Going out for a couple of alcoholic beverages after work or over the weekend can turn out to be a pretty expensive occasion if you don’t keep an eye on your pursestrings.
But residents in Manchester say that ‘being sober is expensive’ as the cost of soft drinks in the city’s bars and pubs have reached ‘scandalous’ highs.
One person took to Reddit this week to share their outrage at being charged £4.50 for a pint of Diet Coke in a Northern Quarter bar recently - and it’s sparked a lively debate about prices for drinks across the city centre.
Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features.
“£4.50 for a pint of diet coke,” the Redditor firmly stated. “I nearly cried. This is in the NQ of course.” In another post, the person added that the price ‘was almost the same cost of an alcoholic drink in the same venue’.
It led others to share their dismay of what they considered to be expensive costs of soft drinks. “Same at Cafe Rouge at the Lowry,” one person suggested. Another said: “Paid £4 for a pint of coke in the Marble Arch.”
One person said they went to an unnamed Italian restaurant and were charged ‘£4 for one of those tiny 200ml glass bottles of Coke’. “Basically £2 per gulp,” they said.
Another said: “Think it was something like £3.55 for just a non-pint glass in The Footage the other day. Would probably have been cheaper per ml to get the Inch's cider.”
“The whole city is going down the pan with this stuff,” another person posted. “I get there’s some room for price increases but this is just pure greed and exploiting captive audiences.”
The prices have led many to wonder about the impact the prices would have on those who don’t drink or try to avoid alcohol. One person said: “When 'soft' drinks get to the level where - "might as well get something alcoholic" comes as a consideration, it's a temptation that many succumb (sic) to, - and the worry is that includes the youth.”
“Being sober is expensive,” one person added, to which another replied: “Ain’t it just. I decided to have a year off booze and am shocked at how expensive the alcohol-free alternatives are. It’s such a scam.”
Some people suggested that the cost of drinks have gone up across the country and not just in Manchester due to the cost of living crisis. “Has everyone forgotten that inflation is rife and prices have been going up for a while,” one stated.
“This isn’t only in Manchester, it’s in basically any big city. Running a bar has always been expensive and it’s becoming more expensive every day, how are places expected to keep charging the same prices while all their bills are going up? You know where spoons is, go there next time.”
Another wrote: “Most of the cost of your drink is the cost of the building, bills, staff, glassware, etc. - so you have to pay plenty even if you’re not consuming alcohol. Businesses have to make money…”
The M.E.N found that there are still some places in Manchester where the cost of soft drinks don't quite reach the £4+ high. A bottle of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi (not the same, we accept!) will cost around £2.75 at The Midland hotel, while a 22cl bottle of Coca-Cola at the Alchemist will cost £3.
Diet Coke is also on the menu at 20 Stories for £3, Pepsi is available at the Pen and Pencil for £2.50, while TNQ offers Coca-Cola and Diet Coke for £2.50 for a regular and £3.50 for a large.
One redditor, who claimed to work at a community-based pub, had a explanation for the cost spike - suggesting the machines and electricity required to dispense the drinks was not cheap.
Replying to the original post, they wrote: “That is on the steep side, but dispensing soft drinks is actually really expensive.
“It requires a dedicated machine that sucks ~500W and dumps a load of heat directly into your cellar meaning your cellar AC has to work harder, cost even more leccy. Very fewer machines are designed to support an external radiator
“The price of the syrup boxes is absolutely hilarious, and they use a proprietary connector so you can't buy elsewhere. The machine uses a load of CO2 which never ends up in your drink, and CO2 is really expensive right now
“There are numerous costs that are identical between soft and hard drinks so the base level of cost is much higher than you think (glassware, that 1kW glasswasher, staff, electricity, water, rent, etc) - Asking for and drinking nothing but tap water in a pub costs them a lot more than you think.”
