SOFT DRINKS RIP-OFF - SURVEY RESULTS
On the 12th November a government survey of over 900 pubs, bars and restaurants confirmed that consumers of soft drinks on licensed premises are being overcharged. The average mark-up on soft drinks is 400% greater than supermarket prices, compared with 60% to 80% for beer and lager, and a markup of 2,000% was recorded in the survey. In supermarkets, the average price of Coke is 63p per pint, but the survey reveals that £2.11 is the average pub price.
In defence of its members, the Brewers' Society claims that soft drinks prices compare favourably with beer prices, and on the whole do not exceed average beer prices. However, as a major factor in the price of a pint of beer is duty -which is not charged on non-alcoholic drinks - it is obvious that the biggest item in the price of soft drinks is profit. In an attempt to side-track the issue a Brewer's Society spokesman stated on BBC Radio 4's "Today" programme that the price of a tea-bag was only 2p but no-one expects to pay that price for a cuppa in a restaurant. The same day, Fuller's chief, Anthony Fuller, stated that soft drinks customers were "paying for an environment"
Amongst other items contained in the survey was the fact that obligatory price lists are often difficult to read or absent altogether!
Following this survey, the government has referred the matter to the Office of Fair Trading. Regular contributor to Potters Bar Mervyn Edwards also has his say on this matter of great concern to pub goers everywhere.
FIZZY DRINKS SWIZZ!
With Christmas looming there is one subject which is bound to be raised at home, at work and in pubs over the next few weeks - in fact it is a debate which has made more come-backs than bacterial plaque writes Mervyn Edwards.
This is the issue of the Soft Drinks Rip-Off (see Paul Cannell's strident article in Potters Bar number 88). It is often necessary to imbibe a soft drink or two over the festive season, especially if you are driving, but also if it is a lunch time social with your mates and you know you are going to be doing something complicated at work in the afternoon, such as overhauling the lift-fan air intake on a cross-channel hovercraft! So why do we have to pay such exorbitant prices for soft drinks, for example the 92p I paid for a glass of orange juice on a recent visit to the White Horse in Tunstall?
INVESTIGATION
An interesting article "It's cheaper to be drunk than sober" appeared in the Daily Express on November 12th wherein Consumer affairs minister Kim Howells aveared that a Department of Trade and Industry survey had uncovered a systematic rip-off. Mr Howells was due to send the finding to the Director General of Fair Trading prior to a full investigation.
The DTI found that the cheapest average price of fruit juices in pubs, bars, restuarants and cafes was the equivalent of £3.65 a pint. Many outlets charge the same for beer as they do for mineral water (about £2.15 a pint) even though the beer price includes tax and duty.
From the pub preservation view it is regrettable (though no wonder) that many pubs are being forsaken by people who buy their booze from supermarkets.
I never normally drink alcohol at the Sneyd Arms in Tunstall where I attend Tunstall History Society meetings instead I settle for a pint of orange crush from about 75p - believe me not a bad price compared with other soft drinks.
I have also praised the pub management in the past for displaying a list of drink prices at the bar - something that is required by the law but which many licensees do not implement.
Back to Kim Howells: "We have found that 75% of pubs and bars were not displaying the drink prices properly and Only 18% were showing the measures they were serving, so you don't even know what you are buying."
INCONVENIENCE
As Dave Lycett has written in the past, that the Blue Bell in Kidsgrove also displays its prices clearly, but too few pubs do. So if you go into a bar to buy a round of five or six different drinks (something which admittedly I try to avoid doing) it is difficult to estimate to within two pounds how much the round will cost. Indeed, some bar staff do not seem to be able to tell you how much some drinks are priced unless they have rung them into the till computer first. Why should drinkers of soft or alcoholic beverages endure this inconvenience?
This Yuletide, if you call at a pub without a visible price list, do ask where it is displayed. It may be the season of goodwill, but don't let the licensee think you were born under a Christmas tree...
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