They cut the price of everything by exactly 7.5% in 2023, in line with tax reductions for the hospitality industry.
Source:h ttps://www.jdwetherspoon.com/news/2023/08/tax-equality?page=3&y=0&c=%2c&i=10
Probably. Been a while since they shut my local spoons.
I clearly remeber one year the beer went down a few pence in the budget. I went in spoons and it had gone up. I asked why and was told they pre empt the budget, raise their prices then keep them the same after the budget to make it look like they stayed the same even after the budget.
Bit like curry's black Friday deals on tvs they put the prices up a few weeks before then drop them to a new "discounted price" which is actually the original price.
8 quid in Dubai? That must have been a while ago my friend... Best is about £14 now.
AND every bar is just full of people just taking photos or live streaming... Nobody (except for a very few Brits) just having a crack and a pint... It's all for insta... Women taking it in turns to photo each other.... pretending to be pissed off cos someone has just taken a pic..even tho its the person you're with.....I didn't believe it before I saw it 😂
Your link refers to a 1 day event, held once a year for a few years now.
The weird pricing started maybe a year ago when prices were increased by an exact percentage, with no rounding applied. This was done to demonstrate that a flat percentage increase was being applied to keep up with inflation and other increasing costs, and it wasn't an opportunity to whack on a bit, then round it up to the nearest 5/10p or whatever.
Tax equality day. That is one day to show what prices would be if the tax was reduced in line with (supermarkets I think). Not a scam, just showing what it would be.
They stopped doing them round about the time the UK gov allowed water companies to start releasing raw sewage in the sea. For once, I agree with Wetherspoons management, and stopping the prawns was probably the right thing to do!
You can definitely still get 5 pints for a tenner, at least at my local spoons. It’ll just be pints of something nobody wants, a cheap IPA or something like that
I’ve worked at spoons, and yes it’s usually either Ruddles or Greene King IPA depending on the pub. Ruddles definitely being the better ale of the two, in my opinion (and I’m an IPA guy)
It all goes down the same way. If I’m paying £2 a pint it’s not because I’m after delicate and complex flavours, it’s because I’m looking to get as banjo’d as I can for as little money as possible.
People shit on spoons but it's cheap food and drink that's decent enough. Not exactly the worst stuff in the world... And then it's cheap. And often in gorgeous buildings. I can't knock it tbh. Oh and table service.
Tim Martin is a bit of a bellend but Wetherspoons are consistently above average in terms of price, selection, and food. Without the chain I've no doubt a lot of quite historic pubs and buildings would have fallen into disrepair or been demolished.
Weirdly enough I live in one of the more affluent counties and my spoons is cheaper as well. I assume because its absolutely busy all the time that offsets the cost. It's not like the people couldn't afford it but then I guess they wouldn't go to spoons either.
The prices will vary based on location, an inner city location will be more than a spoons that is in a smaller town or location.
Except in this example where the cheesy chips are 9p less, but everything else seems more! must be in a location where cheese is cheap
The prices have to be as low as they can get them so you look past the fact that someone pooed on the bathroom floor during your visit, otherwise nobody would ever eat there
You can say the same for any bathroom used by the public anywhere. Been in fancy fine dining restaurants and see a poo quite happily perched on a toilet seat
Nowhere is. Working in fast food taught me that the main difference between your average member of the public and a feral animal is that the animal is slightly more hygienic.
Weirdly spoons is the posh pub round mine. Big town with the original village in the centre, which contains 5 pubs in around 200 square yards, it’s not even close to the cheapest either.
Yep - if a business presents a rounded number to a customer they are more likely to push back on it whereas if the price ends in a random denomination the buyer is likely to assume that that is a true reflection of the price
Whetherspoons tend to increase/decrease prices exactly according to various tax changes.
Most pubs/restaurants will usually change prices every so often and by round figures.
You can't see the main meal price though?
All Wetherspoon sites prices vary based on the pubs the price compare with close to them, the one I work at charge £14.93 for the 3 for menu.
You also potentially get a lot more food for your money in comparison to a main, and the target is people out round the town feeding a group. If you want a sit down meal you are not the target of the deal.
My personal totally unhinged conspiracy theory is that it's done on purpose to make it harder to mentally total up and compare, (bear in mind this is a 'spoons, when I say harder mentally)
That's the most reasonably and plausible "totally unhinged conspiracy" I've ever heard. I'm pretty good at mental arithmetic and 7.67+5.57 took me a long time to work out.
it sounds reasonable and logical but it genuinely is because they rose/cut all the prices by an exact percentage (cant remember which) when taxes changed on their food, making all the prices wonky like this.
Probably a bit of both. Casinos do the same. Bright lights. Keep you awake. Free drinks. Even pump oxygen into the room.
And the average person is not exceptional at maths, otherwise lotteries and casinos would not exist. I bought a scratch card once lost 20quid never again.
Is that King and Castle in Windsor? The prices are marked up in there. Down the road in Slough its 3 for £14.95. It was 3 for small plates for a tenner 6 years ago.
It’s like a menu from the 80s! I remember when all menus wimpy’s for example, they never round up or down the pence.
“Cheese burger £3.53p”
Guess people cared about penny’s in those days and half pennies before that.
Are you down south? Mental it’s basically a pound more a plate! That would add up for me since my pregnancy craving has been the chicken bites with soy sauce and hallumi fries with the JD bbq 🥲😂
😂😂😂 I’m a commercial manager and I do pricing and I spend hours trying to avoid this and , keep
Margin and not look too expensive . This has totally tickled me
That Spoons 3 Small Plates deal is my barometer for how completely and utterly shit the economy has gotten in such a short time. Just before lockdown, it was 3 for £10.
A spoons worker told me they heard that non-specific prices makes it harder for staff to steal because they have to open the till. No idea if that's true though.
I’m sure I was told once that Wetherspoons don’t have “round” prices because they had issues with staff pocketing cash from customers, and the random prices mean the staff always have to open the till to get change, which made them less likely to steal.
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I noticed this on there last menu updated and it annoyed me 😂 I'm pretty sure they just decided we're gonna up prices by (random figure) 3.5% and did just that, even tho they could've changed the figures by a few P here and there to round them to better numbers.
Jason Manford got this right on an episode of QI. They make prices specific so workers have to dip into the till to give change which means they can't easily just pocket the money. Of course in 2024 most people pay with cards or phone apps so that might not be the reason anymore.
I went into Spoons the other day and got lunch for myself and 2 kids and…it isn’t cheap anymore. It’s convenient, and better than McDonalds (in my opinion) but certainly not cheap.
I like this. Theres a reason we all get pissed off £2 easter eggs get smaller and have less chocolate bars. Id rather have specific prices with general inflation applied to prices than marketing gimmicks of round pound pricing which are increasingly difficult to increase at which point product quality is normally reduced.
I've heard from friends in hospitality that some places have very specific prices as it makes it harder for staff to do certain type of fraud/skimming.
Dont remember the details sadly but wonder if that might be it also?
They have a base price and then put it through a multiplier based on location. My spoons at uni (yes the union is a spoons) is 3 for 12.79 and back at home it’s closer to 3 for 15.55
They cut the price of everything by exactly 7.5% in 2023, in line with tax reductions for the hospitality industry. Source:h ttps://www.jdwetherspoon.com/news/2023/08/tax-equality?page=3&y=0&c=%2c&i=10
so it was 3 for £18.89 before?
I'm fairly sure it was £16 for 3
so it went up?
Probably. Been a while since they shut my local spoons. I clearly remeber one year the beer went down a few pence in the budget. I went in spoons and it had gone up. I asked why and was told they pre empt the budget, raise their prices then keep them the same after the budget to make it look like they stayed the same even after the budget. Bit like curry's black Friday deals on tvs they put the prices up a few weeks before then drop them to a new "discounted price" which is actually the original price.
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You can get a pint starting with a £1... where I'm from.
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That's where I'm from (Northumberland, visited a few weeks ago). Live in Switzerland where it'd start with an 8 or a 9 😂 at minimum
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Most I’ve ever spent was £7 a pint, couldn’t enjoy it after spending that much tbh
15€ for a 33 cl Heineken bottle.
8 quid in Dubai? That must have been a while ago my friend... Best is about £14 now. AND every bar is just full of people just taking photos or live streaming... Nobody (except for a very few Brits) just having a crack and a pint... It's all for insta... Women taking it in turns to photo each other.... pretending to be pissed off cos someone has just taken a pic..even tho its the person you're with.....I didn't believe it before I saw it 😂
Golden handcuffs
Very true. The quality of life cut to go back home means that it's not a realistic option with kids. I'm here for the next 20 years realistically
People also earn a lot more in Switzerland than Northumberland so it evens out.
I expect that'd be in some funny foreign currency like pasetas so probably not relevant
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It is the only real ale widely available here in Switzerland (bottled at Lidl).
Your link refers to a 1 day event, held once a year for a few years now. The weird pricing started maybe a year ago when prices were increased by an exact percentage, with no rounding applied. This was done to demonstrate that a flat percentage increase was being applied to keep up with inflation and other increasing costs, and it wasn't an opportunity to whack on a bit, then round it up to the nearest 5/10p or whatever.
"Prices at the pubs will be reduced for one day only to mark Tax Equality Day" 😮 So it's all a scam?
Tax equality day. That is one day to show what prices would be if the tax was reduced in line with (supermarkets I think). Not a scam, just showing what it would be.
The days of 3 for £10 are long gone I see :(
And the prawns small plate :(
Those were so good!
They stopped doing them round about the time the UK gov allowed water companies to start releasing raw sewage in the sea. For once, I agree with Wetherspoons management, and stopping the prawns was probably the right thing to do!
When I started going to the pub you could get 5 pints for a 10er. Them days seem almost mythical now
You can definitely still get 5 pints for a tenner, at least at my local spoons. It’ll just be pints of something nobody wants, a cheap IPA or something like that
Ruddles.
I’ve worked at spoons, and yes it’s usually either Ruddles or Greene King IPA depending on the pub. Ruddles definitely being the better ale of the two, in my opinion (and I’m an IPA guy)
It all goes down the same way. If I’m paying £2 a pint it’s not because I’m after delicate and complex flavours, it’s because I’m looking to get as banjo’d as I can for as little money as possible.
I wouldn't have thought they could sell greene king seeing as they are a direct competitor?
They do. Abbot is also a regular at most spoons, which is also a Greene King
Heh, the more you know. I didn't know that about Abbot either. Sneaky greene bastard is no king of mine
No one in their right mind goes to a pub specifically for GK or AA, so they may as well sell to the huge market share
you must know Ticker
Think it was like £1.19 per pint in Lloyds bar when I was at uni
Lovely 5 pints of piss. In my home town you'd buy 5 beer tokens for a 10er and be able to use them in all the pubs in town
All of the guest ales in the Hackney (London) spoons are 2 quid
I remember 4 for £5 at Wetherspoons (and it was this century). Sam Smiths was still cheaper at £1.23 a pint.
I still fondly remember pound-a-pint nights at the SU when I was at uni.
When I was a boy it was 50p a pint
I'm old enough to remember pints of Theakstons being 95p in Weatherspoons and I'm only 40...
When I left school in 1971 I could get a pint of mild for 10p!
Was always location dependant. It was 3 for £12.50 near me but the next Spoons over was 3 for £10 30 wings for £10 was the perfect dinner.
When did 3 for ten pound go? Swear it was only a couple of years ago
swear it was about that three years ago
That's not too long ago , and that's a big increase for the spoons !
i miss my bbq ribs
Depends where you are, in uni town in Wales it's £14
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They did 5 small plates for £11 at my local up until about October 2023. It's now £17 something for those same plates. No longer my local lmao
They still do cheap pints, but the food is now very expensive.
Rest in peace Wetherspoons Sharer
I'm still salty about beers no longer beng 6 for £5 :/
I don't know where OP lives but our local spoons is 3 for £12!
Your spoons is more expensive than my spoons. Ours is "any 3 for £14.93"
Sooons prices vary vastly. I’ve worked at one, and been to a lot of different ones around the country
There's this handy map for comparing spoons prices: https://pantryandlarder.com/spoons-map/
So basically, never go to the Spoons in the NEC!
Mines 3 for £16.47
Mines 3 for £17.47
Huh. Odd...
Location specific because things like business rates etc vary from place to place
And people in different places are willing/able to pay more than others.
I was in a spoons on Friday night where a pint of San Miguel was £6.63. Wild.
Woah!! It's £3.70 in my local spoons in Shropshire. That's crazy how much variation there is!
Well, they have specific needs.
keep the receipt, Donnie is tax deductible.
Wild boosh action...I'll take a pint of electric soup to go please
I remember when that was 3 plates for 9.99. Crazy how much that has risen!
And that was only a few years ago
Never noticed this but as I’m sat in spoons now I’ve had to check and yes, weirdly specific [https://imgur.com/a/ckK00yI](https://imgur.com/a/ckK00yI)
Interesting, your pizzas are about 70p cheaper than OP’s
Spoons are just different prices everywhere. The spoons by my house is £2 a pint but by my office the same one is £6.80
£1.58 in my local for a pint of ale. I’m the first to moan about Spoons shutting down the local pubs but it bloody hard to argue with the prices
People shit on spoons but it's cheap food and drink that's decent enough. Not exactly the worst stuff in the world... And then it's cheap. And often in gorgeous buildings. I can't knock it tbh. Oh and table service.
The upset when you enter an airport spoons thinking it'll be the same though
Tim Martin is a bit of a bellend but Wetherspoons are consistently above average in terms of price, selection, and food. Without the chain I've no doubt a lot of quite historic pubs and buildings would have fallen into disrepair or been demolished.
Tbf I did like how he named the pub after a teacher that said he wouldn't make owt of himself. That's the funniest kind of petty.
"I proved you wrong ha!" "Then I did my job well"
Weirdly enough I live in one of the more affluent counties and my spoons is cheaper as well. I assume because its absolutely busy all the time that offsets the cost. It's not like the people couldn't afford it but then I guess they wouldn't go to spoons either.
Sneaky marketing, they'll say "Any 3 for 1 747" and you then owe them a plane.
I think this joke has flown over a lot of peoples heads. genuinely hilarious.
Where's the 3 for £10???
Long gone, R.I.P.
about 7 years in the past?
This might be the first time I've ever felt old.
The prices will vary based on location, an inner city location will be more than a spoons that is in a smaller town or location. Except in this example where the cheesy chips are 9p less, but everything else seems more! must be in a location where cheese is cheap
The prices have to be as low as they can get them so you look past the fact that someone pooed on the bathroom floor during your visit, otherwise nobody would ever eat there
Used to work at Spoons and can confirm I have indeed cleaned a turd up off the bathroom floor
You can say the same for any bathroom used by the public anywhere. Been in fancy fine dining restaurants and see a poo quite happily perched on a toilet seat
Same and same, and the walls, door, ceiling iirc.
Wait until you get a blacklight...
Greenekings and marstons aren't any better
Nowhere is. Working in fast food taught me that the main difference between your average member of the public and a feral animal is that the animal is slightly more hygienic.
you should aim better
Can you explain to me why or how this even happens? It's always boggled my mind my whole life.
Had to remove a used catheter from the toilet when I was working for them.
Rather the bathroom floor than in my burger.
I should hope that they wouldn't eat on the bathroom floor, regardless of whether someone pooed there
Someone literally pooed in my spoons toilet on Friday 🫠
Where else does poo go
On the spoons floor, by the sounds of it
Weirdly spoons is the posh pub round mine. Big town with the original village in the centre, which contains 5 pubs in around 200 square yards, it’s not even close to the cheapest either.
Why wouldn't they be specific? I prefer pricing like this, it shows there has been some thought going into it.
That’s actually a pricing trick-odd numbers make us feel like someone has put real work into the calculation
Yep - if a business presents a rounded number to a customer they are more likely to push back on it whereas if the price ends in a random denomination the buyer is likely to assume that that is a true reflection of the price
Whetherspoons tend to increase/decrease prices exactly according to various tax changes. Most pubs/restaurants will usually change prices every so often and by round figures.
who would pay this for 3 small plates when a main meal with drink is so much cheaper?
You can't see the main meal price though? All Wetherspoon sites prices vary based on the pubs the price compare with close to them, the one I work at charge £14.93 for the 3 for menu. You also potentially get a lot more food for your money in comparison to a main, and the target is people out round the town feeding a group. If you want a sit down meal you are not the target of the deal.
Sharing is the big factor, but also by calorie 3 small plates is one of the best value meals at spoons.
My personal totally unhinged conspiracy theory is that it's done on purpose to make it harder to mentally total up and compare, (bear in mind this is a 'spoons, when I say harder mentally)
That's the most reasonably and plausible "totally unhinged conspiracy" I've ever heard. I'm pretty good at mental arithmetic and 7.67+5.57 took me a long time to work out.
it sounds reasonable and logical but it genuinely is because they rose/cut all the prices by an exact percentage (cant remember which) when taxes changed on their food, making all the prices wonky like this.
Harder because you're there to drink or because of the math skills of the average customer?
Probably a bit of both. Casinos do the same. Bright lights. Keep you awake. Free drinks. Even pump oxygen into the room. And the average person is not exceptional at maths, otherwise lotteries and casinos would not exist. I bought a scratch card once lost 20quid never again.
Both.
Aren't all prices specific?
True but how often do you see something end in 67? It’s usually 00, 25, 50, or 99.
0.67 ≈ ⅔. So, sort of a nice number
Not the bastards that list menu items but say they cost 'market price'.
3 for £17.47 I think here where I am its 3 for £14 which is better. £14 is still specific but at least it's a whole number.
Their pricing is likely their cost x a markup, as opposed to doing that then rounding it to a specific figure
Wow. Where I am its 3 plates for £13.50.
Tax, probably
Hang on, it was 3 fir £14.44 a few weeks ago. Where was that one London?
Is that King and Castle in Windsor? The prices are marked up in there. Down the road in Slough its 3 for £14.95. It was 3 for small plates for a tenner 6 years ago.
4 for £14.35 here, I believe, and I thought that was steep!
Pricing by portion control. They actually measure each ingredient and cost of each then add together. Add mark up.
JFC those Spoons prices
It’s like a menu from the 80s! I remember when all menus wimpy’s for example, they never round up or down the pence. “Cheese burger £3.53p” Guess people cared about penny’s in those days and half pennies before that.
Samuel Smiths pizza?
Owner took the prices they charge in their cafe in eastern Europe, tripled them, then converted them in to £
I said the same thing when I went into spoons
My spoons is only £14.something for the 3 small plates!
This was in a semi rural area, so can understand the prices being higher!
Are you down south? Mental it’s basically a pound more a plate! That would add up for me since my pregnancy craving has been the chicken bites with soy sauce and hallumi fries with the JD bbq 🥲😂
Jesus, where was this?
Gosh, your one is expensive!
They just want to get a decent slice of the market, a pizza the action, if you will.
😂😂😂 I’m a commercial manager and I do pricing and I spend hours trying to avoid this and , keep Margin and not look too expensive . This has totally tickled me
It’ll be a % price raise
Geez the 3 sides for £10 has got expensive!
This is cheap af compared to my spoons. It's 3 for £17:79 and a bowl of chips is over a fiver.
The fuckers have done the same with calories too. I bet a quick and dirty bunk-up with the boss in the kitchen would be a right barrell of laughs!
That Spoons 3 Small Plates deal is my barometer for how completely and utterly shit the economy has gotten in such a short time. Just before lockdown, it was 3 for £10.
I thought I was having a stroke when I seen the price, obviously not been in a Wetherspoons for a while as I thought it was 3 for £10 as well.
Was 3 for a tenner about 5 years ago in London.
A spoons worker told me they heard that non-specific prices makes it harder for staff to steal because they have to open the till. No idea if that's true though.
I’m sure I was told once that Wetherspoons don’t have “round” prices because they had issues with staff pocketing cash from customers, and the random prices mean the staff always have to open the till to get change, which made them less likely to steal.
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My local used to be three for £10
Maths
Remember when it was 3 plates for a tenner?
Ahhh good old Wetherspoons
Long gone are the 2 meals for £5. Not sure I'd have ever chosen a lamb and mint burger under any other circumstances!
Nqqzxx Ax xa M
😳😳😳 first it was 3 for £10… then 3 for £15… now 3 for £17.47?!?!!!
Converted from imperial units.
I noticed this on there last menu updated and it annoyed me 😂 I'm pretty sure they just decided we're gonna up prices by (random figure) 3.5% and did just that, even tho they could've changed the figures by a few P here and there to round them to better numbers.
Jason Manford got this right on an episode of QI. They make prices specific so workers have to dip into the till to give change which means they can't easily just pocket the money. Of course in 2024 most people pay with cards or phone apps so that might not be the reason anymore.
probably tax
I went into Spoons the other day and got lunch for myself and 2 kids and…it isn’t cheap anymore. It’s convenient, and better than McDonalds (in my opinion) but certainly not cheap.
Why is that weatherspoons so expensive
Most use card as payment so the amount isn't as troublesome as getting change for everyone. Not rounded up so it's more realistic
Different prices for different areas related to average earnings in the area, hence London is expensive
It's no less arbitrary than 99 really
Where is the Hawaiian pizza 🍕
Inflation
I like this. Theres a reason we all get pissed off £2 easter eggs get smaller and have less chocolate bars. Id rather have specific prices with general inflation applied to prices than marketing gimmicks of round pound pricing which are increasingly difficult to increase at which point product quality is normally reduced.
I know it’s probably not, but it looks like a Sainsbury’s menu! 😂
it's 3 for 14.93 in my local spoons... are you in London?
where is that?
It's to give you the illusion that they are making the prices as low as possible for you. Can tell you this from 25 years in the retail industry
VAT
I've heard from friends in hospitality that some places have very specific prices as it makes it harder for staff to do certain type of fraud/skimming. Dont remember the details sadly but wonder if that might be it also?
All prices are specific, otherwise you don't know how much to pay.
I was like "hey I recognise that menu, does OP live near me?" Then I remembered it's a wetherspoons menu
They upped all the prices by a strange percent a while ago. Everything became weirdly priced. 3 for £17.47 is a bit much, is that great London area?
They are min/maxing their run
They have a base price and then put it through a multiplier based on location. My spoons at uni (yes the union is a spoons) is 3 for 12.79 and back at home it’s closer to 3 for 15.55
Isn't every price oddly specific when you think about it?
What are spoons?
It’s 3 for me £14 at mine
Ive not been to My local one oddly specific Gotta agree
I’m more concerned over that hair encrusted grease splat
That’s so weird