The Grumpy Landlord
PUBS ARE SO EXPENSIVE: PART 3
Ok, let’s look at this again, in the only way that EVERYONE understands the economy…
⏳ Minimum wage in 2005 was £5.05 and a Freddo was 10p.
🤩 One hour of work got you 50 Freddos!
Fast forward to 2026…
⏳ Minimum wage is £12.71 and a Freddo is 35p.
😢 One hour of work now only gets you 36 of them!
That’s a 152% rise in pay, but a 250% rise in the cost of delicious frog-shaped chocolate bars! 📈
If wages had kept pace with the price of Freddos, the minimum wage would now be £17.68 an hour! 💸
By comparison:
⏳ Minimum wage in 2005 would buy you roughly 2 pints of beer per hour.
⏳ Now, in 2026, it will buy you about 2.5 pints!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: pubs are not expensive. 📣
The cost of living is horrific. The external pressures on all of our finances right now are soul-destroying. We get it. Everyone is fucking skint. Everyone is struggling! 😰
But stop blaming pubs.
We are not being “greedy”.
Most landlords are earning less than ever – personally, I earn less than £6/hr for the hours I work, and I know a lot of publicans are earning even less! 😔
We are effectively subsidising you being able to have a pint!
Because if I charged what I needed to in order to earn a decent wage myself, I’d be selling beer at £12 a pint right now! 💸😢
PUBS ARE SO EXPENSIVE – PART 2!
Following on from my part 1 post…
A number of people still queried “why pubs are so expensive”…
And a follower, Kyle Michael, kindly allowed me to share his post below to explain things a little more!
So here goes…
🤔 What is so hard for some to understand?
🤷♂️ Pubs are NOT expensive, the perception of cost is being distorted by the lack of disposable income, not the price!
🏛️ Blame that on government, not the publican who has cut and cut and cut his profit to keep going!
⚖️ Let’s compare beer prices to wages!
Prices used below are the average in April each year, together with the minimum wage at the same time.
Year Pint Min wage %
1998 1.87 3.00 62.3
2000 1.99 3.60 55.2
2005 2.41 4.85 49.6
2010 2.94 5.93 49.6
2015 3.44 6.40 53.7
2020 3.72 8.72 42.6 **
2023 4.56 10.41 43.8
2024 4.77 11.44 41.6
2025 5.17 12.21 41.6
** pubs shut in April 2020 so used July figure, but VAT had been reduced so pint price was artificially lower.
📣 If pubs had stayed with the same % as in 1998, an average pint would now be £7.73!
🚨 YEP: SEVEN POUND SEVENTY THREE! 🚨
👌 Time to adjust your minds and expectations and keep things real, or you simply won’t have any pubs left.
So what do you think? Are pubs being greedy? Or is it the government?
Part 1
Apparently, pubs are “too expensive.” 😬🥵💰
I hear it every day. 🤯
Usually from someone clutching a £6 artisan coffee, scrolling TikTok on a £1,200 phone, while explaining how £6 for a pint is daylight robbery. 💎
But sure. The pub is the problem. 👌
Let me explain this slowly…
You’re not paying £6 for “beer”! 🍺
You’re paying for an experience, for a community, for…
💸 The heating being on before you arrive.
💸 The lights staying on after you leave.
💸 The loos being scrubbed (you’re welcome).
💸 The glasses being washed.
💸 The staff being paid.
💸 The licences. The insurance. The rates. The tax.
💸 The little bite the card machine takes every single time you tap.
💸 And the fact that when the cellar floods at 11pm on a Tuesday… it’s me in wellies.
You’re not just buying a drink. 🍷
You’re renting a space to exist in public without being moved on. To socialise. To make friends. To feel welcome. To belong. ❤️
Go and sit in the middle of ASDA for three hours debating VAR and see how long that lasts. Try getting banter from a self-checkout. 😅
Pubs aren’t competing with supermarket booze. 🛒
We’re competing with the idea that community should be free. 🏘️❤️
And here’s the bit I find fascinating…
The same people who mourn “the death of the British pub” are the ones who treat us like overpriced off-licences. 🍾
We don’t sell beer. 🍺
We sell:
👉 First dates that turned into marriages.
👉 Wakes where the real stories came out.
👉 “Ok, just one” that became the best night of the year.
👉 Somewhere to decompress when the world’s had enough of you and you’ve had enough of the world.
We sell a place to not be alone. 🫂
If you want cheap: stay on your sofa with a four-pack of lukewarm cans 🛋️🥵🍻
But PLEASE don’t confuse low cost with value! 🤷♂️
Anyway, I’ll be over here – overcharging for heating, chairs, and human interaction. 🔥🪑🤗
Tag a mate who needs to stop being a tight-arse and buy a round! You know the one. 😂👇
#TheGrumpyLandlord #MoreThanJustABeerDispensary #WhosTheTightArseOfYourGroup
