OK. So you don't think £4 for a small can of non-imported 4.1% beer at a £47.50 event in a community venture that's supposed to be for the local Brixton community is a rip off. I'm afraid I'm going to have to disagree with you. Add in the fact that it's not even in a proper restaurant and the rip looks even bigger to me.
For context and balance there are a number of things to take into account here.
Just because a pint of Carling is £3.30 does not in any way mean that a can of independently brewed beer should not cost £4. There’s lots and lots of interconnected reasons why that is the case. (yes you might say that talking about Carling has nothing to do with the argument but you've used it as a counter argument before so I'm using it as a frame of reference rather than as a personal dig)
· Some people like beer and trying new things and may be happy to pay for something like that (it probably even tastes quite nice). That doesn’t mean you’re wrong if you like drinking Carling or choose to spend your money on cheaper beer that others would balk at. I just mean that some people might prefer it over something else and would be happy to pay more. In the same way that you can buy some really disgusting cheap wine that will leave you with a very nasty headache. Or you can choose to spend additional cash and have something more palatable (which will depend on the individual
· The costs to a small independent brewery to make the beer, and the costs to a (relatively) smaller venue will be far higher than the costs to a massive multinational like Molson Coors who make Carling and can churn it out for next to nothing – and also for massive pub chains like Greene King (and Wetherspoons, say), who have *massive* buying power. I suspect the profit margin on a pint of £3.30 Carling is some way higher than on a £4 can of 40ft Pale Ale. So if anybody is feeling smug about drinking big glasses of Carling or Fosters or whatever cheap session lager, you are probably getting fucking rinsed price wise
· Some people might prefer two small cans of something different rather than four pints of something very mass market
· I thought we liked independent quirky offerings here rather than massive corporate ‘will this do?’ offerings. Maybe I’m wrong? We’ve had this argument before about Sam Smiths pubs being really great and cheap – whereas actually the ethics behind Sam Smiths is dodgy as fuck and it’s a company that is actively having a very negative impact on people’s livelihoods and communities (though you had me on ignore at the time so maybe you didn’t read it) (and no you weren’t necessarily the main protagonist in that argument so its not a personal dig but IT IS STILL VERY RELEVANT)
· You cannot assume that somebody charging £4 for a can of beer, with the whole supply chain involved, means that they are making a massive profit. They might be making tuppence a can if the whole business model is being managed really poorly (they are probably making more than that – but everybody has to take a cut e.g. so they can pay the waiting staff and the rent). But price/turnover is no indication of profit (see stuff about investment/economies of scale above)
· I suspect people investing that money on a night out like that would be pretty fucked off if they turned up and all that was on offer was Carling Black Label lager and Echo Falls wine
· Here we go again, but I think we’re agreed (are we not) that spending money with small independents is more healthy that spending it with big corporates and multinationals
· And back to the real basics here (and I may be repeating myself), but comparing a pint of £3.30 mass produced Carling is an utterly worthless argument. Yes the amount of liquid you get for the money you pay is much more favourable with Carling but NOT ALL LIQUIDS ARE THE SAME AND THE AMOUNT YOU GET IS NOT THE IMPORTANT THING. And your example I think was pretty much trying to suggest that you get more for less at the Albert
And
most importantly, I think we’ve established (many times) that Pop Brixton would not appear to be always catering for the local community (or at least the traditional resident local community). So in the context of what it *is*, it appears to be something aimed at people who like ‘street food’ and ‘craft beer’ and have a reasonably solid disposable income or at least are choosing to splash out at an event. And something which presumably the people involved in staging the event would like to make some money out of (i.e. those catering for the event are hardly likely to want to do it for no return). In that context then £4 for a can of trendy beer appears to be par for the course (and its actually cheaper than other places I’ve been to selling that kind of stuff).
It’s all another case of attacking symptom vs cause, or complain about weather vs climate. Both very different things.
So holding up the price of a can of beer as an outrage, the financials of which nobody knows about (40ft Brewery was incorporated in early 2015 and so no company accounts are yet publicly available), is a *massive* red herring and a total waste of time. I suspect (but cannot be sure) that they may be still (and possibly for years to come) paying off a huge business loan given how new they are. Maybe they’re not and they got loads of cash from mummy and daddy but we don’t know. And if they did get financed, then they are still accountable to whomever financed them and have to turn a pretty profit to pay that off. And *nobody* is going to go into business without turning a profit otherwise you might as well just throw cash down the drain.
So the price of this beer, which is pretty much market rate (served in a licensed venue rather than an off licence) really shouldn’t be the cause for outrage that it is.
This all shouldn’t (and I hope it doesn’t) stop anybody from attempting to hold those behind Pop accountable for not delivering on the original promise (although as we’ve seen there do appear to be some community focused and affordable events alongside these more extravagant affairs). It hasn’t delivered on its original promise as you and many other continue to point out (and I can’t and don’t need to argue with that). Though it was probably never going to – wherever local government and the private sector is involved, you’re the fucking mug if you believe what they tell you.
So of itself, this event and the price of the beer is one of those regular, symbolic Aunt Sallys that is just distracting from the main issue, and creates far, far more heat than light/arguments/perceived personal digs etc. And that can’t be a good thing. And it’s *quite* boring.
Going on and on about the price of a can of beer or a £10 burger is actually detracting from your own, perfectly valid, argument, because you are sidelining all of the context outlined above. It’s a waste of time.
Please feel free to debate this, respectfully and without any ill will.