4 ms·

Weatherspoons charge under £3 for a pint in town. That's 15 minutes at minimum wage. Beer was far more expensive 25 years ago - £1.60 in 2000 in the student pu

by iso1631 9mo ago

Weatherspoons charge under £3 for a pint in town. That's 15 minutes at minimum wage. Beer was far more expensive 25 years ago - £1.60 in 2000 in the student pub when I first started buying my own beer, that was about half an hour at minimum wage. On the cost side: Wages are higher, energy costs more, rent is higher (because if the pub can't operate the owner can get planning permission to convert it to a private dwelling and sell it for £600k rather than making £12k a year in rent) On the demand side: People are healthier and drink less. It's nowhere near as acceptable to go out for a few pints at lunch time. People can't drive to a rural pub.

messe 9mo ago
> Weatherspoons charge under £3 for a pint in town. That's 15 minutes at minimum wage. Yeah but then you've to drink at spoons.
- firefax 9mo ago
  isn't weatherspoons like getting drunk at applebees basically? comparing that to a "pub" is kinda laughable
  - alexfoo 9mo ago
    Not really. Applebee’s is still too food oriented. Wetherspoons are definitely pubs. They just have a reputation for cheap drinks and cheap meals. But there’s still a significant proportion of people who go there for drinks only. It’s more like a drinking warehouse with carpet on the floor and a menu of mostly beige food than a larger version of a cosy country pub with a roaring fire and a varied food menu sometimes involving vegetables that have not been deep fried.
    - piltdownman 9mo ago
      It's the VA for survivors of the 1980s as it doesn't allow music or TV inside, so tends to get ignored by the soccer followers of a weekend and the younger generation entirely. TBF their curry club and other food specials are basically subsidising old bachelors to the point of being an ersatz social service @ £8.45 to £11.45, including a drink, for 12 hours of service every Thursday. https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/wetherspoons-curry-club-menu/ https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/wetherspoons-curry-club-menu/ Generally speaking, its best described as the RyanAir of pubs. It gets you there, cheaply, but the juice may not be worth the squeeze in terms of ambience and clientele.
      - firefax 9mo ago
        no music or tv? that sounds fucked... why don't ppl just drink in a park? iirc public drinking is actually legal in the uk? (I know in some countries it's actually not -- Bratislava being one surprising example, though some cops were really chill when I was like hey sorry, I thought this was allowed, it's cold out so I bought a pounder and I wanted to warm up on the way to my hostel I'm not trying to bother anyone... though maybe they may have been letting me slide mostly because they were amused by what a pounder is once I defined it) (A pounder is a big can of beer that got it's nickname because American frat bros will "pound" (chug) it to get very drunk quickly in places where the sales of beer are looser than liquor)
        alexfoo 9mo ago
        Isn’t it a pounder because it’s 16oz (US fluid ounces) which is a (US) pound? (Note a US pint is about 474ml compared to the UK pint which is 568ml). Of course US fluid ounces are a different size to UK (Imperial) fluid ounces. Plus the UK has 20 (Imperial) fluid ounces in a UK pint whilst the US has 16 (US) fluid ounces in a US pint. How does it go? “A pint’s a pound the whole world around, except the UK where a pint of water is a pound and a quarter.” As for drinking in a park, it is either something you do in the height of summer, or something you do if you are a tramp. There’s not much middle ground.
  - anonzzzies 9mo ago
    I have been to a nice ones, like the one in Exeter (but the owner is from there so that figures); I forgot the other two that were nice. Not many nice ones but they do exist.
    - deleted 9mo ago
      [deleted]
- jhbadger 9mo ago
  The thing is, they've purchased so many historic pubs, that if you refuse to drink at one that's a choice. I'm not saying that's a terrible choice, but it's a choice that bars you from an awful lot of pubs.
bodge5000 9mo ago
That is spoons though, most pubs are 3-4x that
- HPsquared 9mo ago
  Maybe spoons is killing all the pubs.
- iso1631 9mo ago
  Most expensive pint I've paid round here was £6, so pubs are about 2x that - about half hour of adult minimum wage, same as spoons charged 25 years ago. So how do spoons make a profit? The main difference that I see is that they buy cheap properties and thus don't have crushing rents. What this page doesn't show is the increase in rent for these buildings.
  - CamouflagedKiwi 9mo ago
    One thing I've heard is that they have consistent high throughput so they will buy beer that's closer to expiry and hence cheaper, because they know people will drink it before it goes off. Dunno how much of an effect that is, it can only account for so much.
    - bodge5000 9mo ago
      yeh that's what I always hear, but I don't know if its just an urban legend. I guess the fact that they buy in massive bulk also helps
  - bodge5000 9mo ago
    To be fair actually £6 a pint does sound more like it, I think I'm getting confused with rounds (so I most often spend £10-£12, but I'm buying two pints)
  - t-3 9mo ago
    > So how do spoons make a profit? Think about the price of a keg of beer - much cheaper/pint than buying beer at a pub or from anywhere else in a smaller size. Very high-volume customers have contracts with distributors that can get them even better deals, sometimes significantly better. Alcohol is pretty much always sold at a huge markup though - 4-5x is standard in the US. UK regulation might be different, but it's likely that the majority of costs in the pub business are in insurance and licensing rather than alcohol and rent.

by iso1631 9mo ago

messe 9mo ago

> Weatherspoons charge under £3 for a pint in town. That's 15 minutes at minimum wage. Yeah but then you've to drink at spoons.

firefax 9mo ago
isn't weatherspoons like getting drunk at applebees basically? comparing that to a "pub" is kinda laughable
- alexfoo 9mo ago
  Not really. Applebee’s is still too food oriented. Wetherspoons are definitely pubs. They just have a reputation for cheap drinks and cheap meals. But there’s still a significant proportion of people who go there for drinks only. It’s more like a drinking warehouse with carpet on the floor and a menu of mostly beige food than a larger version of a cosy country pub with a roaring fire and a varied food menu sometimes involving vegetables that have not been deep fried.
  - piltdownman 9mo ago
    It's the VA for survivors of the 1980s as it doesn't allow music or TV inside, so tends to get ignored by the soccer followers of a weekend and the younger generation entirely. TBF their curry club and other food specials are basically subsidising old bachelors to the point of being an ersatz social service @ £8.45 to £11.45, including a drink, for 12 hours of service every Thursday. https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/wetherspoons-curry-club-menu/ https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/wetherspoons-curry-club-menu/ Generally speaking, its best described as the RyanAir of pubs. It gets you there, cheaply, but the juice may not be worth the squeeze in terms of ambience and clientele.
    - firefax 9mo ago
      no music or tv? that sounds fucked... why don't ppl just drink in a park? iirc public drinking is actually legal in the uk? (I know in some countries it's actually not -- Bratislava being one surprising example, though some cops were really chill when I was like hey sorry, I thought this was allowed, it's cold out so I bought a pounder and I wanted to warm up on the way to my hostel I'm not trying to bother anyone... though maybe they may have been letting me slide mostly because they were amused by what a pounder is once I defined it) (A pounder is a big can of beer that got it's nickname because American frat bros will "pound" (chug) it to get very drunk quickly in places where the sales of beer are looser than liquor)
      - alexfoo 9mo ago
        Isn’t it a pounder because it’s 16oz (US fluid ounces) which is a (US) pound? (Note a US pint is about 474ml compared to the UK pint which is 568ml). Of course US fluid ounces are a different size to UK (Imperial) fluid ounces. Plus the UK has 20 (Imperial) fluid ounces in a UK pint whilst the US has 16 (US) fluid ounces in a US pint. How does it go? “A pint’s a pound the whole world around, except the UK where a pint of water is a pound and a quarter.” As for drinking in a park, it is either something you do in the height of summer, or something you do if you are a tramp. There’s not much middle ground.
- anonzzzies 9mo ago
  I have been to a nice ones, like the one in Exeter (but the owner is from there so that figures); I forgot the other two that were nice. Not many nice ones but they do exist.
  - deleted 9mo ago
    [deleted]
jhbadger 9mo ago
The thing is, they've purchased so many historic pubs, that if you refuse to drink at one that's a choice. I'm not saying that's a terrible choice, but it's a choice that bars you from an awful lot of pubs.

bodge5000 9mo ago

That is spoons though, most pubs are 3-4x that

HPsquared 9mo ago
Maybe spoons is killing all the pubs.
iso1631 9mo ago
Most expensive pint I've paid round here was £6, so pubs are about 2x that - about half hour of adult minimum wage, same as spoons charged 25 years ago. So how do spoons make a profit? The main difference that I see is that they buy cheap properties and thus don't have crushing rents. What this page doesn't show is the increase in rent for these buildings.
- CamouflagedKiwi 9mo ago
  One thing I've heard is that they have consistent high throughput so they will buy beer that's closer to expiry and hence cheaper, because they know people will drink it before it goes off. Dunno how much of an effect that is, it can only account for so much.
  - bodge5000 9mo ago
    yeh that's what I always hear, but I don't know if its just an urban legend. I guess the fact that they buy in massive bulk also helps
- bodge5000 9mo ago
  To be fair actually £6 a pint does sound more like it, I think I'm getting confused with rounds (so I most often spend £10-£12, but I'm buying two pints)
- t-3 9mo ago
  > So how do spoons make a profit? Think about the price of a keg of beer - much cheaper/pint than buying beer at a pub or from anywhere else in a smaller size. Very high-volume customers have contracts with distributors that can get them even better deals, sometimes significantly better. Alcohol is pretty much always sold at a huge markup though - 4-5x is standard in the US. UK regulation might be different, but it's likely that the majority of costs in the pub business are in insurance and licensing rather than alcohol and rent.