AIBU to blame people who constantly pay high prices for food and drink at events for keeping those prices high?

You’ve pretty much negated your argument by saying your father and husband bought drinks and ice cream whilst at the venue , ergo your group is also the problem.

@Fizbosshoes I was at the exact same match as the poster and can assure you that you can take as much food and drink in as you to like to Trent Bridge except alcohol and nothing in anything glass. The security man was joking that all he had confiscated was a small jar of mustard as jar was glass. They also have free cold water stations. You can also leave the stadium at anytime as long as you show your e ticket to go to the loads of takeaways across the road. I saw a couple of people wandering about with Mc Donald’s bags.

Festivals do have captive audiences, Trent Bridge are very good with what they allow. Our tickets were £34 each for cricket. We were there from 2.30 till just after 9. They had a band between both the matches. I actually think cricket is one of the few things that’s still quite good value. I’m off to Southwell ladies day on Sunday and that is £41 a ticket.

I am in Nottingham and I haven’t seen an ice cream anywhere for £2 for years.

That makes no sense. Unless you think there is a conspiracy among milkshake companies to artificially raise prices.

Otherwise all it takes is one company to charge less and they will get all the sales and make a huge profit.

YANBU OP. £8 for a Cornetto is rediculous. Companies have been profiting on the back of the ‘cost of living crisis’ ever since Covid. Yes, costs did rise as a result of the pandemic and war in Ukraine and Iran, but I firmly believe that companies are riding on the back of this wave of higher prices and using them as an excuse to push up their prices as high as they can get away with.

I saw boxes milkshake powder on the shelf in the supermarket a few months ago going for £6.

If people keep paying these rediculous prices, it becomes the new norm and we all end up having less in our pockets to pay for essentials while the bosses of the companies reap it in.

No way. I remember buying ice creams in Cornwall when my children were younger. I had a tenner on me and assumed that would be enough but they were £6 each. I had to get out of the queue and find my DH for more cash - I was bloody mortified. That was at least five years ago.

We went to a local event this weekend albeit a bit upmarket and we bought 4 ice-creams @ £7.50 each. Thirty quid on ice-creams!

Ice creams from a van haven’t been £2 in twenty years.

There was a recent news story about this. They were debating it on TV. The headline was that the average 99 is now £7.

I feel like this about things like £4.60 coffee on a café, on a flight or a train. I would rather have the experience of sitting having a coffee while I read my book than the money. I don't really care that I've got instant at home.

Not wanting to spend £8 on a tiny portion of ice cream does not make anyone a fun sponge.

And in fact because I would never spend silly money on days out we get to go on days out more often. Which is more fun!

Also my guess- those pitches don't come cheap.

It's theoretically possible, I guess, that prices of some things would come down if everyone boycotted. Another possibility is that the business wouldn't be attractive enough if they had to charge less, so the service just wouldn't be there. Probably a mixture of the two depending on context.

Plus as others have pointed out, in some venues it'd just lead to the place trying to recoup the money elsewhere so the entry price, parking or whatever would go up if people suddenly got price sensitive about ice cream.

The food/drink providers are paying to be there, based on the profit they will make. That reduces the cost of the tickets.

The event organisers are doing it for profit, not public service.

The customers choose what they are willing to pay for.

That's capitalism.

Why should people refuse to pay it if they’re happy to pay it though? They may think £8 is good value for an ice cream in that particular environment. The ice cream is more valuable to them than the £8 in the moment.

I doubt the vendors are making huge profits their costs are high , it's their business they have to make a profit. If people are buying their goods their costs are not too high.
Of course you are being unreasonable.

I saw the prices for food at the european games. They are not reasonable at all. They wonder why a lot of the seats are empty. It contributes to people not going. And makes us look as a nation as if we aren’t interested in sport. Not good.

You can take your own food and drinks into the venue. Pop to the co op before hand, most people do.

Oh no 😂 😳

How could you have said no to your small child, it was a treat. I agree cinemas are a rip off, but I don't go that often so never mind paying. Same goes for music festivals, total rip off food stalls, but its all part and parcel of a great weekend.

A confession stand might not be a bad idea, actually - for Catholic punters to go and admit to spending so much money on food and drink at the event, when they could have given it to the poor instead

I think it's probably a bit of both. The pitch fees are high, so that's already a chunk that they need to charge; but to make sure they make their money back and a decent profit, the vendors hike the prices again.

Then, once it becomes established that you can charge £15 for a burger and a few chips, that ups the ante with what the organiser charges for next year's pitch fee, as they want their cut of the sky-high prices too.

I’ve paid £20 for pic n mix at a gig 🙈 for me they are infrequent events and I’ve never been the mum to take a pack up, I usually have a budget for spends at such events. The only time I get organised is sneaking sweets into the cinema. But our local cinema isn’t a big chain so I usually buy their stuff to support them!

In part you are correct. If the people did not buy the product the supplier would have to put the prices down or give way to someone who is happy to do it for less.

But, I also would look to a Culture Minister to apply some pressure here for pretty much captive audiences. And expect her to expect better for the public and not to have venues exploit them. But that would take some backbone and guts.

Yabu, when places have a captive audience they charge higher prices, we all have a choice in partaking and many of us, yourselves included, are willing to pay the price for convenience. Your argument that it was dh and not you is weak tbh, you had a drink you are part of it.

These days you can search online the cost of refreshments for most places. I have bern known to tell my kids that we wont be buying refreshments there, so dont even ask but equally i have paid the price for convenience sometimes too.

You can do whatever you choose, but so can everyone else!

Ice cream inflation is a bit of a thing. My rule is that I will pay a higher price at an independent, made by themselves shop but, like you, would resent paying a lot more than the standard price for a mass manufactured wrapped lolly or cornetto.

You paid, also what on earth makes you think prices would fall if people didn't pay them? The bonly way prices would fall was if the venue opened refreshments up to competition- no one with a captive audience is going to do that.

I am in Scotland and the ice cream van currently parked up at my work is £5 for a small cone and up from there. A bit cheaper than at the beach where it’s more like £6. I didn’t check before letting my kids get whatever they wanted and ended up spending £18 for two tiny sundae like things with Oreo bits recently. That annoyed me slightly as it was just soft serve which is just a bunch of chemicals really.

I am bemused at the cost of food in general nowadays so the cost of premium snacks isn’t really registering as odd. Couldn’t believe the cost of a pint of milk the other day.

@Weeeeeeeeeee a tip for next time:

Just tell your 4 year old the ice creams are ridiculously expensive so they can either have one crappy teeny tiny rip off ice cream now, or an entire pot of Ben and Jerry's on the way home from the Supermarket so they can then have ice cream for pudding for the next 6 days!!

Its OK to tell your kids you can't afford something or that its a rip off.

Also events are bussiness i imagine the cricket vendors are confession stands and they make money.