Don Kavanagh: Hands in my pocket

At some bars it feels like daylight robbery with their exorbitantly priced beer. Photo / Thinkstock

Don Kavanagh wonders why we're paying gold-plated prices for domestic beer.

With a fair bit of attention being given to DB's decision to increase its prices to the trade, I've been thinking about pricing. What really started it was a trip to town for a bite to eat and a few sociable libations at a variety of venues. After a couple of hours I realised how much money the little adventure had cost me.

There was a time, and it wasn't long ago, that $60 would see you through a pretty long night, but not now. My two-hour mini-tour of three bars included four beers, four soda waters and a couple of items from the snack menu that came to more than $85.

Why we should be paying $9.50 for a global brand brewed under licence here mystifies me.

Some places charge more than others and I have had the rather dubious experience of forking out up to $11 for a glass of domestic beer in a bar. Now that's just ripping the guts out of it and I can't see myself going back there.

But even my regular haunts are creeping towards the $10 mark and there will come a time when buyers will simply vote with their wallets and stay at home. When it's more expensive for a glass of Stella Artois in Auckland than it is in central London, that time may be close. I understand that bars need to make a profit. They have heavy overheads and have to pay what the suppliers charge.

But the fact that some bars can operate quite happily without gouging extra money from their customers suggests there is more than a little banditry going on.

Perhaps it would be a bit easier on the customers if prices were displayed prominently so that the customers could avoid that heartstopping: "How much did you say?" moment once the beers have been poured. At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.