Hello,
Sunday dawned bright and developed sunny so myself, Wee Keefy and Miss N embarked on a yomp in the country, ending at a public house. Tonight, Monday evening dawned dark and wet so myself and Miss N embarked on a yomp to the pub. Two very different pubs were encountered. Two very different outcomes prevailed.
Sunday saw us park up near Surprise View on the way to Hathersage to hike up through the woods and up to the top of the rocks overlooking Hathersage, Ringinglow, Burbage and Fox House. A scrabble and a cross country clamber later, with daunting grey skies over Padley Gorge, we headed out on to the road and then back through the woods to the car. We then decided to drive to the Millstone in Hathersage.
This was my first visit and I was pleased to see local real ales on the bar. I figured, being a food venue, I could pay on my card. I could perhaps have scraped together the pennies to buy Wee Keefy a pint and myself and Miss N a half each but that wasn't ideal, and besides, WK was driving, so would only be supping one. As it was I was informed on asking they did accept cards and our round included a pint of Deception for me, a pint of Batemans Autumn Red (or Haze!) for Miss n and a pint of the Yorkshire brewed Millstone bitter for WK. It came to £9.50, which is commensurate with the average £.3.15 a pint cost. It was rather nice, and we sat outside to sup the beer.
Guzzler I then went back for two more pints intending to pay with cash. Having got there, I decided it was probably better to pay by card. This time the bar staff stated that purchases under $10.00 attracted a surcharge of 50p. So I looked bewildered, as any rational person would, and paid with almost all of my change. So why the £10.00 minimum?
Having worked in an off license I know the sort of prices you could expect to pay the card machine companies. About 22p for credit cards and about 10-15 for debit, albeit in 2008. Any retailer already familiar with the benefit of allowing card payments would factor this into their prices but set a limit around £5.00. This isn't taking the piss, and is a legitimate expectation. I asked whether at £9.50, having not had the surcharge communicated, my first bill would have been subject to it and was informed that bill totals near £10.00 would have the fee waived. When I asked how I would know this, I was told there was a sign round what looked like the other side of the bar. There is no way, having just had an eye operation, I would have been able to see this. So why create this annoyance and potential deceit by making the rule ambiguous?
Tonight meanwhile, I arrived at Shakespeares and had a pint of Pixie Spring Prince of Bombay IPA at 5.5% which was only £3.00 a pint, plus a pint of the Salamander Spectre Porter for Miss N, who also tried the latest Dr Morton's special.. I also had a couple of pints of the Pixie Spring plus myself and Miss N shared a very inexpensive bottle of Nogne O Imperial Brown at £5.0 a bottle, plus halves of the Lowenbrau (or!) Paulaner Oktoberfest.. Throughout I paid by card, except where I got money back, allowing me to pay with real cash thereafter. The limit was £5.00 which it is almost everywhere on Earth, and I and the pub derived benefit form the cash withdrawn.
There are many pubs I go to which don't allow you to pay by card and that's fine. As a connoisseur of old and unsoilt pubs the existence of such venues is a great relief to me. However, if a pub does allow such payments that is also fine, not least because it furnishes the desirous spontaneity of a surprise pint after work, and encourages punters to buy more ale. The details of that arrangement have to be conveyed, and make sense, however.
I;m not suggesting that all pubs should allow card payments, but if your establishment does,. I'd suggest you make the rules clear, advise of them, and make them logical. Otherwise, you leave yourself open to looking a bit pernickety and like you haven't thought the process through properly....
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Ale economics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ale economics. Show all posts
Tuesday, 22 October 2013
Friday, 28 June 2013
Tapped?
Hello,
I was in the Sheffield Tap the other day having a quick one before meeting a friend, and wanted a pint to see me sated whilst I waited.
Recently I'd opted for a pint of one of the excellent Tapped Brewing Co beers whilst there. Because they are very good, whilst also sensibly priced. Most Tapped BC beers average £3.00 a pint, broadly comparable with the Rutland nearby. Other prices, though, seem to get a bit silly. With Tapped being a rather good brewery with great hop forward (but balanced) beers in their repertoire, one wonders how that might impact on the sale of guest beers.....
I always thought the Tap guest beer policy was based on " this is rare so you will pay more" given the absurd premiums applied - the fact that numerous below HSBD beers have still been ridiculous in price can only be explained by either the pub taking the piss, the suppliers taking the piss, or the "novelty value of ales" being exploited. As a case in point, on that occasion I spotted Dark Star Porter, which I craved.....
One of the great improvements to the Tap is the willingness of staff to inform you when a price is, ahem, higher than you could reasonably expect. The beer was (following a check on the brewery website) 5.6%. It was £4.60 a pint. With this information available, I politely declined. The barman informed me "Yeah, Dark Star beers are very expensive".
Well, irrespective of whether I think that is sufficient justification, or correct, I later met Fluffy and regaled him with the tale - and he had bought the same beer the night before at the Ale House Sheffield for £2.80 a pint. And Steve the Beermeister regularly finds their beers good value at around £2.50 to £3.50 a pint in Hastings in super expensive Sussex. So, erm, WTF!?
Given the above its interesting to consider how the Tap's guest beers may fair in future. A not unusual beer at well over £1.50 above the going rate is unlikely to sell, so given the excellence and sensible pricing of the in-house beers, I wonder whether the pricing policy might backfire?
Wee Beefy.
I was in the Sheffield Tap the other day having a quick one before meeting a friend, and wanted a pint to see me sated whilst I waited.
Recently I'd opted for a pint of one of the excellent Tapped Brewing Co beers whilst there. Because they are very good, whilst also sensibly priced. Most Tapped BC beers average £3.00 a pint, broadly comparable with the Rutland nearby. Other prices, though, seem to get a bit silly. With Tapped being a rather good brewery with great hop forward (but balanced) beers in their repertoire, one wonders how that might impact on the sale of guest beers.....
I always thought the Tap guest beer policy was based on " this is rare so you will pay more" given the absurd premiums applied - the fact that numerous below HSBD beers have still been ridiculous in price can only be explained by either the pub taking the piss, the suppliers taking the piss, or the "novelty value of ales" being exploited. As a case in point, on that occasion I spotted Dark Star Porter, which I craved.....
One of the great improvements to the Tap is the willingness of staff to inform you when a price is, ahem, higher than you could reasonably expect. The beer was (following a check on the brewery website) 5.6%. It was £4.60 a pint. With this information available, I politely declined. The barman informed me "Yeah, Dark Star beers are very expensive".
Well, irrespective of whether I think that is sufficient justification, or correct, I later met Fluffy and regaled him with the tale - and he had bought the same beer the night before at the Ale House Sheffield for £2.80 a pint. And Steve the Beermeister regularly finds their beers good value at around £2.50 to £3.50 a pint in Hastings in super expensive Sussex. So, erm, WTF!?
Given the above its interesting to consider how the Tap's guest beers may fair in future. A not unusual beer at well over £1.50 above the going rate is unlikely to sell, so given the excellence and sensible pricing of the in-house beers, I wonder whether the pricing policy might backfire?
Wee Beefy.
Saturday, 14 April 2012
How much is too much?
O'rate,
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
I have seen quite a lot of coverage on beer blogs about the cost of stuff. Beer stuff, obviously. Boak and Bailey posted about it, and judging by the venue and product choices of many bloggers it seems theres more blog folks that will pay whatever is asked than there is who'll question or decline.
Personally am not keen on paying over the odds, and I suppose our old friend expectation comes into that. Also, having worked in the off trade (albeit before HSBD) I do have some understanding of costs, and often consider that what I'm being asked to pay is unreasonable.
Recently I have been to many establishments that have made me think about the point at which something is just too expensive, and how much people would be willing to pay and why. Here are a few examples :
A low gravity 500ml bottle in a shop, costing £4.00. (Its very rare, in that its possibly the only time the brewery have ever done a 500ml bottle, or sold them outside of their pub estate.)
A pint of aged beer in a pub retailing at £9.00 a pint. (The beer was aged for quite some time and was potentially only available on draught at a small number of venues. Its just as expensive in a bottle.)
A 500ml bottle of beer from a local brewery selling in a bar for about £6.00. (The bottles are hard to come by I understand.)
A pint of lower gravity beer (about 3.5%) sold in a pub as a guest for the same price as a 5.0% beer. (Its unusual to see the beer in the area.)
The first three examples are specific, the last one is more a general annoyance that you get in pubs.
Please note, there is no evidence that the above retailers aren't selling this stock. So why are people willing to pay so much for it? I have tried to suggest the reason I think the retailer is charging the stated price, because I'm interested to know what factors might make someone part with their cash for something that is more expensive either than you'd expect, or that you would consider acceptable.
If I'm buying beer, here are a few considerations that I may undertake :
Is it being sold at the going rate.
If its not, does it seem like there might be reasons why not.
Is it something I've always wanted to try, and if so does that justify buying it if the first two criteria aren't met
Will I get chance to buy it again
Is it limited edition (most likely with bottled conditioned ales, and Christ, that's a whole other can of worms)
If it meets none of the above criteria, but I am convinced it will be nice, shall I treat myself.*
Do you have similar considerations? For instance, is the rarity or otherwise unattainability of a product reason to pay more than you would normally? Or indeed, is cost an issue for you at all when buying something as relatively cheap as beer?
Wee Beefy
*I am not holding up the queue at the bar having this internal dialogue. Having a good idea of price and which beers I have tried/breweries I like means that probably only one or two of these considerations apply at any one time. These are a broad representation of what I might consider when buying ale. Which is perhaps for the best.
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