£8 for a naked hotdog

[AlpineMuesli]

Went to an event and the hotdog stand was charging £8 for a hotdog sausage in a dry bun. £9 for one with onions.

Would you willingly pay that? (People were, it was the only non-spicy food option.)

Don't give them any ideas

I knew it would be a country fair affair

They're shocking the prices at these places. Ive learnt just to have a coffee or hot chocolate

Well, I mean they can charge what they like, it's up to you to make the choice.

They are not unreasonable to ask, and you are not unreasonable to pay, if you think it's worth it.

No.

While I have no objection to vendors setting their prices at whatever level they think people will be prepared to pay, I never buy overpriced catering at event venues, stadiums, cinemas etc. I don’t buy food at motorway service stations or £4 cups of coffee from Starbucks, Costa etc either.

If there were other options I’d probably choose something that suited me more but if it was that or a half an hour queue for something else and I had hungry dc with me etc etc I’d just pay it.
We went to a festival last year with the dc (just for the day, we are NOT campers), the evening was drawing in and ds was waning a little. There was a crepe stand? I took him and dd2 to get a crepe - £9.50 each! £19 for 2 bloody pancakes 😂 I paid it and it gave him a rush of energy and he ploughed on through to the end of the evening. Money well spent in that instance.
So it would depend on the circumstances for me.

Good for you. You dismantle capitalism brick by brick. 😁

I would rather go hungry!

Me too!

I wouldn't willingly pay it no, hence I tend to eat in advance if it's the sort of event where food is likely to be both expensive and nothing special. In your situation, if I'd gone on a whim, would depend how hungry I was.

Saying that, I like spicy, so if there were any cheaper options I could've potentially had one of those instead.

I've never heard the term 'naked hotdog' so assumed you meant just the hotdog with no bun at all! If I was starving I would get one, but generally don't go to events hungry for that reason.

Indoor market cafe in Durham £5.75 for a pot of tea (huge) and a bacon roll (with condiments and also huge). I was astounded as down south everything is sooo expensive these days.

If it was a big fat Authentic German or European sausage in a nice bun with vaguely quality ingredients, then I guess I would if at an event. I can imagine other food was even more pricey. Please don't tell me they charged for mustard and ketchup? Better off bringing your own ham sandwich and soup in a thermos though...

For me whenever I eat food out, I really want it to be something I can't or won't make myself. Otherwise I see it as a total waste of money. I love a nice restaurant or street food from a different culture that I don't know how to make. But stuff I can make myself that's expensive too is something I try to avoid unless like I said, I'm really hungry.

Pretty much anything you eat out you could cook yourself with a bit of effort, unless you only go to Michelin star restaurants. Eating out is about the company and the experience as well as the food.

Going against the grain here but I’d happily get it; buying (usually) mediocre, overpriced food is part of the experience for me, it all adds to the fun so I always aim to eat at events. Having said that though, I enjoy spicy food so I’d have probably gone for another option but a rubbish hot dog is always my food of choice at a fun fair!

I have questions:

How are you supposed to eat it? Is it a proper sausage or an actual comes-in-a-jar* hotdog? Does it come chopped up with little toothpicks in? Or just flopped out the tin cold? Do you get a knife and fork? How about condiments? Do people dip them in their beer?

*Or tin, or vacuum packed from Lidl

If there were other options I’d probably choose something that suited me more but if it was that or a half an hour queue for something else and I had hungry dc with me etc etc I’d just pay it.
We went to a festival last year with the dc (just for the day, we are NOT campers), the evening was drawing in and ds was waning a little. There was a crepe stand? I took him and dd2 to get a crepe - £9.50 each! £19 for 2 bloody pancakes 😂 I paid it and it gave him a rush of energy and he ploughed on through to the end of the evening. Money well spent in that instance.
So it would depend on the circumstances for me but I’m not necessarily against stupidly overinflated pricing because sometimes it suits me!

If there were other options I’d probably choose something that suited me more but if it was that or a half an hour queue for something else and I had hungry dc with me etc etc I’d just pay it.
We went to a festival last year with the dc (just for the day, we are NOT campers), the evening was drawing in and ds was waning a little. There was a crepe stand? I took him and dd2 to get a crepe - £9.50 each! £19 for 2 bloody pancakes 😂 I paid it and it gave him a rush of energy and he ploughed on through to the end of the evening. Money well spent in that instance.
So it would depend on the circumstances for me but I’m not necessarily against stupidly overinflated pricing because sometimes it suits me!

If there were other options I’d probably choose something that suited me more but if it was that or a half an hour queue for something else and I had hungry dc with me etc etc I’d just pay it.
We went to a festival last year with the dc (just for the day, we are NOT campers), the evening was drawing in and ds was waning a little. There was a crepe stand? I took him and dd2 to get a crepe - £9.50 each! £19 for 2 bloody pancakes 😂 I paid it and it gave him a rush of energy and he ploughed on through to the end of the evening. Money well spent in that instance.
So it would depend on the circumstances for me but I’m not necessarily against stupidly overinflated pricing because sometimes it suits me!

Pitch fees for events cost a lot, and catering pitch fees much more

Trader stands at events that I go to can cost £200 - £500 for a pitch of one or two tables wide, for both one day and weekend events.
A major event in London could be £1000plus for the same

Catering pitches could be starting at £500 for a small event and over £10,000 for a large festival etc

https://togather.com/blog/festival-pitches-or-how-much-do-they-cost#

I paid £7 a couple of weeks ago for a hotdog at a small ComicCon (no price change for with or without onions) and this weekend £8.45 in a leisure centres own venue diner for a pre packaged chicken wrap and fruit cooler.

I help out traders at events, and will buy from the caterers on site, I have the option to bring my own (which my friends do with supermarket sandwiches etc) and if the venue is in a complex I may walk out to the nearby choices.

Catering is cheap on the ingredients but expensive on the overheads. For many of their ingredients they may have to discard the leftovers. What we would buy in a jar in a supermarket they may be buying a box full in bags of vacuum sealed batches. The whole batch must be used or discarded after opening - so one or ten hot dogs could cost them the same in basic ingredients.

Yes, the queue was mainly families - I think because it really was the only non-spicy option. If anyone reading this is setting up country fair food stalls, please remember non-spicy options! But not £10 jacket potatoes lol.

It's a frankfurter type thing and it comes in a paper napkin that you hold in your hand. It's hot- not sure if it comes from a tin- I assumed in those little vacuum packs. I guess you could ask for the little packets of ketchup or mustard. Not cut up with toothpicks.

So- people standing at the bar holding a plain hotdog in the palm of their hand. No bun. No onions (the best bit) and no jalapenos (the other best bit) Or fries (the soaking up the beer bit.)

I declined.

Sorry for triple posting, it wasn’t showing as going through!

They are ultra process ''food'' - you should avoid and be grateful if too expensive. Eat a carrot.

I agree that you can't just look at the cost of the basic (uncooked) food from a supermarket and consider it unquestionably a rip-off.

Staff time/wages, VAT, pitch fee, equipment, ingredients, fuel, profit/living - these are very considerable costs, so why wouldn't you expect them all to be free or maybe just a pound or two?

There have always been people who have complained about a cafe charging even £1 (or whatever) for a cup of tea that they could have made at home for pennies. The obvious answer is that it's entirely your choice and either bring your own/an alternative or go without.

The fact that you aren't at home and able to access your own kitchen should maybe give you a clue as to at least some of the added value.

You could say the same about taxis: you could use your own (bought, taxed, MoT'd, insured, maintained, fuelled) car and drive and park it yourself, so why ever would you expect to pay a lot more for somebody else to facilitate it all for you?