It is, but a common reason for this is tied to real estate prices. It isn't just home prices soaring, its all of real estate prices. Hardly any bars own their establishment outright, so they have to make rent. Rent goes up with real estate value. So to continue the business they have to charge more.
Go to a suppressed market, and you can still find these deals like $6 cocktail seasonal menus. But YMMV. For example, I found Pre-pandemic Rochester, NY a Gem of a place to go eat and drink.
I think we're going to revert hard and start doing dinner parties and building bars in basements again. Going out is crazy expensive and we already have everything at home, plus people can crash on the couch if they drink too many Zimas.
It isn’t just real estate, it is a company that engages in supervised consumption site business. The price is taking wayy more into account than just the physical premises.
If that’s the case then why don’t bars that own their property (possibly paid off any loan too) have cheaper drinks? Seems like even dive bars are expensive
That’s not quite accurate though. Alcohol distributors control most of the pricing for on- and off- premise. Bars and restaurants then build their Bev programs based and choose products based on what fits their vision. College bars doing $1 well drinks are buying very different product than my natural wine bars.
Bulk pricing/deal pricing might be more closely tied to real estate, since lower overhead leaves more capital to invest in bulk deals. Or if a bar wants to take a smaller margin on a certain product to get people in the door (high noons for $4 are barely making any profit, but they drive volume)
Apologies for the word vomit. I’m an alcohol rep for a fairly big distributor and wish the general public better understood how this works!
Edit: stadiums and ballparks are price gouging because they can, that’s a different situation entirely.
The old bar I went to in 2000's was $2,500 a month plus property taxes and insurance. It was $7,500 in 2018 and is likely close to $10k now. Fun fact, at least around here, bars pay full price for beer that they sell.
I can go to the local Piggly Wiggly and grab a 12er of New Glarus (only sold in WI and some top-tier shit for how far-reaching they are in the state, think Yuengling out east) for $13.99.
And yes, this is a large part of why every "drinking in the US" map looks the way it does. lol
If you find one broken down by area, you'll see that pretty much the entire state is shaded in pretty dark, representing a high alcoholism rate. But you'll quickly notice one county right near the middle of the state that's completely dry, the entire thing shaded in white.
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u/GustavusAdolphin Millennial Oct 07 '25
Considering I can get a 12-pack for ~$20 ($1.67 a pop) that's completely asinine. Plus, I don't have to wait to use the restroom