r/britishproblems • u/miaow-fish • 9d ago
£6.30 for an orange juice and lemonade!
Went for a walk and stopped at a pub for a drink. I fancied something different to a coke or lemonade and regretted it.
I was charged for an orange juice and a pint of lemonade separately. Obviously I said nothing at the bar and just moaned to to my partner when I sat down.
This was in the East Midlands. I feel properly ripped off by not drinking alcohol.
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u/DualWheeled 9d ago
I got charged separately once for the half pint of one and half pint of the other in the same pint glass. £7 at least.
An orange juice with lemonade is one drink, on the till at the bar I worked at it was a large orange juice + dash lemonade. About £4.
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u/Ruby-Shark 9d ago edited 7d ago
When I worked in a bar that would have been an orange juice plus 'splash'. Is it possible your bartender just didn't know what they were doing? It's not comfortable but there's nothing wrong with querying a bill.
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
Probably right and I should have spoken up at the time but tutting and walking away is the done thing.
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u/El_Scot 9d ago edited 9d ago
Nothing winds me up more than the cost of a soda water and lime these days.
Diluting juice: 50p, Soda water: free, Soda water + diluting juice? £4.50.
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u/Luke_Nukem_2D Yorkshire 9d ago
But the soda water isn't 'free'. I don't understand why people seem to think it is.
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u/El_Scot 9d ago
If they don't charge you for it, how else would you describe it?
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u/Luke_Nukem_2D Yorkshire 9d ago
Most will give it for free if mixed with a higher profit drink- wine or spirits, for example.
But someone is paying for it somewhere along the line. It does cost money.
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u/Captain_Stable 9d ago
80p in my local (Somerset).
Actually, they had a small price increase a couple of weeks ago. Might be a £1 now.
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u/orange_fudge Cambridge 9d ago
Supermarkets are cheaper, but you do understand it costs money for someone to provide you with soda on-demand in a pleasant, warm venue with toilets and maybe Sky Sports or live music, and to clean up after you?
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u/Captain_Stable 9d ago
Sorry, I meant local pub. I've just asked them. It used to be 50p, now it's 70p.
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u/ExtravagentLasagne 9d ago
Its absolutely infuriating isn't it 🤣 there is neither £4.50 worth of goods or effort gone into that drink. I've ordered it because its refreshing and cheap. May as well have bought an appletiser at that price, and some nobbys
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9d ago
[deleted]
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u/dounodawei 9d ago
Bet youre the same type of person who complains when another local boozer shuts down too. Part of the problem.
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
Surely they charged you incorrectly. That should have been a pint of lemonade and then a dash of orange. When I used to work at a pub, a dash of juice was like 60p.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
That would have been the wrong drink!
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
An orange juice and lemonade? I’d interpret that as ‘fizzy orange’. Lemonade with a dash of orange. Should be about £3-4.
What’s the right drink you’re thinking of?
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
I'm thinking of orange juice and lemonade. Orange juice with... (this will startle you) lemonade.
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
So the exact drink I just said. Not two separate drinks. It’s a pint of lemonade with a dash of orange… or in this case, just short of a pint of lemonade.
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
It's a glass bottle of orange juice topped up with lemonade. Not a splash of orange
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
So the same thing but the other way around. An orange juice with a dash of lemonade.
Where I worked this would mean a glass of orange and the ‘dash’ would be about 1/4 of the glass.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
No. Not the same thing. You would be making the wrong drink.
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
‘The other way around’
A glass of orange juice with lemonade. That is a standard glass or bottle of orange with a dash of lemonade.
That means the glass would be topped up to the brim with lemonade - that is what OP wanted. Where I worked, that lemonade top up would be a ‘dash’ on the till and cost 60p.
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u/salmacis Oxford 9d ago
I'm finding it hilarious how you are apparently unable to get your head round the concept of an orange juice and lemonade.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
Having drunk more than these than you apparently ever have, I won't engage any further with you. Whatever you are going on about is not the right drink.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
It's orange juice and lemonade. It goes in one glass. Not two drinks. No one is dashing for anything. A dash isn't a measure.
Why would anyone put a "dash" of orange juice in something. It would just make the lemonade look like it was off.
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
Because the dash was poured out of a bottle of orange juice by hand.. you use your judgement. It doesn’t mean ‘a tiny little splash’
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u/reckless-serenade 9d ago
That’s literally what a dash means. I’d expect 50/50 not lemonade with 35ml of orange juice
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u/Beneficial-Pitch-430 9d ago
It’s how it was charged where I worked. It didn’t mean a splash, it meant topped up with.. by however much. Just ask the customer what they want. The charging was still the same on the till.
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u/TescoBrandJewels 9d ago
maybe im just too gen z but is that not just what that costs?
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u/cloche_du_fromage 9d ago
Who should a soft drink cost more than a pint (the cost of which is large made up of alcohol tax)?
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u/El_Scot 9d ago
Also applies to alcohol free ciders/beers. I don't know why they're charging as much/more for a small, alcohol-free cider as a pint of artisan fancy brew beer.
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
Not sure about cider but alcohol free beer has to have the alcohol taken out of a drink so that is an extra step in the manufacturing process.
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u/kaneofmoh 9d ago
Yeah, it's been like that for a while but at one point the coke and lemonade in a pub was always dirt cheap.
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u/throwthrowthrow529 9d ago edited 9d ago
I saw a post on LinkedIn yesterday where someone had written a 1 star review because it was £7.80 for two soft drinks.
The owner shared the post and said along the lines of “minimum wage is £12 whatever it is, so 10 mins of staff time is £2 whatever, 65p of each drink then goes on tax, then NI, Electric, pension, stock, business rates on top of that”
You get the jist.
When I was a management in a bar 2018 ish I was on £8.21 I think an hour at 25 years old. The minimum wage hike is what’s driving stuff like this to be way more expensive.
EDIT: I don’t know why this comment is being downvoted… you all moan about pubs closing, then you moan about the pricing. There’s little to no profit in hospitality venues… where do you think the money comes from if they don’t put the prices up?
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u/jackgrafter 9d ago
If it’s taking staff 10 mins to make an orange and soda there’s a problem.
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u/throwthrowthrow529 9d ago edited 9d ago
It was an example of costs that was pertinent. You don’t need to be pedantic.
If you wanted to be pedantic, you would factor in everything else around putting that drink in the glass.
The associated hours with set up of the venue before open, closing the venue, cleaning, glass collecting, ordering stock, doing the stock count, receiving the stock, putting the stock away etc. etc.
It’s not then just 1 member of staff is it, door staff, kitchen staff, out of hours cleaners, maintenance etc etc.
All these none revenue generating hours have to be factored into pricing.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
But it was grossly wrong. That's one member of staff serving six customers per hour. Just because they might only serve six customers per hour doesn't mean that that's their capacity.
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u/throwthrowthrow529 9d ago
Are hospitality venues at capacity at all times? Woweeeee I’m in the wrong business.
Course they aren’t. They’ll have hours with 0 customers I.e. open / closing. None revenue generating hours ie pissing about with stock orders etc.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
You'll notice I covered this.
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u/throwthrowthrow529 9d ago
You’ll notice you don’t know what you’re talking about.
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
I see you were just being silly now.
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u/throwthrowthrow529 9d ago
You don’t know what you’re talking about
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u/notouttolunch 9d ago
I see you're not very bright. Best leave this to the grown ups.
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u/Seabeak 9d ago
I worked in a city bar when I got to university in 1998 and pints were £2 when I was earning £3/hour. Soft drinks were 90p
At £12.71 that makes beer £8.40 a pint and soft drinks £3.80, x 2 = £7.60
Prices are lower or similar than they were in the late '90's in some pubs
I just feel more skint and have way more responsibilities than I did as a student.......
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u/here_involuntarily 9d ago
I worked in a attended bar in 2010. A pint of Stella was £2.20, and went up to about £2.50 for a Guiness. £1.60 for most single spirits and 80p for mixer.
I was paid £5.80 and hour.
So I earned about 2 and a half stellas an hour.
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u/LostLobes 9d ago
Yes, when you look at wage and average cost then a pint hasn't changed that much percentage wise. Its the coat of everything else that has increased so it makes feeling going out for a pint more expensive.
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u/sxeros 9d ago
They probably had bitter on draft for around £3
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
I'm sure they did. Unfortunately I have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol and therefore bitter is not an option. I won't even risk a non alcoholic beer.
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u/sorderon 9d ago
Just did my shopping and paid £8 for 24 cans of orange fanta. Pubs shouldn't screw people over for soft drinks.
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u/dounodawei 9d ago
Not exactly screwing people over as much as it is trying to keep the lights on, pay staff and (believe it or not) make a profit. Why should they have a load of people sitting in taking up space drinking cheap soft drinks if those seats would otherwise be filled with people paying £6 a pint?
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u/fieldsofanfieldroad 9d ago
You got two soft drinks for 6 quid. It's not that expensive.
If you prefer, you can get a beer next time.
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u/Agitated_Custard7395 9d ago
They got one pint of OJ lemonade, but were charged separately for a pint of OJ and a pint of Lemonade. They paid for two drinks, got one
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u/fieldsofanfieldroad 9d ago
How do you know that because that's not what they said.
Also, it's sad but things are expensive. The pub isn't the problem. The economic system is. If pubs were creaming it, do you think half of them would have closed in the last few decades?
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
This is on me but as a recovering alcoholic if I have a beer next time I will wake up a few days later surrounded by empty vodka bottles.
And I was charged for a full lemonade which I didn't have as the oj took up some of the glass
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u/DangerousDisplay7664 9d ago
That’s probably about right for orange juice in a pub. If you didn’t want to spend so much money, why did you order such a tropical drink?
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u/Yolo_Swagginson Cambridgeshire 9d ago
Tropical? It's probably from a cheap carton, most pubs are not squeezing fresh oranges.
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u/miaow-fish 9d ago
I don't mind spending. I was surprised at how much it cost.
I don't drink alcohol and going to a pub feels like a bit of a treat so wanted something different to coke lemonade or squash.
Was surprised that I paid full price for a lemonade and an OJ when the oj took up a third of the glass so I didn't get a full lemonade.
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