'Unhappy Hour', Surge Pricing for Beers in the UK

Blinked at what UK pubs are doing — 'Unhappy Hour': U.K. Pub Chains Adopt Surge Pricing for Pints, published in The New York Times on September 13, 2023. Jenny Gross reported that Stonegate Group's 800 out of its 4500 venues across U.K, i.e Slug & Lettuce, Yate's and Craft Union, are using “dynamic pricing” in which a pint might cost 20 pence (USD 0.25 cents) more during weekends and evenings.

In July, the average price for a pint of draft lager was 4.31 pounds (about $5.37), up from £4 a year earlier, according to Britain’s Office for National Statistics.

Customers have become accustomed to surge pricing across various industries, including retail and travel. But some Britons said applying it to pubs went too far.

Pete Favelle, an I.T. consultant in Abergavenny, Wales, said that surcharges made sense for products that had limited availability, like flights or hotels, but that charging extra for pints at certain hours was “just a grab for cash.” He said he hoped the policy would fall flat because of the difficulty in implementing it. “Their poor front-of-house staff have to explain to enraged customers that, actually, their next pint now costs an extra quid because it’s got a bit busy,” he said, using a colloquial word for “pound.”

I'm like, ehh, don't give Singapore pubs any ideas. We're so good at doing surge pricing here with ride-hailing apps and even our biggest cab company that everyone complains but sucks it up anyway. Now if pubs take away Happy Hour prices, we'll just riot. We already have such high alcohol taxes. Good gawwd.

Still, I've never seen £4.31 (~SGD 7.32) for a pint in Singapore. I doubt I'll see it unless it's some super promotion going on for soon-to-expire cans or barrels.

PS: Why does the NYT writer need to explain 'quid'. Don't people know?!

Over at The Guardian on September 12, 2023, Rob Davies wasn't too scathing with his commentary. He simply found quotes from a few different sectors and humans and reported the increases as something that the pubs are doing anyway, regardless of consumers' opinions. 

I guess everyone wants a higher salary, and costs are simply rising too high. For businesses, that's even more painful. How do you mitigate quality and standards versus service staff and what customers want. What is tenable? What is untenable? How to keep a business afloat?  

It has previously done so during one-off events, such as World Cups, but has now taken the decision to introduce price variance on a more regular basis.  

Patrons have been informed of the change with a “polite notice” in Stonegate pubs, informing them of the need to raise prices to cover extra staffing costs, more bouncers at the door, extra cleaning, washing glasses and “complying with licensing requirements”.

I get surge pricing during events, holidays, special occasions and, I dunno, Jubilee things, that sort of stuff. Many restaurants' menus go crazy during Christmas and Valentine's Day. Fair enough, I suppose. For drinks, there might be a 'minimum spend' imposed per number of patrons at each table, or extras collected as a holiday cover charge. But to do a surcharge for drinks pretty much all the time during the exact evenings and weekends is like...... you win lor. 

OKAY. Let's do this. DAY DRINKING. We swop to DAY DRINKING. Or begin happy hour at 4pm and drink till 5pm before 'Unhappy Hour' kicks in and surge pricing kill our wallets. Then we go home. Middle-aged people sleep early right? So we simply start drinking earlier.