Australian beer image goes viral for high price

Concern about drinks prices in Australia has been shown by the image of a beer costing AU$17.80 with fear that “$20 pints are just around the corner’.

The image of a post by user SirBoboGargle on reddit of a beer sold at the Harbour View Hotel in Sydney, which came with a 15% surcharge, found users saying it was “tough to swallow”.

One user said: “Stopped drinking two years ago. I honestly don’t know how people can afford to go out drinking on a regular occurrence.”

“I just don’t drink out anymore. It’s such a ripoff. I just drink at home.”

‘Who can afford this? This is partly what’s ruined the nightlife in the city.”

One said they would expect the price for “stupid craft beer (that I’m a massive sucker for) but not for what they believed the image showed, which looks like a mainstream lager or what the user calls “one of the big boys”.

“That’s a tough swallow in multiple ways”, they said.

A user said they had “given up drinking for health reasons but man is my wallet happy too” and another added, “I’m old enough to remember when drinking was affordable in pubs. Four schooners every second day didn’t strain the weekly budget.”

Others pointed out the different between prices at pubs compared to at home, with one saying they could drink in their living room for AU$2 a beer, while one said they recently paid $18.20 for a “pint that wasn’t even a pint” at another Sydney establishment. Another said they paid AU$27 for a Kilkenny and a pint, and one user even claimed to have paid AU$40 for two pints of Peroni.

It follows news that the on-trade has struggled since the pandemic as people have discovered they can drink their favourite tipples and make cocktails at home for a fraction of the price. In the UK, there is concern the price of a pint could rise to £8 to £10, which would match those shown in the Australian bars.

A report from the International Wine and Spirits Record (IWSR) shows that the hoped-for return to the normality of drinkers flocking back to their favourite on-trade watering holes after Covid lockdowns has not taken place and, worse still, might never do so.

IWSR says that “beverage alcohol consumers are showing a clear preference for home consumption versus visiting the on-trade, with signs that behaviours learned during the Covid-19 pandemic have become entrenched” in people’s social habits.

In addition, there is growing global concern about ‘drinksflation’ where the price of production for beer and other alcoholic products has increased alongside energy costs, raw materials, and the supply chain, but ABV has reduced or the quantity that can be bought for the same price has decreased.