Two diet cokes cost £5.63, how does that happen? Blog Discussion

quoia

On a similar theme..... I was a MSE 30 odd years ago


When I first started work about 31 years ago on what I thought was a fantastic amount of £20 a week, I often had lunch in the Toll Bridge pub on the Trent embankment in Nottingham.
It was usually a pint, often with pie, chips and peas.

After a few visits I noticed it was possible to buy "Chips & Peas" and a "Pie" separately as well as the combined threesome of "Pie, Chips & Peas"

"Pie, Chips & Peas" cost 32p,

but "Chips & Peas" were only 15p and a "Pie" was also only 15p.

(This was at a time when a pint was around 12p to 14p depending if it was mild, bitter or lager ! Anyone see the price list in the pub in the last episode of "Life on Mars" ?????? Gin&Tonic 10p !!)

Anyway, once I'd seen this anomaly I always ordered the 3 item meal as 2 separates and saved 2p. (Some of my workmates thought I was "mad" but this was 0.1% of my gross weekly salary)

Not only did I save money but my "Chips & Peas" arrived on a plate, together with a knife & fork, plus a serviette.
Similarly, my "Pie" arrived on another plate, with another knife, another fork and another serviette!

Even though prices increased a couple of times this discrepancy lasted for over 3 years.

before_hollywood

MACacd wrote:

Bars make an astronomical profit on all soft drinks, its way over the 100% mark. From a pub I used to frequent I was friendly with the bar staff and got talking about drinks profit (no idea how, its normally football).

From what I can remember, the pub selects the amount of syrup, water and magical ingredients to add and its mixed. If the pub wanted to make its stock last longer and make more profit I would reduce the amount of syrup and up the water levels but this would reduce the taste and overall quality, It is kind of like a real life game of Theme Park.

The initial expenditure on all raw products might have been large, but offset against the stupid price of all soft drinks the profit outweigh the initial cost.

that explains something i didn't know (and i used to work in a pub)
in one of the pubs we go in, the coke sometimes tastes odd (i.e not like coke, a bit weak?) i don't have ice in mine and i have noticed it too.
my mate has sent a few back cos of it (they charge about £1.50 i think) :eek:
they probably dread the long haired skinny guy going to the bar with a nearly full glass of coke.
do some pubs have 2 barrels (or whatever they call them- i have forgotten), cos the second one is usually better (stronger supply?)

before_hollywood

on a similar note to quoia- i went to the pub with my mate yesterday, and he was looking at the menu, sandwiches were £4 upwards and a meal was about £8 upwards each :eek: but a 'side order' of chips was £1.30, much more reasonable.
we ordered a 'side order' of chips each and when they arrived they were an ordinary sized plate, heaped up :j:
if i had got that many chips with something i wouldn't have been able to finish my meal.

nina_2

Coke in pubs

7 years ago I worked in a pub and the coke syrup connects to the soda water line, but we could not alter the strength.

If the gas cylinder or syrup carton needed changing this would affect the quality of the coke. Sometimes the only way of knowing it needed changing was by people tasting it. Unless you regularly taste it, you'd only know by feedback. So........keep taking the cokes back to the bar all you long haired skinny guys and people of other appearances!

P.S. I'm impressed at Martin's balls (ahem guts).

claire_bargains

i have been overcharged (in my humble opinion) many occasions for fizzy pop. However, the worst I think I have ever experienced was a bar trying to charge me £2 for a pint of orange squash (and weak squash at that).
Now, here's the tip (as at that time I had worked in a bar for some extra cash). If you think you are being overcharged on such an item ask the bar person - how did you calculate that? How much have you charged for the dash? And that is tap water, which is free, isn't it?
Result usually is a slightly blank face, a bit of mumbling and a lower cost.....
It really takes the biscuit in my humble opinion to go on about how people should drink less blah blah blah and then cripple them if they want to go with a soft drink.... hey ho

robowen

I'm in a state of shock here :eek:

£2.81 for a diet coke :eek:

lemonade6x

pint of really nice real ale £ 2.65, half pint of nearly flat lemonade from dispenser £1.65 !!. Challenged bar staff as to how can they charge £ 3.30 a pint for lemonade, thats the rate !!. The Ship Inn at Alveston. For me a lesson learnt, allways ask before ordering soft drinks.

lemonade6x

pint of really nice real ale £ 2.65, half pint of nearly flat lemonade from dispenser £1.65 !!. Challenged bar staff as to how can they charge £ 3.30 a pint for lemonade, thats the rate !!. The Ship Inn at Alveston. nr Bristol. For me a lesson learnt, allways ask before ordering soft drinks.

Amba_Gambla

After a long walk on Good Friday we went into a pub, ordered a big round of drinks and some food and paid for it all. I then asked for a pint of water, and he brought it over and told me we hadn'd paid for that one - it would be 20p.... i looked at him in disbelief and told him not to bother!!!!

Even where I work, we don't charge for tap water...
(isn't that illegal?)