every drink in the pub was £1.20. 
It didn't take long for the pub to become packed again. 

They now sell drinks at £1.60 up until 10pm, and the pub stays packed until that time, and then almost everyone leaves. 

The only way to force pubs and clubs to put down their prices is to stop going. Obviously this is something that most of us would not be prepared to do. But even if we all stopped going for a few weeks, then it may be enough to force them to knock down their prices.

Although, I expect that will too difficult for most :o)

Copyright - Kevin Porter 2003