I know this is a bit again the religion here but...... surely these guys need to make a dime.
Fine with me. If the publican is losing so much money on a pint why not, at the next price increase, make the price of a pint a bit more then? Bammo! Make money on pints and a half-pint is half the price of a full pint; everybody's happy. I bet that's what happened in the pubs across England when CAMRA got their way.
Is there a reason why the price of a beer in pubs has increased at a greater rate than the cost of buying a beer from a bottleshop, I'm only 20 but I'm told it use to be about the same price ?
I know I've the price of a jug of coopers sparkling ale go up from $15 to $19 at the Exeter in Adelaide over the last 4 years.
EDIT: Cost aside I prefer drinking from a smaller glass than a big one
I don't recall a bottle of beer in a pub ever costing the same as a bottle in a bottle shop. A middy/schooner will cost less in a pub than a bottle in a pub cos the rate of excise is dramatically less on 50L kegs than on bottles.
But a liquor store does not have to have anywhere near the same on-going costs as a pub compared with the turnover of stock in each venue. Liquor stores generally have less staff on compared with the volume of liquor sold. Liquor stores can (might not, but can) have less floor space which should = less rent. The liquor store doesn't have to get a cleaner in at the end of every shift like a busy pub will.
I'm in my thirties and, in the cities I've lived in, a beer from a bottleshop has always been cheaper than in a pub.
Bu in terms of general increases in pub drinks in the last 5 yrs or so - that might have something to do with constant changes in industrial relations laws - staff at some of the pubs I worked in were paid under the table at one point, then after WorkChoices, they were all paid under a collective agreement (which wasn't so much of an agreement, more, the publican telling 18yr old staff what they would earn and encouraged to "sign here" or maybe not get any more shifts) and then with the scrapping of WorkChoices pay rates changed again - I can't imagine that for each of these situations staff costs consistantly went down.
Liquor licencing laws keep changing here in Canberra - that might also have increased prices? Dunno...