Water or Coke - that's about it

24

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  • prowla
    prowla Posts: 13,155 Forumite
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    seashore22 wrote: »
    I rarely go anywhere with food where they don't sell the upmarket soft drinks like Belvoir or Fentimans. They don't have artificial sweeteners and there are many, many others out there.

    I never drink coke and hate artificial sweeteners too, so to say that it's a choice between Coke and water is misleading to say the least.
    Well, it was prompted by me having lunch at Five Guys, which indeed did only have that choice of soft drink - everything else in their machine (including iced teas) did have sweetener.

    Apologies for misleading anybody...

    Of course it depends where you go, as to whether they have the upmarket drinks and/or whether they have artificial in them (some places seem not to know if I ask).
  • bap98189
    bap98189 Posts: 3,801 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »
    It's just the way it is. I've always begrudged paying £1.25-£1.50 for a glass of mixed coke from the pump .... when I could've got a can from the shop in a multipack at 25p.

    You can't compare the cost of drinks in a pub with those in a supermarket. The pub has vastly different overheads. I prefer to look at the price of drinks in a pub or cafe as the price you pay to rent the table space.
  • welshbookworm
    welshbookworm Posts: 2,905 Forumite
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    Not only do I dislike artificial sweeteners, I also dislike milk in most forms and have the bonus of being yeast intolerant :)
    Black coffee. fruit juice, water and copious amounts of vodka help me cope with this situation.
    Eating out on the other hand is a complete nightmare.
    The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    bap98189 wrote: »
    You can't compare the cost of drinks in a pub with those in a supermarket. The pub has vastly different overheads. I prefer to look at the price of drinks in a pub or cafe as the price you pay to rent the table space.

    But the mark up on soft drinks in pubs over the price that you'd pay in the supermarket is usually vastly greater than the difference for alcoholic drinks. If bottled beer had the same markup as soft drinks you would be paying £6 or more in a pub for a 330ml bottle - I don't know where you drink but I don't know anywhere around here that charges anything like that.
  • prowla
    prowla Posts: 13,155 Forumite
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    PasturesNew wrote: »
    If it bothers you enough, then you need to find out who sells what ... and only drink there. Of course, that doesn't work in "the real world" as you're probably invited to places and/or the places with a range are much pricier/smarter ...

    It's just the way it is. I've always begrudged paying £1.25-£1.50 for a glass of mixed coke from the pump .... when I could've got a can from the shop in a multipack at 25p.

    I don't enjoy going out when people say "drinks" because I know I'll end up having just one half and leaving it at that (as I drive) as they down glass after glass of stuff they love. Pub coke is always "hit and miss" depending on how their pump's set.... so I'm rarely tempted to even have that. The alternative is an overpriced tiny bottle of stuff ....

    So I tend to go out and spend £2 on a half a cider, then just "sit it out" for the rest of the evening.
    Well, I was thinking about restaurants when I posted, but it does apply to pubs too.

    I tend to think of the price of the drink as incidental, unless it's stupidly overpriced.

    However, if I have a glass of tap water because they can't offer me anything I like, then the establishment is losing out.
  • lammy82
    lammy82 Posts: 594 Forumite
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    agrinnall wrote: »
    But the mark up on soft drinks in pubs over the price that you'd pay in the supermarket is usually vastly greater than the difference for alcoholic drinks. If bottled beer had the same markup as soft drinks you would be paying £6 or more in a pub for a 330ml bottle - I don't know where you drink but I don't know anywhere around here that charges anything like that.

    Just quickly Googled and got wholesale 330ml coke bottles for 53p and 330ml beer bottles at £1.50.

    These would then retail for maybe £2.20 for the Coke and maybe £3.50 for the beer. Example

    So markup on the Coke is £1.67 and for the beer is £2.

    The opposite way round to what you were saying but not by much.
  • lammy82
    lammy82 Posts: 594 Forumite
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    And if you want to compare Coke postmix (syrup) to draught beer.

    Beer is about £1.80 per pint for wholesale kegs (source)

    Coke postmix is £60 for enough to make 45 litres of product (source), or 76p per pint of Coke.

    So at 3.40 a pint of beer or 2.20 a pint of Coke, the markups are £1.60 on beer and £1.44 on the Coke.

    Again just rough but shows there's not that much difference.
  • agrinnall
    agrinnall Posts: 23,344 Forumite
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    lammy82 wrote: »
    Just quickly Googled and got wholesale 330ml coke bottles for 53p and 330ml beer bottles at £1.50.

    These would then retail for maybe £2.20 for the Coke and maybe £3.50 for the beer. Example

    So markup on the Coke is £1.67 and for the beer is £2.

    The opposite way round to what you were saying but not by much.

    But if you look at the percentage difference between supermarket and pub prices it is far higher for soft drinks than it is for alcoholic. In your example the beer difference is around 130%, while the coke difference is 300%.

    If pubs added the same percentage onto soft drinks as they do for alcoholic then soft drinks would in many cases be a lot cheaper than they currently are.
  • LilElvis
    LilElvis Posts: 5,835 Forumite
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    I'm not a huge fan of either fizzy drinks or fruit juice so I struggled when I was pregnant. I turned to non-alcoholic cocktails in the end - generally not the overly sweet, fruity ones, but I did enjoy a Virgin Mojito and Virgin Bloody Mary.
  • lammy82
    lammy82 Posts: 594 Forumite
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    agrinnall wrote: »

    If pubs added the same percentage onto soft drinks as they do for alcoholic then soft drinks would in many cases be a lot cheaper than they currently are.

    Right, but they don't calculate markup that way, because they're not basing the margin on the cost of the drink, they're basing it on the costs of actually running a pub, i.e. staff, glassware, cleaning, insurance, furniture, occupancy etc. These overheads are largely the same whether people are drinking cheap or expensive drinks.

    So it's (example):

    Cost price + 20% markup + fixed overhead of £1.50 per drink.

    That's how it works in a pub, because everyone gets the same level of service and accommodation whether they are buying Coke or beer.
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