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...

AIBU to blame people who attend The Hundred for damaging the viability of domestic county cricket in the important summer season? It’s flashy and pointless and takes away valuable players and resources from the domestic game.

Just making the point — as with your question, the issue is with the organisers and those directing and setting events and prices. Don’t shoot the consumers !

I’m so impressed that you can manage to get a four year old to sit through 6+ hours of cricket with just one ice cream bribe! I think you got off lightly! You must have an exceptionally well-behaved child.

I have a good income and limited outgoings so I spend on holidays and theatre mainly. Those are my priorities.

I like a glass of prosecco before and during the performance which is £26 at the Palace Theatre. It's ridiculous. Add to it drinks for dc (so 4 fantas if we drink before and at interval) plus dh has a coffee. The bill is generally £50-60 . On top of £200-£300 of tickets.

It's a lot but we don't do it too often.

The idea of sitting there parched doesn't occur to us. You get frisked for drinks on the way in so you can't take your own.

Theatres are always packed.

That is a lot. We only paid £6 for a sausage sandwich (large hot dog size) and £10 for a pie, chips, peas and gravy inside a football stadium at the weekend. It fed all 3 of us for lunch.

It's part of their business model. That's why cheap seats were available. If you got such a cheap seat and were allowed to take a picnic in, you were doing well. You aren't just paying for the ice cream but all the running costs of the cafe being there to sell it to you.

Believe me nobody in hospitality or events is raking it in these days. All their wages and overhead costs have increased. It's obvious that places like cinemas are making their margins on refreshments, because people won't pay an extra £5 on the ticket (as that's where it's competitive) but will spend £50 on drinks and snacks once they are there.

If you want a cheap ice cream, better to stay at home and buy it from the co op!

You're saying this happened on a very rare day out, so I think you're being pretty mean to call your husband an idiot for treating himself and your child. It was part of a day out, and holding off for an ice cream at home wouldn't have been as fun. I agree £8 is expensive for an ice cream, but this was a very rare treat decided on in the moment. I couldn't get upset about it.

Is the 4 year old not yours, the way you keep saying the kid like the child is nothing to do with you is a little strange.

as is saying it was my husband not me, your husband clearly felt it was fine, he even bought himself one, bought drinks, and if you’re married then I assume it’s ultimately all joint money,

you do seem tight, enjoying what your husband bought, but complaining and wanting others to say no,

it won’t be prices will come down if everyone refuses, it will be no one will rent a pitch,

Husband took little one off for a promised ice cream (it was hot and young children love an ice cream treat)

Thank God you clarified that young children love an ice cream treat; I thought that most people thought ice cream akin to dog shit.

Yanbu op. These prices are ridiculous and the vendors are greedy.

And people who " can easily afford it" ...have a medal for being tone deaf.

Prices at the cricket were actually reasonable I thought last week, £6.50 for thatchers, £5 for 2 scoops of local excellent ice cream, we took food with us which most venues don’t allow so another plus point for cricket.

local football ground is similarly priced but big stadiums like principality or areas like the nec, ouch, a pound or more extra per item.

local mr whippy to me is £5 for a 99, I don’t like it, we buy ice cream from the supermarket

It's not the price of the food you are paying for; it's the convenience and venue which costs. You can't expect supermarket or icecream van prices. There are much more overheads at a venue like a cricket ground that you are probably not aware of. They have to cover their costs somehow.

Your husband still paid so obviously he is prepared to pay the prices. Watch the cricket on tv at home if you want to eat cheap icecreams!

You bought drinks and ice cream i don't think you can complain much tbh. .people go to events and can decide if they want refreshments or not you. Chose to have some.

When Cornettos first came out in the UK, at school we used to sing a parody of the advert "Just one Cornetto, give it to me, you must be joking, they're 30p"

I laugh now at the effects of inflation on that version. We thought 30p was an absolute fortune for an ice cream in those days. You could get a bog standard ice cream for 10p.

I've also got a book of a policeman's memoirs and he mentions having a quiet word with an ice cream seller (in the 70s) who was charging unsuspecting Japanese tourists £1 per ice cream cone.

I love how funny those things sound 50 years later.

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

@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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

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.