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

[Weeeeeeeeeee]

Went to watch The Hundred the other day. Got the cheap seats (restricted view - £12.50 per adult and £5 per child). We took food and drink. Bought some drinks from the bar but waaay too expensive to have as many as we'd have liked.

Husband took little one off for a promised ice cream (it was hot and young children love an ice cream treat). It was £8 per ice cream (one was a Cornetto, the other two scoops in a pot). Wtaf?! I don't know how anyone can justify charging that. I also wonder how on earth people with more than one child are meant to afford it. Had hubby realised the cost, before promising the little one an ice cream, he wouldn't have said ice cream was on the cards! Won't be doing that again, for sure.

AIBU to blame people who repeatedly pay such exorbitant prices for these prices being maintained? If everyone took a stance and refused, surely they'd have to come down.

I wonder if it's some sort of sick joke to see how much can be charged and people will still pay...

Remember that a lot of these vendors don't have the same hours in which to sell things for a profit also so have to make their coin in a limited amount of time. You are paying for the convenience.
I am surprised at the number of you saying you bring food in as most venues here in New Zealand ban that and your bags are searched before hand.

I think you are perfectly normal. Most people consider a concert or similar as a once in awhile treat. Especially when you are raising children on a normal income.

not sure why the OP is getting such a hard time for just having a bit of a rant. I agree, total rip off at cricket grounds, in way that it isn't at say the football - frequency?

£8 for a Cornetto? Delicious ice cream from Italy, just one Cornetto, at that price don't give it to me!f

The vendors often have to charge these prices to make a decent profit after paying the fee to set up there. My friend runs a Mac and cheese stall at events. Can’t charge under £10 for a tray of it with toppings.
It’s not really a free market. Where some stalls could charge less and get more custom. They’re all paying the site fee, set up costs, wages.
Anyway. A 99 medium cone with flake and sauce is £3.50 from the van here in Surrey.

And cornettos are tiny compared to when they first came out same for magnums.

i don’t tend to go to events as I find them expensive but if I’m there I tend to just accept the prices.

I’d like to know how much tax and what sort of wages ice cream seller at £2 is paying. Plus, where I live, it’s a bit of a joke that ice cream vans are selling drugs alongside to make their actual money.

I guess other people are buying them for the same reasons your husband did.

They can charge what they want really.

Ice creams are a lot more expensive generally than they used to be. I’ve actually switched to buying ice lollies from the supermarket because if it. Can’t justify magnum prices.

£8 spend was needed to keep little one happy - ok I get that. Might as well spend £16 as I quite fancy an ice cream as well - ok, rare family day out, not a crime. £24 to include Dwife - nope, absolutely not a chance, she can sip on tap water!

I understand that this is not the point of your post but I do think he should have bought you an ice cream!

as an aside - on a day out to the park my friend produced from her bag a thermal mug with three small ice lollies inside. All still well frozen 4/5 hours after she left home. I’ve been trying to find a similar mug that is big enough to contain the long sticks but I’m still searching

Op my son paid £6 for an ice cream at a steam rally the other weekend. I think its the standard price now unfortunately

You seem to have a fundamental misunderstanding of the basic principles behind capitalism, supply-and-demand consequences, and the concept of money.

People who sell things aren't just doing it for a fun hobby, they do it in order to make a profit.

In every sales situation, if the price of an item is "too low" then it will be popular due to being good value for money and the supplier will run out of the item before the pool of willing buyers is exhausted. If the price is too high, it doesn't sell and the supplier has stock left over and will have wasted staffing and storage costs. The right price is the price that balances the flow of supply and demand to optimise the use of staffing and storage resources and optimise the profitability without tipping over that balance point in either direction.

In a theatre where there are 1000 seats, the resources available for storing and selling ice cream for the interval are not going to be sufficient for 1000 ice creams to be sold. The majority of the building space and resources are dedicated to the theatre show, not for the storage and distribution of ice cream, and the time available for the interval is also limited. Therefore the price needs to be high in order to restrict the demand to an amount that can be managed. If the ice cream was £2 instead of £8 then the number of people wanting an ice cream would be too many to deal with and half the people queuing would be disappointed because the available supply ran out, not to mention time running out and people missing the show. Putting people off from buying it, because it's too damned expensive, is a necessary and important part of ensuring that this doesn't happen. Your reluctance to pay is part of what ensures that those who want it enough can have it. The alternative if prices were lower would be to have some kind of lottery allocation or rationing to decide who gets the available ice cream. It is ok for the luxury of a theatre icecream to be priced too high for some people to pay so long as the number who are willing to pay is sufficient to justify the logistical costs of buying, storing and serving that number of people and make a reasonable profit. Those who can't manage that price can have a cheaper icecream at home where the practical and logistical complications of gettkng the icecream there are a lot lower.

I saw a fb link revelry I think about festivals and food prices - I knew they were always high but the link explained how much of the cost went to the festival organisers - the % cut they took was really high.

One of the fake Stanley’s you can get everywhere will do the job. The ice in mine is still frozen in the morning. Think it was a Primark / tk maxx one.

Mugs like your DH are the cause here. I'd have said we'll stop at Tesco on the way home and buy a pack for a couple of quid. 4 year olds can wait. Also "the little one" makes my teeth itch. Can't you just say DD/DS?

You are justifying the spend here - and that’s absolutely fine - but it’s also probably the justification a lot of families use which is why the products get bought and prices remain high.

Most cricket grounds have water stations for free - just refill your drink bottle, no need to die of thirst. You weren’t in the Sahara desert!

Yes, going to watch any sport in a stadium is expensive which is one reason why people take their own food. We just factor the cost in when we go.

Prices are high because the ground charges a huge uplift to the vendors to have a stall within the ground and the food stalls have to break even. If people
didn't buy from them, the ice cream stall wouldn’t be there next time.

We're in the Midlands and I can't remember paying less than £3.50 for an ice cream van treat for a while. I tend to get twitchy above £4.50.

£8 is ridiculous though. I think others are right about pitch fees being a big part of it.

Food van prices in general have gone up a lot over the last few years.

Prices need to be fairly high so they can ensure they don’t sell out in the first hour on a hot day.

If they had cost less than £2 like you expected, ice cream stocks would have run out very quickly and you would have had a disappointed child on your hands with no ice cream, and the ice cream seller would have to deal with hot, disgruntled queuers demanding to know why they hadn’t brought enough stock with them.

£8 ensures enough people shake their heads in disbelief, and there is still ice cream for those that are willing to pay, and yet enough ice cream is sold to ensure a profit for the seller.

I agree £8 is ridiculous for an ice cream and ripping people off. I would leave a review and maybe other people will bring their own or come prepared not to buy from them.

why should i take the blame for the high price?

I dont know what the rules are where you went but a lot of stadiums dont allow you to take your own food. (I usually manage to sneak some in anyway) If I go to a concert in the eve I always eat first because I know the food will be a) v expensive and b) usually crap.
If its an all day thing though you havent got much option depending on whether you can take in your own food. Lots of people would just factor it in to the over-all cost of the day

I think they have a captive audience and therefore can charge what they want. It sounds like you were lucky and were able to take food or snacks in (as you don't mention buying those but were there 6.5 hours). Lots of venues don't allow people to take their own.
I think you have to factor this in when you go to places.
I live near a tourist area. My parents often go to an ice cream shop where ice creams are £2.50. They are small, but enough for a bit of a treat when they go. That is definitely the cheapest I have heard of and most are £3.50 for a basic cone.
£8 does seem excessive but I am sure places like Legoland were also extortionate when we went for things like that and because you can't go off elsewhere then they know people will pay.

Also to add there have been lots of issues where I live lately with people not wanting to pay at a venue but happy to use the facilities. Some places do have picnic areas, but when it comes to pubs with play areas and farm shops with a cafe they have recently had to post reminders and reply to negative reviews where they have been criticised for telling people not to take their own food. I can't imagine rocking up at someone's business with my own food and then just ordering a drink, but apparently that is what is happening. As mentioned earlier, costs are higher for everyone. While going out for the day is expensive and therefore taking a picnic makes it cheaper, for a business if they rely on food sales then they can't afford to run if people don't buy anything. The result will be that these places close down.

I asked for a glass of wine at the O2 last year. DH came back with 2 lagers, he said that was pricy enough but the wine was £17.50!! A glass. Ridiculous.