The Soho branch of the Irish-themed pub states on a sign that it operates a “a variable price list” – what that means in reality is that after 10pm, the price it charges for drinks increases.This has met with a pretty hostile reaction with consumer rights expert Scott Dixon saying “The hospitality industry needs to rethink their business model instead of inventing new ways to rip people off, there needs to be more transparency.” One commentator even rather hyperbolically declared that it amounted to price gouging and would lead to the extinction of the institution of the pub.It is reported that this results in the price of a Brewdog IPA going from £7.40 during the rest of the day to £9.40, while a 500ml bottle of Budweiser goes up from £6.05 to £8.05. Even a tonic water goes up by £1 under the system, with the price rising to £3.15. Drinks purchased in the evening are also served in plastic cups, rather than glass.
However, provided that it is properly advertised (which reports suggest may not be the case here), is it really any different in principle from pubs offering cheaper prices at slack times, such as “happy hours” or discounts early in the week? Yes, it feels psychologically better to get a discount from what is perceived as the standard price, rather than a surcharge, but the basic concept of varying the price according to the time of day or day of the week is the same.
It is a principle well-established in other markets where pricing of services delivered and consumed immediately is varied according to the time. The most obvious example is peak pricing on the railways, which is directly comparable as the lower price applies most of the time, with a surcharge imposed when it is busy. And it is common, for example, for buffet restaurants to charge several pounds more at weekends for what is exactly the same offer of food.
This practice has been described in some quarters as “surge” or “dynamic” pricing, but that isn’t really accurate. These terms are applied to situations where the price is varied unpredictably in response to the level of demand, such as with the recent furore over Oasis concert tickets. Here, in contrast, the higher price is predictable and announced in advance, and applies to a specific, defined period. The licensing authorities, particularly in Scotland, would take a dim view of any pub that varied prices suddenly and arbitrarily during the course of a single session.
I can’t say I’m very keen on this concept, and I’d think less of any pub that applied it. But time-based pricing is a well-established concept in service businesses, and some of the objections to it seem greatly overdone. Having said that, I’m not sure I’d really be keen on paying £7.40 for a pint of Punk IPA, let alone £9.40.
Meanwhile, pints at Wetherspoons are around the £3 mark.
ReplyDeletePunk IPA is £5.60 in London Spoons, so still usefully cheaper, but not by quite such a wide margin.
DeleteHappy Hour. £2 off a pint before 10pm. Maybe that would sound better?
ReplyDeleteYour problem is the price needs to be what it trades for most of the time. All day until 10pm isn't a happy hour, it's the price.
DeleteAfter 10 is the aberration to the norm.
Happy hours work as an aberration to the norm, as do Spoons Monday Club.
Surge pricing is an aberration to a norm and a Misery Hour.
As I said, a discount from the norm is more popular than a surcharge above the norm. But we accept it on the railways.
DeleteAnd you expect to pay much more for a holiday in August than in February
DeleteYet people complain about that on the grounds that it's unfair on parents who can only get away during school holidays. But if tour companies had to charge the same price all year round, the holidays at peak times wouldn't in practice be any cheaper.
DeleteEvery time I've been staggering around the streets of Soho after 10pm recently it's been like a ghost town. In fact most of Central London is dead at that time thanks to Ayatollah Khan's disastrous reign that has turned it into stab city and about as lively as Milton Keynes thanks to that fat one who was his Night Czar. Nighty Night And Don't Let The Bugs Bite Czar more like.
ReplyDeleteSo the idea of pubs charging more after 10pm sounds a bit thick to me ( decide not to insert an O'neill's Irish joke in case Essex rainbow plod knock on my door investigating a hate crime ).
But the Happy Hour idea is a good one.
In days of yore when the West End was my patch pubs were thronged by punters immediately after work for a few sharpeners before catching the train home. Today a combination of WFH and stiff drink prices has seen that tradition off.
On our recent stay in St Maarten virtually every bar did a 4-6pm happy hour with basically 50% off every drink and a selection of picky bits appetizers.
The idea being to draw in the older crowd before the night's shenanigans began.
And it worked. Mrs PPT and I would have drinks on conveyor-belt mode and be fed, watered and back home for a night-time shmoke and then bed by 10pm.
I'm surprised more pubs complaining about poor business don't try to think out of the box. The same reason why you don't see chunks of cheese and a few bowls of crisps on the counter of a Sunday lunchtime any more.They just can't be arsed.
Right, I haven't slept in 32 hours and for some reason the BA trolly dolly on our redeye flight back via New York kept plying me with gin and tonics across the Atlantic so I'm off up the wooden stairs too.
There's pubs and there's pubs. No tears will be shed when this pubs goes tits up and student flags get put up.
ReplyDeleteSo on the rare occasions the pub is busy they fleece the customers even more. No wonder they are struggling.
ReplyDelete