What with the oldest being a growing lad and the two younger ones not wanting to be left behind in the sibling stakes, what choice do we have? Reluctantly we order another round (our third) of soft drinks for the three kids from the waitress. With any luck this will give us until the end of the first half of the match on TV before fidgeting and fracas again break out in the ranks and the balloon goes up in search of their next miniscule packet of peanuts at €1 each ….
Throughout, the parents amongst us use such bribes to ensure that their sprogs don’t disturb the hostselry’s other patrons – that’s real decent parents for you.
Anyway, to place the fox in the field, we are rapidly coming to the conclusion that taking a family to the pub of a Sunday afternoon is of the first order of ‘no-no’ in terms of affordability.
Soft drinks at these sizes (180ml) and at those prices (€2.75) aren’t sustainable for a publican’s customers. Take it from me. Too much moolah my landlord, too little value, varlet.
The end-result is a collective bad taste in the mouth when it comes to value-for-money in the pub supposedly catering for families – and no returns.
This is no trifling matter as we’re the ones choosing to stay away in droves from your premises, the ones you’re complaining that you never seem to see any more. You may have overlooked it, but even sprogless, the adults among us have other expenses to consider when mooting a night out at the local such as extortionate babysitting costs, even more extortionate taxi transportation, increased heating costs etc in the home and a mortgage that’s slowly but steadily eating into our disposable income. On top of this, such soft drinks pricing practices in the pub are yet another very good reason why the whole thing may seem not worth the candle to us when considering a family visit for an afternoon.
Soft drinks have long been a bone of contention between the publican and his public – and now they’re clearly sticking in my own throat as they are in the throats of hundreds of other families.
Could I suggest that some of you review your snackfoods arrangements and the size of the portions being sold? At least if those of you selling tiny bags of nuts at €1 each sell by the peanut we can see you robbing us before our very eyes.
More realistically, could I suggest that you re-introduce the two-litre Coke bottle at a reasonable price for the family outing together – oh and why not consider offering a family food platter for, say, €20?
And in the case of soft drinks save the miniatures for Snow White.