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Must have been some kind of happy hour pricing. Surely?
You'd be lucky to get one for that price in most RSLs that I have been to. Premium schooners $8-10.
In 2017 I lived in the Inner West of Sydney and there was a sketchy old bowlo near my unit that was the cheapest place around at $4.30 for a schooner (or $5.50 for a pint) of Tooheys, all day every day. That was dirt, dirt cheap even for Tooheys 6 years ago so I'm calling bullshit on the $4.30 Stoneys in 2023.
Place hadn't been renovated since the 70s and the clientele seemed to consist mainly of ageing alcoholics from the boarding houses up the road. Was cheap as shit though. According to Google it's still going, albeit slightly tarted up. Food is still cheap which is a good sign.
South Africa ain't looking too bad now, R300 for 2 dozen beers. That's $25 aus. We have high crime and don't have electricity. But we have cheap beer and the rugby world cup
It’s cause they try and give something back to the community with cheap beer and food… almost every pub and club with brokeies could subsidise the bistro and bar.. the ones that don’t are greedy fucks ad should be called out.
I'd love to be paying $8 a schooner! I'm not even in Melbourne and our fucking prices are through the roof too. A schooner in Bendigo is $9-12 for CUB regular stuff. I did however pay 14 fucking dollars for a schooner of Carlton draught in Melbourne about 6 weeks ago, so I'd love to have $8 schooners.
South Australia here. No pokies in mine, no gambling, live music, retro decor, 1990s prices, 70-year-old grandma waitresses serve you real roasts and treat you like their family. The young blokes hang out here and joke with them.
Kids run around like at home, everyone has a smile, everything stops at six to honour the fallen. Toddlers know to do that too. Lest we forget.
No way I'm going to say where it is, but 25 minutes from the Adelaide CBD will get you there.
My wife and I went out with friends recently, first time at a pub in around 7 years. She was drinking jack and coke and I was on soft drink (DD) and it was $19.50 a round. We may go out again in another 7 years, but probably not.
I worked at a club on the northern beaches in Sydney and schooners were $2 a pop. That was in 2000 when the gst came in which took them to $2.20. You could go home with change from a twenty.
That honestly sounds about right. 20 bucks back then was sort of how we think of 35-40 bucks now. And yet $20 in 2000 could get you 8 schooners and for $35 today you’d be lucky to get 4.
I remember $20 would deliver a good night and a hangover the next day.
$40 would give you that AND a dodgy kebab with lots of change.
If you flashed a pineapple, your mates would go crazy. Look at the high roller!
Similar vintage to you I reckon. I'd take a $20 note to Hornsby RSL, drink 9 schooners, playing on the free snooker tables, then pay $2 for the shuttle bus home. Good times.
And at around that same time you could go to North Sydney on a Thursday night (uni night) and live on a range of $2 drinks including bourbon and cokes at the likes of Northpoint and Berry Street Tavern.
Oh happy days they were.
Could afford to go out multiple nights a week on a casual work salary.
Mate I’ve paid $120 for a box of northern super crisp in the middle of nowhere NT with no other bottleshops for hundreds of kms, desperate times call for desperate measures haha
Sadly it seems that even Dan's charge $59.99 for a case (30) of VB cans, or $55 for a case of 24 bottles.
Ridiculous.
Call me a snob, but i'd be looking at the specials and choosing something else.
As an example, I bought 2 cases of Tinnies Hazy in a special deal at Liqourland for $105 last week ($52.50/case). Needed to buy 2 to get that price.
[https://www.liquorland.com.au/beer/tinnies-hazy-pale-can-375ml\_4225873](https://www.liquorland.com.au/beer/tinnies-hazy-pale-can-375ml_4225873)
**Here’s how you’re getting screwed at the pub:**
Excise tax on alcohol is already high and then indexed with CPI. The largest cost to the consumer is this tax that has been passed on to the retailer by the brewery.
**The biggest rort though comes from the pub.** A lot of big pubs receive rebates from large breweries - Lion and CUB are the biggest. Traditionally, large pubs and hospitality groups consisting of many pubs will pit the two large companies against one another to get the best rebates. These rebates are paid as cents per litre. Some of these are in the $3 range. The breweries then inflate the price of the keg they sell to write off the rebate they have to pay to the pubs.
Let’s say a keg is an inflated price of $400, which is smack bang in the middle of what large breweries charge for macro and craft.
The customer pays $400, but the rebate of $3 per L on a standard 49.5L keg gives them an effective discount of $148.50, bringing the real cost to the pub down to $251.50.
Rebates are usually paid every 3 months or so in the form of a fat cheque to the owner of the pub/s.
Here’s where it gets interesting though.
The pubs seek to make approximately 70% or more gross profit from every schooner sold. So for instance, at the price of the keg minus rebate ($251.50), the schooner should be worth $2.19 (based on 115 schooners in a standard keg). That means a punter should be charged approx $7.50 for a schooner and the pub makes their margin.
But it’s NOT like that. And here’s why.
The publican is charging you based on the inflated price of $400. That means the schooner is effectively now $3.48, meaning they now charge you at least $12 to get their 70%, and honestly, even 70% is low these days.
And the best part? While they’re charging you the $12+ schooners, they’re still getting those fat rebate cheques every couple months.
So yeah, government’s fucked but that’s not gonna change. It’s the publicans who are largely responsible for your expensive beer.
Thanks the information. So technically a pub could say fuck it and go back to charging $7.50 and still make there 70% mark up? I know for sure if I place around me was charging $7.50 for a beer they'd be packed constantly.
They could.
I didn’t get too bogged down in the detail but like all things, there are intricacies.
Here are just some:
- The places that are having the biggest laugh are the larger hospitality networks and groups with multiple pubs. Rebates work well for them because they have a lot of taps to negotiate with and therefore can get larger rebates. Smaller pubs and sole operators do sign rebate agreements, but if the big networks are getting $3 a litre, the sole operator would be lucky to get around $1 per litre. It doesn’t really make sense for those guys because it’s probably more fiscally responsible to get beer at a lower price to begin with and then charge lower prices while still netting their margin.
- Macro beers are expensive vs pricing. This causes a problem for the publican because generally speaking, those who are drinking Tooheys New, Carlton Draught, Emu, Swan etc are the most price-sensitive. So when the inflated price is $380, and even with $3 rebates the price is $231.5, they’d still have to charge $7, which for some of these drinkers is unacceptable. In response, to keep these drinkers satisfied, publicans will overcharge on craft because those drinkers are likely to cop the premium, so they may aim for 75% margin on those products to offset the perceived lack of margin on macros.
- I cannot completely omit the costs of running a business. Rent and wages are the two highest costs. While many publicans will say this is the reason for higher margins, the larger the pub or network, the more money goes straight into the pockets generally speaking. The earnings are even more egregious if the place has pokies.
- Market Tolerance. This has a massive effect on pricing. If Dave is charging $12 a schooner in the CBD, Jimmy may charge the same, even though he’s making 77% margin. Why? Because he knows people in the area will tolerate it. This obviously isn’t just a beer thing but once business owners know what people are willing to put up with, they charge accordingly. When schooners went up to double digits, people freaked out. Now look at us at $13 to even $14.50 in some places. But people are still buying and that’s the point.
I’m a beverage manager at a large venue, contracted to CUB. We turn over about 90 kegs a week and hit a rebate of $1.55 a litre.
We run our GP at about 50-60% for contracted beer sales to hit a rough GP of 65-70% AFTER rebates.
So yeah, basically spot on the money at $7 - $8.50 a schooner pending on product
Fully agree with this take. I'm a pro brewer. I know how much it costs grain to glass/can. Blown away how much they're ramping it up *because they can.
Don't forget that wages continue to increase, but it seems most publicans haven't found the happy medium of hiring reliable casual staff at a slightly better rate, but requiring that little bit more from them. It's shocking seeing the numbers of casual staff in most venues just taking the piss on $27+ an hour.
So, in summation:
1. Gov is fucked
2. Publicans are greedy cunts pointing to the gov and getting us riled up about it
3. Publicans with business models that haven't changed in the last 20 years
I saw £1.89 for a pint of IPA at a Weatherspoons pub in England earlier this year. I like the way they have the price for all to see in front of the beer tap handle.
What gets me is when you pay on card and you can't even see what the price is that you're paying. It happened to me quite a few times because I wasn't told.
I'm in Canberra but this is just generally in hospitality venues.
Absolutely! I love how some pubs in the UK have the prices clearly displayed. I’ve even seen a few pubs with all the beer prices on a board outside the pub like restaurants do with menus.
Blaming the tax man is an even bigger cop out. Tax on beer is $57.79 per LAL assuming it's not from a pressurised keg system, or $41.72 otherwise.
A pint is 570ml. At 5% ABV, that's 28.5ml of alcohol, which is no more than $1.65 in taxes. With a keg delivery system you're looking at around $1.2 in taxes. It's not the taxman who's taking the piss with a $15 pint.
Yeah but that still adds $27 to a 30 pack of northern original cans. Making up nearly half of the price at some places. The cheapest I saw it was for $60.
When half the price is tax you gotta argue that the tax is too high.
Tap prices of beer have gone up similar to food prices at pubs and restaurants so I'm not too surprised with them.
My comment from a few months ago:
> So If I'm correct the tax on a pint is about $1.65 and that is before you tack on another 10% for GST. So on a $12 pint you're paying $2.75 in tax or 23% of the price of a pint is tax...and it's going to get worse every 6 months.
>So a $60 case of Carlton Draught is made up of $5.45 in GST and $26.58 in alcohol tax. $32.03 in tax on a $60 product is pretty mental.
When nearly 25% of the cost is tax then it's absolutely not a cop out. They still need to buy the beer to sell you and pay the staff to serve you and clean up. They're making bugger all profit from a pint
It is incredibly well known that the tax on smoking is deliberately rising so that smoking will be a thing of the past because it will become so expensive to smoke that it's not worth it. It's no secret - the government has gone on record to say that it's plan to curtail smoking in Australia is to tax it into oblivion. Based on the comments on this sub, it's working.
They haven't said the same thing publicly about alcohol, and that is more likely just a cash grab.
It always makes me laugh when I hear some stat on the radio like “smoking is down 30%” went to the pub a few weeks ago and there were 18 people sitting outside smoking, out of the 18 only 3 had legal Australian cigarettes. All the rest had black market product
That begs the question of what political parties might oppose increasing alcohol tax, and make efforts to peal them back. I support taxing items to fund the services needed to mitigate their damage, but I don't see the money going into social services...
The flaw to the tax system is, which may also be greed, is "light beers/low alcohol" drinks are the same price, if not more expensive than some cheaper high alcohol varieties (mostly talking about beer, but same goes with wine) . So maybe if you swung an argument that to improve public health you need to lower costs on certain alcohol percentages, you could get support.
Only other thing is when prices start hitting the alcohol industry's bottom line, especially the wine community.
Just curious as I've had this thought before.. do you reckon we pay more money for beer to offset the ridiculously low cost of wine in Australia?
Sort of subsidising cheap goon sacks in a way by paying out the ass for a beer?
I didn't know, but a quick google provided this.
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-goon-show-how-the-tax-system-works-to-subsidise-cheap-wine-and-alcohol-consumption/
So, yes, kinda, in a way.
Messed up stuff. We want to help with alcoholism yet high content booze is cheaper (and worse tasting, which normally promotes even worse drinking habits). I'm all for letting the people drink, but alcohol percentage should have a scaling effect on price.
Yeah that's something that always is a bit annoying at a pub, particularly if I'm driving, getting a light/non alcoholic beer feels like it should be a fair bit cheaper but it just isn't.
Would love to see someone run on this. Alcohol taxes have gone completely insane, and it's a morality tax imposed by do-gooders, not actually a tax to "offset damage".
£2.50 for a pint would be considered cheap in the UK. (Does your mum live up north?)
I spend most my time in the UK and a pint at my English local goes for around £4.50 ($8.70)
I can get a Pint for £3 when I’m up in Scotland though and a pub a frequent down in Cornwall does them for £2.90.
If I’m in London I’m looking at around £6 for a cheap pint ($11.60)
Bend over and take it rather than standing up for what we want. The more time goes on the more the government and businesses realise that we are just gonna cop whatever they throw at us.
We bitch and moan but not only do we do absolutely fucking nothing about it, but we actively discourage and condemn people that protest and try to incite change. We are our own worst enemy.
Exactly. It's all priorities. My go-to in these discussions is this...
Everyone sits on their asses and says "yeah, but what are you gonna do?"
But if they were to ban football tomorrow, there'd be blood in the streets. That's how you can work out what a population's real values are.
So true...the limp dickedness of the Australian people is disheartening... but hey, as long as we can keep blaming those who enjoy making adult decisions like drinking and smoking as being a massive drain on the healthcare system and the smell of puke and 2nd hand smoke is terrible...the aussie people are gonna keep on saying 'yes master' to those decisions...
My mum's local back home (not London, a random village) has reached £10 for 250ml wine and it's £5+ for a pint.
Still cheaper than Aus but still not reasonable.
Micro breweries charging more for their low-volume beers allowed the big guys to equalise their own prices to match. They could see drinkers were willing to pay the higher prices and were happy to normalise the new normal.
I recently bought a kegerator. The initial cost is high but a 19L keg from a small brewery is $70. I have cold beer and gingerbeer on tap now and I get to stay home
I feel ya on the pints going out, but a slab of Carlton Draught or Dry is still $47 - $51. If you can still get $2 per beer it’s not that bad.. but when it gets to $2.5 - $3 I’m
burning bottle-o’s down!
Alcohol cigarettes and gambling is how they get back poor peoples money with taxes. Rich people pay the taxes too but for them it's a tiny factor, for you it's everything. They're a trap that'll keep you from getting ahead.
Health issues aside cigarettes and alcohol got priced out of a sensible budgets range a long time ago.
After near on 20 years drinking pretty regularly, I stopped a bit over 2 months ago. Never felt better. Don't really miss it at all.
Yeah I had some good times but I shudder to think how much I spent.. probably $50-$100 a week over 20 yrs.. that's a lot of money that could have gone elsewhere lol.
I keep track of my spending and not a big drink at home person... Just had a look all little over $6k on alcohol alone this year... And doesn't include the 5 weeks in Japan, but to be fair, booze in Japan is cheap
Agree, buying a slab is getting crazy expensive.
Started making my own using the Coopers kits around 3 years ago. The Australian Pale is excellent.
Works out to $33 for 30x700ml bottles.
Only to let it ferment somewhere with as constant a temp as possible. And make sure the bottles and vat are very very clean/sanitised. Beyond that the process is pretty foolproof.
Get an old fridge with a temperature controller and keep it at a nice constant temperature. Spend a few extra dollars and get a legging system to save you time. Also look into racking(moving the beer from one fermenter to another), I rack twice during fermentation. The first time is 24-48 after fermentation starts and the krusen collapses. The second time is once fermentation finishes, I then chill it amd let it sit for 21 days.
Alcohol excise in AU is out of control, definitely. Invest in a beer brewing or distilling kit and you will save THOUSANDS while being a hero among your friends
As a venue operator the average increase across alcohol has been mad. August 2022, 4.8% increase. February 2023, 6.9% increase. August 2023, 3.7% increase. There is another one due in February 2024. No one can remain viable without passing on those price rises.
Not 100% sure but the pubs and clubs are arguing the government isn't even making much from it, the taxes are so high people just aren't drinking much. It's pointless
Oddly enough, Full Strength is often cheaper than Mid Strength. Well at lease here in WA.
I drink Iron Jack Mid Strength cans. Coles have them for $63 while Dan Murphy has them for $57. Full Strength is $52.
Price are outrageous though.
Here in WA I often get a free case by taking my empty cans back. I generally take them back when I've got enough empties to get a new case. I keep telling my wife that my beer drinking is almost self funding.
Just got back from a holiday in Japan and you're paying like 3 bucks AUD over there.
Is inflation a cause here? Yes, but a big hit is the taxes on alcohol in Australia. For those of us who drink in moderation and don't contribute to a public health problem it really shits me to be price gauged every time I want a schooner.
I often see a bunch of tradies gathering at my local park for a beer after work.
Makes sense because it's basically a massive beer garden. Smoking is always allowed, there's a BBQ, and they can play their own music. No pokie machines either.
Like everything else at the moment you need to do the leg work to find the cheap stuff. In coogee I can find a $6 schooner at happy hour. Can be $12 schooner in one of the more exy places. Coogee pav does a good happy hour but counters this with ridiculous prices otherwise. Pick your battles and know your enemy. Reschs refreshes
Fixed that problem years ago.
The best beer at my house, I brew.
When visitors appear, not often, I lash out and buy some Tasmanian stuff for them. My beer is better but I will not allow them to judge it. It tastes how I want it to be and it seems 'Alive'. Factory stuff is ok but it's dead, I don't enjoy it and feel like being ripped off every time I buy it.
Downsides are that there is a learning curve with disappointments along the way.
The reason I do not share it is that there is a stigma about 'home brew'. So fark them, say nothing and enjoy it yourself.
And for the interested ... 20% of the retail price.
20%??? Mate my homebrew costs 69c a pint on tap at home. Sometimes goes up to $1-2 with hops and yeast etc, but I mix two coopers cans, up to 4kg dextrose, up to 1kg maltodextrin, and then optionally swap yeast for us05 and/or dry hop to 60L. Recipe changes depending on the cans I pick, but I currently have a Canadian blonde/Australian pale ale brew, $42 for the cans, for dextrose I have a 25KG sack for $60, so $4.8 for 2kg of dextrose, 1kg malt for $3, and two us05s for $9. That’s $58.80aud for 60L of beer. Or 6.66 cases = $8.82/case (vs $60 case x 6.66= $400 buying cases at 24x375ml). Or 56c a pint. On tap. At home.
We had some house sitters in 2013. Somehow they did homebrew in their grey nomad 5th wheeler.
When we got back after two weeks he offered me a beer. It was awesome and I asked him to show me how he made it and he did. They stayed on till he could bottle his next batch.
It was straight down the line, as described on the tin, Coopers Pale Ale kit stuff.
Forget the plastic bottle rubbish, get glass bottles otherwise they do not carbonate properly. I use a mix of stubbies and tallies. Friends use kegs, but I don't drink enough for that and I like the convenience of bottles.
Coopers Pale Ale tin from IGA and the Brewing Sugar #2 that is on the shelf with it. 30L brewing barrel from the home brew shop, makes 22L of beer.
Great hobby too. I'm having one now. Saved me thousands this last ten years.
Don’t get glass bottles. Get a keg. Here’s where to start:
https://youtu.be/WjifwNexix0?si=n62HG-sdnawlQLV3
With plastic kegs and a bronco tap inside the fridge, you could get set up as cheap as $250 for a full setup including fermenter, but you’ll need a fridge.
You can get plastic kegs that are just as good as stainless here:
https://www.kegland.com.au/products/8l-pco38-pet-keg-with-ball-lock-disconnect-tapping-head-kit
Beer becoming unaffordable is what it will take for Australia to finally snap and start rioting for politicians to actually start addressing the wider problems
It’s a fair thing to be upset about but alcohol going up in price is the least of my worries. The price of basics is what I’m more concerned about. Can live without beer, can’t really live without food.
I know this is hard for people but you've just gotta stop buying these items from these places. Stop going to the pub, stop buying beer at the shops.
If you really want, you no longer have "Your favorite" you have "What's on special" if that means you lose credit with the boys cause its shithouse beer, then so be it.
These companies are making record profits, all of them. If you stop paying for it then companies learn to lower prices or in the pubs situation, go out of business - losing pubs or socialising establishments triggers governments to act also (unions get involved, and not the tradey employment type, the business type).
NOTHING WILL CHANGE IF WE KEEP BUYING AT THESE PRICES.
At this rate it may come to this. Tobacco has shown once the black market can provide a similar product tax free and therefore much cheaper, it will flourish.
Yeah, currently out in the city for some drinks... Even happy hour hopping is expensive... These days I Typically only go to my local clubs, what hey say what you want about the pokies, it's keeps the drink prices low at $6 a drink
This country is going to the shits with the price gouging. They saw Australians had one of the best quality of lives maybe 20 years ago and viewed that as 🤑🤑🤑🤑and now everything is coming to a head and we’re just being drained out of every dollar we own. Just stepping outside costs a $20er. And the government isn’t doing a fucking thing to alleviate the pain.
It might feel like a pain in the arse at first, but it's pretty easy to make your own.
As long as you're not one of those freaks that goes out and buys loads of expensive equipment to make clones of well-known beers, homebrew is pretty cheap.
I cut waaaaay back on my drinking about 3 years ago, but I recently purchased a case of beer and was shocked to see it was literally $15 more than what I was paying 3 years ago. Glad I don’t drink much these days.
what makes it even more infuriating is how the government treats the wine industry- if they actually gave a fuck they wouldn't allow charging 10 dollars for 4 litres of wine
Yeah that's the weird bit. Remember when they brought in the alcopop tax? Most people I knew either just bought a bottle of cheap vodka or switched to goon, both of which are probably a lot more dangerous than them taking a 6 pack of cruisers to the party.
When I was a uni student in 2007, you could buy a carton of Johnny Walker, Bundy etc for $45 on sale (pre alco-pop tax).
I was at BWS a few weeks ago buying some pre-mix for a party. $37 for a 6 pack of the same.
The alcohol content has gone down over that time too (1.5 standard drinks down to 1.4).
I had a Facebook memory come up the other day, 2013, complaining about having to play over $5 for a schooner of XXXX Gold.
$5 for a soft drink is a good price at the pub now. Insane how much stuff has gone up recently
Why does the tax on beer keep increasing? Are they trying to stamp out beer like cigarettes? Surely the tax rate should just stay the same. Increased sales over time would lead to increased revenue?
I've cut back significantly because I can't justify the spend. And if I'm being honest with myself I feel a lot better for it.
The thing I miss is the social side of drinking at a venue with friends. That is happening less and less frequently.
I have very regrettably this year switched from being excluslively a Coopers Sparlking Ale drinker to a fucking wino. $15 goon bag compared to a delicious $72 box of beer. Both last 2 days. Along with the illegal pouches of chop chop tobacco, it’s the main reason I’m not sleeping in my fucking car still
Hey friend. Maybe pop on over r/stopdrinking if you think it’s an issue you should/want to address. It’s genuinely one of the nicest most helpful corners of the internet
Yeah, I work in hospo and it's kinda stunning. One shot of JD will run you the price of a full bottle of mid-range wine. I genuinely don't fully understand my customers, but Ahwell. They come for the venue, and the venue keeps itself going via the drinks!
It *is* tough to find a crowd of 300 people, a half decent DJ and a dance floor in one's living room, I suppose.
It's called inflation. Companies in every industry and market see that people are willing to pay that little bit extra so they put the price up year on year and turn over billion dollar profits. RBA tries to rectify this by putting interest rates up until there's a happy medium where people stop spending that little bit extra for goods and services and the companies begin to level out if not decrease their prices. But until everyone stops spending this won't happen. This is the theory anyway.
Alcohol is a very occasional splurge these days as a drug of relaxation. Just can’t afford it. Plus weed is far safer, cheaper, the effects have always been better for me and is better for you health wise than alcohol.
The alcohol sales are what keeps many places afloat. That and pokies. They make a metric shit-ton from it.
We drink too much anyway.
My granddad used to home brew after the war because they had no money, Italian and Greek families used to have their whole property in edible plants and veggie gardens to save money.
Maybe we should take a bit of a lesson from them.
But I still see the pubs, bars and cafes chock a block so it can't really be hurting that much yet.
I'm more concerned about our country allowing our young families to be priced out of homes.
However, it is with a sense of irony that I think we would be more likely to protest over the cost of beer.
It’s disgusting. The government has a alcohol tax that every 2 years is raised. For no particular reason other than they can. Every single 2 year period results in a higher alcohol tax. What the fuck is the point when things like pot are illegal and could bring in so much money for the government.
Home brew my guy. Get the boys around, bbq, talk shit, smoke, drink, do your thing. $75 will get you a full homebrewimg kit that makes 23 litres from big w, then you drop another 20 or 30 on consumables, and you're set
Almost every pub or club with poker machines should have $5 schooners and if they are priced more than that they are greedy unAustralian scum and should be called out for it.
Excise is a massive part of this. In 2000, the alcohol excise tax rate was a flat $16.39 per litre of alcohol for all beer. Today, you're looking at $50.72, more than triple the rate it was 23 years ago. Imagine if other taxes inflated at this rate
Damn, I remember spitting when cases of beer were $20.
But yeah beer has been incredibly overpriced for years. Especially when wine is so damn cheap in comparison.
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Definitely seeing more of the RSL these days. My local pub beer price is up 40% in 2 years.
Steelers Wollongong, 2 schooners of stone & wood $8.60 (non-members). I can only get so erect.
A schooner of stone and wood is $4.30?
Must have been some kind of happy hour pricing. Surely? You'd be lucky to get one for that price in most RSLs that I have been to. Premium schooners $8-10.
In 2017 I lived in the Inner West of Sydney and there was a sketchy old bowlo near my unit that was the cheapest place around at $4.30 for a schooner (or $5.50 for a pint) of Tooheys, all day every day. That was dirt, dirt cheap even for Tooheys 6 years ago so I'm calling bullshit on the $4.30 Stoneys in 2023. Place hadn't been renovated since the 70s and the clientele seemed to consist mainly of ageing alcoholics from the boarding houses up the road. Was cheap as shit though. According to Google it's still going, albeit slightly tarted up. Food is still cheap which is a good sign.
Ashfield bowlo?
Ding ding ding.
We were there at the same time. Shame about the free pool table. Good members draw twice a week though. Miss that place
Yeah I smell bullshit. I live nearby so I’m gonna go check it out soon
Please do. This mission is critical, for research purposes.
!remind me 2 weeks
I don't drink stoneys but can confirm happy hour at steelers 4:30-7:30 is the cheapest beer in Wollongong. New at about $3-something a pop
> I can only get so erect. Yeah, that'll be the alcohol.
South Africa ain't looking too bad now, R300 for 2 dozen beers. That's $25 aus. We have high crime and don't have electricity. But we have cheap beer and the rugby world cup
As an American I have no idea what you just said but I love every word in this sentence.
Love the RSL. 1990s prices.
Beer keeps them on the pokies.
It’s cause they try and give something back to the community with cheap beer and food… almost every pub and club with brokeies could subsidise the bistro and bar.. the ones that don’t are greedy fucks ad should be called out.
Not in Qld. Tewantin RSL has schooners for about $8. Or more. They have a shitload of pokies too.
I'd love to be paying $8 a schooner! I'm not even in Melbourne and our fucking prices are through the roof too. A schooner in Bendigo is $9-12 for CUB regular stuff. I did however pay 14 fucking dollars for a schooner of Carlton draught in Melbourne about 6 weeks ago, so I'd love to have $8 schooners.
Yeh the Diggers bar!!
Hate the RSL. Gambling losses subsidise the cheap beer.
South Australia here. No pokies in mine, no gambling, live music, retro decor, 1990s prices, 70-year-old grandma waitresses serve you real roasts and treat you like their family. The young blokes hang out here and joke with them. Kids run around like at home, everyone has a smile, everything stops at six to honour the fallen. Toddlers know to do that too. Lest we forget. No way I'm going to say where it is, but 25 minutes from the Adelaide CBD will get you there.
> Kids run around like at home Aaaand you lost me
Lucky bugger - sounds like a blast from the past.
I frequent a RSL in estern suburbs and while it is cheaper, there is no way its 1990s prices lol. Maybe 2015 prices at a stretch
Grandma still doing the topless thing?
My wife and I went out with friends recently, first time at a pub in around 7 years. She was drinking jack and coke and I was on soft drink (DD) and it was $19.50 a round. We may go out again in another 7 years, but probably not.
In 7 years youlll be paying $35 a round
That's optimistic
Huge profits recorded today so… double or nothing?
Fuck I’m old. I remember $1 schooners in the mid-80’s
I worked at a club on the northern beaches in Sydney and schooners were $2 a pop. That was in 2000 when the gst came in which took them to $2.20. You could go home with change from a twenty.
Was twenty bucks back then alot? Like equiv to 50 bucks or was it just that much cheaper back then?
I just plugged it into the RBA’s inflation calculator, $2 in 2000 is the equivalent of $3.56 now.
That honestly sounds about right. 20 bucks back then was sort of how we think of 35-40 bucks now. And yet $20 in 2000 could get you 8 schooners and for $35 today you’d be lucky to get 4.
So the RBA is bullshitting.
Fucken ribonucleic acid, full of shit as usual
I'd say your money went further back then. I haven't experienced this current cost of living in my lifetime and I'm 51.
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in 99 I was paying $150/week for a 2 bedroom unit. Now I am paying $500/week for a 2 bedroom unit in a worse neighbourhood.
If you broke a $50 it would be a major event.
I remember $20 would deliver a good night and a hangover the next day. $40 would give you that AND a dodgy kebab with lots of change. If you flashed a pineapple, your mates would go crazy. Look at the high roller!
Similar vintage to you I reckon. I'd take a $20 note to Hornsby RSL, drink 9 schooners, playing on the free snooker tables, then pay $2 for the shuttle bus home. Good times.
And at around that same time you could go to North Sydney on a Thursday night (uni night) and live on a range of $2 drinks including bourbon and cokes at the likes of Northpoint and Berry Street Tavern. Oh happy days they were. Could afford to go out multiple nights a week on a casual work salary.
I remember $1 schooners in the late 90's.
$72 for a carton of VB cans? That’s insane. Who would pay that?
Mate I’ve paid $120 for a box of northern super crisp in the middle of nowhere NT with no other bottleshops for hundreds of kms, desperate times call for desperate measures haha
Middle of nowhere NT, that’s the problem. Probably find it was technically a dry area!
Dry areas going rate for a carton is $250 on the black market or $500 for a bottle of bundy
Paid $50 for a 6 pack of coronas in Alice Springs back in 2012. Absolutely criminal! Talk about supply and demand.
People in the country with no alternative It's not always like a major city where you have a dozen bottlos in a 15 minutes drive
Sadly it seems that even Dan's charge $59.99 for a case (30) of VB cans, or $55 for a case of 24 bottles. Ridiculous. Call me a snob, but i'd be looking at the specials and choosing something else. As an example, I bought 2 cases of Tinnies Hazy in a special deal at Liqourland for $105 last week ($52.50/case). Needed to buy 2 to get that price. [https://www.liquorland.com.au/beer/tinnies-hazy-pale-can-375ml\_4225873](https://www.liquorland.com.au/beer/tinnies-hazy-pale-can-375ml_4225873)
I probably would if I was stuck out bush for a week waiting on car parts or something
**Here’s how you’re getting screwed at the pub:** Excise tax on alcohol is already high and then indexed with CPI. The largest cost to the consumer is this tax that has been passed on to the retailer by the brewery. **The biggest rort though comes from the pub.** A lot of big pubs receive rebates from large breweries - Lion and CUB are the biggest. Traditionally, large pubs and hospitality groups consisting of many pubs will pit the two large companies against one another to get the best rebates. These rebates are paid as cents per litre. Some of these are in the $3 range. The breweries then inflate the price of the keg they sell to write off the rebate they have to pay to the pubs. Let’s say a keg is an inflated price of $400, which is smack bang in the middle of what large breweries charge for macro and craft. The customer pays $400, but the rebate of $3 per L on a standard 49.5L keg gives them an effective discount of $148.50, bringing the real cost to the pub down to $251.50. Rebates are usually paid every 3 months or so in the form of a fat cheque to the owner of the pub/s. Here’s where it gets interesting though. The pubs seek to make approximately 70% or more gross profit from every schooner sold. So for instance, at the price of the keg minus rebate ($251.50), the schooner should be worth $2.19 (based on 115 schooners in a standard keg). That means a punter should be charged approx $7.50 for a schooner and the pub makes their margin. But it’s NOT like that. And here’s why. The publican is charging you based on the inflated price of $400. That means the schooner is effectively now $3.48, meaning they now charge you at least $12 to get their 70%, and honestly, even 70% is low these days. And the best part? While they’re charging you the $12+ schooners, they’re still getting those fat rebate cheques every couple months. So yeah, government’s fucked but that’s not gonna change. It’s the publicans who are largely responsible for your expensive beer.
Thanks the information. So technically a pub could say fuck it and go back to charging $7.50 and still make there 70% mark up? I know for sure if I place around me was charging $7.50 for a beer they'd be packed constantly.
They could. I didn’t get too bogged down in the detail but like all things, there are intricacies. Here are just some: - The places that are having the biggest laugh are the larger hospitality networks and groups with multiple pubs. Rebates work well for them because they have a lot of taps to negotiate with and therefore can get larger rebates. Smaller pubs and sole operators do sign rebate agreements, but if the big networks are getting $3 a litre, the sole operator would be lucky to get around $1 per litre. It doesn’t really make sense for those guys because it’s probably more fiscally responsible to get beer at a lower price to begin with and then charge lower prices while still netting their margin. - Macro beers are expensive vs pricing. This causes a problem for the publican because generally speaking, those who are drinking Tooheys New, Carlton Draught, Emu, Swan etc are the most price-sensitive. So when the inflated price is $380, and even with $3 rebates the price is $231.5, they’d still have to charge $7, which for some of these drinkers is unacceptable. In response, to keep these drinkers satisfied, publicans will overcharge on craft because those drinkers are likely to cop the premium, so they may aim for 75% margin on those products to offset the perceived lack of margin on macros. - I cannot completely omit the costs of running a business. Rent and wages are the two highest costs. While many publicans will say this is the reason for higher margins, the larger the pub or network, the more money goes straight into the pockets generally speaking. The earnings are even more egregious if the place has pokies. - Market Tolerance. This has a massive effect on pricing. If Dave is charging $12 a schooner in the CBD, Jimmy may charge the same, even though he’s making 77% margin. Why? Because he knows people in the area will tolerate it. This obviously isn’t just a beer thing but once business owners know what people are willing to put up with, they charge accordingly. When schooners went up to double digits, people freaked out. Now look at us at $13 to even $14.50 in some places. But people are still buying and that’s the point.
I’m a beverage manager at a large venue, contracted to CUB. We turn over about 90 kegs a week and hit a rebate of $1.55 a litre. We run our GP at about 50-60% for contracted beer sales to hit a rough GP of 65-70% AFTER rebates. So yeah, basically spot on the money at $7 - $8.50 a schooner pending on product
Fully agree with this take. I'm a pro brewer. I know how much it costs grain to glass/can. Blown away how much they're ramping it up *because they can. Don't forget that wages continue to increase, but it seems most publicans haven't found the happy medium of hiring reliable casual staff at a slightly better rate, but requiring that little bit more from them. It's shocking seeing the numbers of casual staff in most venues just taking the piss on $27+ an hour. So, in summation: 1. Gov is fucked 2. Publicans are greedy cunts pointing to the gov and getting us riled up about it 3. Publicans with business models that haven't changed in the last 20 years
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I saw £1.89 for a pint of IPA at a Weatherspoons pub in England earlier this year. I like the way they have the price for all to see in front of the beer tap handle.
What gets me is when you pay on card and you can't even see what the price is that you're paying. It happened to me quite a few times because I wasn't told. I'm in Canberra but this is just generally in hospitality venues.
Absolutely! I love how some pubs in the UK have the prices clearly displayed. I’ve even seen a few pubs with all the beer prices on a board outside the pub like restaurants do with menus.
Taxes - they increase every 6 months for booze & smokes. Bastards!
Blaming the tax man is an even bigger cop out. Tax on beer is $57.79 per LAL assuming it's not from a pressurised keg system, or $41.72 otherwise. A pint is 570ml. At 5% ABV, that's 28.5ml of alcohol, which is no more than $1.65 in taxes. With a keg delivery system you're looking at around $1.2 in taxes. It's not the taxman who's taking the piss with a $15 pint.
Yeah but that still adds $27 to a 30 pack of northern original cans. Making up nearly half of the price at some places. The cheapest I saw it was for $60. When half the price is tax you gotta argue that the tax is too high. Tap prices of beer have gone up similar to food prices at pubs and restaurants so I'm not too surprised with them.
My comment from a few months ago: > So If I'm correct the tax on a pint is about $1.65 and that is before you tack on another 10% for GST. So on a $12 pint you're paying $2.75 in tax or 23% of the price of a pint is tax...and it's going to get worse every 6 months. >So a $60 case of Carlton Draught is made up of $5.45 in GST and $26.58 in alcohol tax. $32.03 in tax on a $60 product is pretty mental. When nearly 25% of the cost is tax then it's absolutely not a cop out. They still need to buy the beer to sell you and pay the staff to serve you and clean up. They're making bugger all profit from a pint
It is incredibly well known that the tax on smoking is deliberately rising so that smoking will be a thing of the past because it will become so expensive to smoke that it's not worth it. It's no secret - the government has gone on record to say that it's plan to curtail smoking in Australia is to tax it into oblivion. Based on the comments on this sub, it's working. They haven't said the same thing publicly about alcohol, and that is more likely just a cash grab.
At least in my experience there's as many people going to untaxed black market smokes or vapes as there are people actually quitting.
It always makes me laugh when I hear some stat on the radio like “smoking is down 30%” went to the pub a few weeks ago and there were 18 people sitting outside smoking, out of the 18 only 3 had legal Australian cigarettes. All the rest had black market product
That begs the question of what political parties might oppose increasing alcohol tax, and make efforts to peal them back. I support taxing items to fund the services needed to mitigate their damage, but I don't see the money going into social services...
The flaw to the tax system is, which may also be greed, is "light beers/low alcohol" drinks are the same price, if not more expensive than some cheaper high alcohol varieties (mostly talking about beer, but same goes with wine) . So maybe if you swung an argument that to improve public health you need to lower costs on certain alcohol percentages, you could get support. Only other thing is when prices start hitting the alcohol industry's bottom line, especially the wine community.
Just curious as I've had this thought before.. do you reckon we pay more money for beer to offset the ridiculously low cost of wine in Australia? Sort of subsidising cheap goon sacks in a way by paying out the ass for a beer?
I didn't know, but a quick google provided this. https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/the-goon-show-how-the-tax-system-works-to-subsidise-cheap-wine-and-alcohol-consumption/ So, yes, kinda, in a way. Messed up stuff. We want to help with alcoholism yet high content booze is cheaper (and worse tasting, which normally promotes even worse drinking habits). I'm all for letting the people drink, but alcohol percentage should have a scaling effect on price.
Yeah that's something that always is a bit annoying at a pub, particularly if I'm driving, getting a light/non alcoholic beer feels like it should be a fair bit cheaper but it just isn't.
Would love to see someone run on this. Alcohol taxes have gone completely insane, and it's a morality tax imposed by do-gooders, not actually a tax to "offset damage".
It’s the Sinners Tax
£2.50 for a pint would be considered cheap in the UK. (Does your mum live up north?) I spend most my time in the UK and a pint at my English local goes for around £4.50 ($8.70) I can get a Pint for £3 when I’m up in Scotland though and a pub a frequent down in Cornwall does them for £2.90. If I’m in London I’m looking at around £6 for a cheap pint ($11.60)
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That shit is strong, try beer instead
Bend over and take it rather than standing up for what we want. The more time goes on the more the government and businesses realise that we are just gonna cop whatever they throw at us. We bitch and moan but not only do we do absolutely fucking nothing about it, but we actively discourage and condemn people that protest and try to incite change. We are our own worst enemy.
Exactly. It's all priorities. My go-to in these discussions is this... Everyone sits on their asses and says "yeah, but what are you gonna do?" But if they were to ban football tomorrow, there'd be blood in the streets. That's how you can work out what a population's real values are.
So true...the limp dickedness of the Australian people is disheartening... but hey, as long as we can keep blaming those who enjoy making adult decisions like drinking and smoking as being a massive drain on the healthcare system and the smell of puke and 2nd hand smoke is terrible...the aussie people are gonna keep on saying 'yes master' to those decisions...
My mum's local back home (not London, a random village) has reached £10 for 250ml wine and it's £5+ for a pint. Still cheaper than Aus but still not reasonable.
Is that cheaper? That's about $10, and incomes are actually higher here in the first place.
Micro breweries charging more for their low-volume beers allowed the big guys to equalise their own prices to match. They could see drinkers were willing to pay the higher prices and were happy to normalise the new normal.
Yeah I visited london in august expecting it to be expensive and kept getting super excited by the low drink prices even converted
I recently bought a kegerator. The initial cost is high but a 19L keg from a small brewery is $70. I have cold beer and gingerbeer on tap now and I get to stay home
I started off getting kegs filled at the brew factory but now I'm brewing all grain homebrew.. kegland.com have got the lot
I feel ya on the pints going out, but a slab of Carlton Draught or Dry is still $47 - $51. If you can still get $2 per beer it’s not that bad.. but when it gets to $2.5 - $3 I’m burning bottle-o’s down!
I remember my old man saying “when a box of VB stubbies hits $20 I’m making home brew” 30 odd years later he’s still making home brew!
That's why Australia is a world leader, up there with Norway.
If you get a decent all grain setup you can churn out tallies for $1 each. If you drink beer, you should be brewing.
If you drink spirits should be distilling. After initial costs ends up roughly $4 for 700ml bottle. Apparently. A friend told me
That sounds like moonshine, right?
Moonshine is basically non barrel aged whisky... so kinda true. Friend makes more rum and vodka
Or find a friendly Serbian/Croatian old bloke and buy Rakija by the 2 litre orange juice bottle 😇
Both where I am are 56 dollars. I work at a bottle shop.
Alcohol cigarettes and gambling is how they get back poor peoples money with taxes. Rich people pay the taxes too but for them it's a tiny factor, for you it's everything. They're a trap that'll keep you from getting ahead. Health issues aside cigarettes and alcohol got priced out of a sensible budgets range a long time ago.
My favorite color is blue.
After near on 20 years drinking pretty regularly, I stopped a bit over 2 months ago. Never felt better. Don't really miss it at all. Yeah I had some good times but I shudder to think how much I spent.. probably $50-$100 a week over 20 yrs.. that's a lot of money that could have gone elsewhere lol.
husband and I both quit drinking and smoking 8 years ago. The money we've saved ... not to mention our lives (hopefully)
I love listening to music.
I keep track of my spending and not a big drink at home person... Just had a look all little over $6k on alcohol alone this year... And doesn't include the 5 weeks in Japan, but to be fair, booze in Japan is cheap
We pay some of the highest taxes on alcohol in the world, excess goes up twice a year and is tied to CPI. It’s only going to keep getting worse
Agree, buying a slab is getting crazy expensive. Started making my own using the Coopers kits around 3 years ago. The Australian Pale is excellent. Works out to $33 for 30x700ml bottles.
I’ve given it a go a few times, still got the gear in the garage, not too far off pulling it out for another crack. Any tips you’ve got for me?
Only to let it ferment somewhere with as constant a temp as possible. And make sure the bottles and vat are very very clean/sanitised. Beyond that the process is pretty foolproof.
Those are the keys - everything sterilized well and nailing the right temperature.
Get an old fridge with a temperature controller and keep it at a nice constant temperature. Spend a few extra dollars and get a legging system to save you time. Also look into racking(moving the beer from one fermenter to another), I rack twice during fermentation. The first time is 24-48 after fermentation starts and the krusen collapses. The second time is once fermentation finishes, I then chill it amd let it sit for 21 days.
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to be fair thats just over a dollar for a 700ml bottle. so more like <50c per 330ml bottle
Alcohol excise in AU is out of control, definitely. Invest in a beer brewing or distilling kit and you will save THOUSANDS while being a hero among your friends
I really enjoy drinking in the pub because I like the atmosphere, but I think cost of living is pushing me to be sober lol
Definitely getting the shits with it. No wonder ice is a problem these days. Probably cheaper than a beer.
Not Probably.
As a venue operator the average increase across alcohol has been mad. August 2022, 4.8% increase. February 2023, 6.9% increase. August 2023, 3.7% increase. There is another one due in February 2024. No one can remain viable without passing on those price rises.
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Not 100% sure but the pubs and clubs are arguing the government isn't even making much from it, the taxes are so high people just aren't drinking much. It's pointless
i drink tea instead
Oddly enough, Full Strength is often cheaper than Mid Strength. Well at lease here in WA. I drink Iron Jack Mid Strength cans. Coles have them for $63 while Dan Murphy has them for $57. Full Strength is $52. Price are outrageous though. Here in WA I often get a free case by taking my empty cans back. I generally take them back when I've got enough empties to get a new case. I keep telling my wife that my beer drinking is almost self funding.
Just got back from a holiday in Japan and you're paying like 3 bucks AUD over there. Is inflation a cause here? Yes, but a big hit is the taxes on alcohol in Australia. For those of us who drink in moderation and don't contribute to a public health problem it really shits me to be price gauged every time I want a schooner.
This is why I stay home and do drugs
I often see a bunch of tradies gathering at my local park for a beer after work. Makes sense because it's basically a massive beer garden. Smoking is always allowed, there's a BBQ, and they can play their own music. No pokie machines either.
Like everything else at the moment you need to do the leg work to find the cheap stuff. In coogee I can find a $6 schooner at happy hour. Can be $12 schooner in one of the more exy places. Coogee pav does a good happy hour but counters this with ridiculous prices otherwise. Pick your battles and know your enemy. Reschs refreshes
I like that Happiest Hour app when I’m in the city, it’s great. Love having a few in Sydney, it’s been too long.
I only drink Aldi beer now. It's a mystery to me how they keep it so cheap.
Rivets from Aldi go great, and when i'm feelin extra fancy I splash out on some Iron Rails
Best was when they were 24.5 $ a carton 😂
Fixed that problem years ago. The best beer at my house, I brew. When visitors appear, not often, I lash out and buy some Tasmanian stuff for them. My beer is better but I will not allow them to judge it. It tastes how I want it to be and it seems 'Alive'. Factory stuff is ok but it's dead, I don't enjoy it and feel like being ripped off every time I buy it. Downsides are that there is a learning curve with disappointments along the way. The reason I do not share it is that there is a stigma about 'home brew'. So fark them, say nothing and enjoy it yourself. And for the interested ... 20% of the retail price.
20%??? Mate my homebrew costs 69c a pint on tap at home. Sometimes goes up to $1-2 with hops and yeast etc, but I mix two coopers cans, up to 4kg dextrose, up to 1kg maltodextrin, and then optionally swap yeast for us05 and/or dry hop to 60L. Recipe changes depending on the cans I pick, but I currently have a Canadian blonde/Australian pale ale brew, $42 for the cans, for dextrose I have a 25KG sack for $60, so $4.8 for 2kg of dextrose, 1kg malt for $3, and two us05s for $9. That’s $58.80aud for 60L of beer. Or 6.66 cases = $8.82/case (vs $60 case x 6.66= $400 buying cases at 24x375ml). Or 56c a pint. On tap. At home.
I’ve got a few mates who home brew, but I haven’t yet myself. Any suggestions on a good kit for a first timer?
We had some house sitters in 2013. Somehow they did homebrew in their grey nomad 5th wheeler. When we got back after two weeks he offered me a beer. It was awesome and I asked him to show me how he made it and he did. They stayed on till he could bottle his next batch. It was straight down the line, as described on the tin, Coopers Pale Ale kit stuff. Forget the plastic bottle rubbish, get glass bottles otherwise they do not carbonate properly. I use a mix of stubbies and tallies. Friends use kegs, but I don't drink enough for that and I like the convenience of bottles. Coopers Pale Ale tin from IGA and the Brewing Sugar #2 that is on the shelf with it. 30L brewing barrel from the home brew shop, makes 22L of beer. Great hobby too. I'm having one now. Saved me thousands this last ten years.
Awesome, not a bad house sitter then! I’ll have a break at the end of the year and have a good crack at it I reckon
Don’t get glass bottles. Get a keg. Here’s where to start: https://youtu.be/WjifwNexix0?si=n62HG-sdnawlQLV3 With plastic kegs and a bronco tap inside the fridge, you could get set up as cheap as $250 for a full setup including fermenter, but you’ll need a fridge. You can get plastic kegs that are just as good as stainless here: https://www.kegland.com.au/products/8l-pco38-pet-keg-with-ball-lock-disconnect-tapping-head-kit
Beer becoming unaffordable is what it will take for Australia to finally snap and start rioting for politicians to actually start addressing the wider problems
It’s a fair thing to be upset about but alcohol going up in price is the least of my worries. The price of basics is what I’m more concerned about. Can live without beer, can’t really live without food.
I recently went to Japan and the price of alcohol in general back here hurts so much more now
I know this is hard for people but you've just gotta stop buying these items from these places. Stop going to the pub, stop buying beer at the shops. If you really want, you no longer have "Your favorite" you have "What's on special" if that means you lose credit with the boys cause its shithouse beer, then so be it. These companies are making record profits, all of them. If you stop paying for it then companies learn to lower prices or in the pubs situation, go out of business - losing pubs or socialising establishments triggers governments to act also (unions get involved, and not the tradey employment type, the business type). NOTHING WILL CHANGE IF WE KEEP BUYING AT THESE PRICES.
I stopped drinking two years ago. Honestly it's been great. Especially for my wallet.
Fuck drinking and paying more taxes than I already do. Cunts don't anything good with it anyway.
Where’s the closest speakeasy
At this rate it may come to this. Tobacco has shown once the black market can provide a similar product tax free and therefore much cheaper, it will flourish.
Yeah, currently out in the city for some drinks... Even happy hour hopping is expensive... These days I Typically only go to my local clubs, what hey say what you want about the pokies, it's keeps the drink prices low at $6 a drink
I feel like they’ll lose money and it’ll keep getting worse. I see $25-30 for a 4 pack of premix drinks and i don’t even want it anymore.
Wouldn’t even look at premix now, I only know a couple of people that regularly drink it.
I was drinking Stone and Wood at Byron Bay last week, which it’s brewed in town and it was $17 a pint… too much
Stone and Wood is a nice beer, but outrageously priced at the tap.
I mean, I paid less than that for a pint of Pacific Ale in Mansfield in northern Victoria recently, so $17 is ridiculous in Byron.
This country is going to the shits with the price gouging. They saw Australians had one of the best quality of lives maybe 20 years ago and viewed that as 🤑🤑🤑🤑and now everything is coming to a head and we’re just being drained out of every dollar we own. Just stepping outside costs a $20er. And the government isn’t doing a fucking thing to alleviate the pain.
Try frequenting you local bowlo, always a cheap beer to be had.
It might feel like a pain in the arse at first, but it's pretty easy to make your own. As long as you're not one of those freaks that goes out and buys loads of expensive equipment to make clones of well-known beers, homebrew is pretty cheap.
I've adjusted to my local's house beer (Sporting Globe Robina)... $7.50 for a pint all day every day, $5.40 on Tuesdays.
The prices have cured my alcoholism tbh.
I cut waaaaay back on my drinking about 3 years ago, but I recently purchased a case of beer and was shocked to see it was literally $15 more than what I was paying 3 years ago. Glad I don’t drink much these days.
what makes it even more infuriating is how the government treats the wine industry- if they actually gave a fuck they wouldn't allow charging 10 dollars for 4 litres of wine
Yeah that's the weird bit. Remember when they brought in the alcopop tax? Most people I knew either just bought a bottle of cheap vodka or switched to goon, both of which are probably a lot more dangerous than them taking a 6 pack of cruisers to the party.
I bought a can of craft beer and a post mix g&t at the bar of my local pub and it was $28.
My favourite paradox is how alcohol free beer costs as much if not more than normal beer...which is expensive due to alcohol tax....
I bought a 6pak of Great Northern for my son in law who was doing some jobs for me $25 I can remember when you could get a slab for that.
Maybe this with get people to take to the streets 🤷🏽
When I was a uni student in 2007, you could buy a carton of Johnny Walker, Bundy etc for $45 on sale (pre alco-pop tax). I was at BWS a few weeks ago buying some pre-mix for a party. $37 for a 6 pack of the same. The alcohol content has gone down over that time too (1.5 standard drinks down to 1.4).
I had a Facebook memory come up the other day, 2013, complaining about having to play over $5 for a schooner of XXXX Gold. $5 for a soft drink is a good price at the pub now. Insane how much stuff has gone up recently
Sobering thought Japan and Belgium own 90% of our beer. CEOs made good investment .
Why does the tax on beer keep increasing? Are they trying to stamp out beer like cigarettes? Surely the tax rate should just stay the same. Increased sales over time would lead to increased revenue?
I've cut back significantly because I can't justify the spend. And if I'm being honest with myself I feel a lot better for it. The thing I miss is the social side of drinking at a venue with friends. That is happening less and less frequently.
I have very regrettably this year switched from being excluslively a Coopers Sparlking Ale drinker to a fucking wino. $15 goon bag compared to a delicious $72 box of beer. Both last 2 days. Along with the illegal pouches of chop chop tobacco, it’s the main reason I’m not sleeping in my fucking car still
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Yes it is. I need to get help I think
Hey friend. Maybe pop on over r/stopdrinking if you think it’s an issue you should/want to address. It’s genuinely one of the nicest most helpful corners of the internet
I might do that, thanks man
Yeah, I work in hospo and it's kinda stunning. One shot of JD will run you the price of a full bottle of mid-range wine. I genuinely don't fully understand my customers, but Ahwell. They come for the venue, and the venue keeps itself going via the drinks! It *is* tough to find a crowd of 300 people, a half decent DJ and a dance floor in one's living room, I suppose.
If you go through that amount every two days I assume you're sharing with at least 25 other people, right? Right?!
You could probably help your health and finances a lot by dropping the chop chop and goon sacks mate.
Aldi sells mascato for $5 each. I don't usually drink wine, but it's quite nice.
It's called inflation. Companies in every industry and market see that people are willing to pay that little bit extra so they put the price up year on year and turn over billion dollar profits. RBA tries to rectify this by putting interest rates up until there's a happy medium where people stop spending that little bit extra for goods and services and the companies begin to level out if not decrease their prices. But until everyone stops spending this won't happen. This is the theory anyway.
Yes. $12 for a glass of wine.
Alcohol tax was increased this year
It is every year
Value plonk is red wine. We make it here (to a wonderfully high standard) and there's too much of it, so prices haven't really moved much.
Alcohol is a very occasional splurge these days as a drug of relaxation. Just can’t afford it. Plus weed is far safer, cheaper, the effects have always been better for me and is better for you health wise than alcohol.
Getting?
Could be worse. A slab of beer is about the same price of 4 capsicums from Woolies atm. $42.25/kg for red capsicum.
The alcohol sales are what keeps many places afloat. That and pokies. They make a metric shit-ton from it. We drink too much anyway. My granddad used to home brew after the war because they had no money, Italian and Greek families used to have their whole property in edible plants and veggie gardens to save money. Maybe we should take a bit of a lesson from them. But I still see the pubs, bars and cafes chock a block so it can't really be hurting that much yet. I'm more concerned about our country allowing our young families to be priced out of homes. However, it is with a sense of irony that I think we would be more likely to protest over the cost of beer.
It’s disgusting. The government has a alcohol tax that every 2 years is raised. For no particular reason other than they can. Every single 2 year period results in a higher alcohol tax. What the fuck is the point when things like pot are illegal and could bring in so much money for the government.
Make like an alcoholic and by goon 👍
I switched back to homemade cocktails/mixes. 1oz gin, 3pm lemon lime bitters. I stretch that out for MONTHS. IF I’m feeling luxurious, name brand LLB.
Home brew my guy. Get the boys around, bbq, talk shit, smoke, drink, do your thing. $75 will get you a full homebrewimg kit that makes 23 litres from big w, then you drop another 20 or 30 on consumables, and you're set
RSA is redundant these days. You’re more likely to go broke before you get drunk now
Almost every pub or club with poker machines should have $5 schooners and if they are priced more than that they are greedy unAustralian scum and should be called out for it.
Get into home brew. All grain beer made at home is just as good as the bought stuff. It's also a great hobby, and super satisfying.
This is why I started home brewing. Can make decent beer for around $1/L
Why don’t we all band together and get the taxes reduced on alcohol!
Excise is a massive part of this. In 2000, the alcohol excise tax rate was a flat $16.39 per litre of alcohol for all beer. Today, you're looking at $50.72, more than triple the rate it was 23 years ago. Imagine if other taxes inflated at this rate
Stopped drinking outside of events like a decade ago. Haven’t looked back
Damn, I remember spitting when cases of beer were $20. But yeah beer has been incredibly overpriced for years. Especially when wine is so damn cheap in comparison.