Rising Prices

[Artemis]

Do you ever have that feeling where the price of something smacks you in the face and leaves you astonished and reminiscing about the time it only cost tuppence hayp'nee?

Here's an opportunity to record your surprise and/or shock at how expensive things are, in relation to how much they used to be.

I was at the Odeon cinema today to watch the disappointing 'Oceans 13' and was flabbergasted to discover it now costs an adult £8 a ticket for an evening showing of a film. £8!! And refreshments are invariably over five quid if you want a drink as well. I remember when it cost £4.50, and that was considered boarderline pricey.

A mega rider weekly bus ticket around Manchester now costs £9.50!

I remember when a packet of Polos cost you 8p.

[Small Man Big Horse]

2000 AD. When I used to buy it, it was only about 22p, and out of boredom the other day I picked a new issue you up in WH Smiths and now it's £1.75. I know it's not that much of a rise considering I haven't read it for at least a decade, but it seemed to be such a huge rise to me at the time, especially considering the content these days.

[Rev]

On a similar note, the prices of magazines related to computer/video games these days are absurd.  It's because you're paying for that cover disc full of stuff that you could download for nothing, of course, but Christ.  A fiver for a magazine that's mainly adverts? 

[Funcrusher]

Don't really go to gigs much these days, but passing The Forum in Kentish Town the other day I noticed that a lot of gigs there nowadays are in the £20-25 bracket, which used to be what you paid to see something at Wembley Arena.

[rudi]

Believe me, this is a soul-crushingly dull subject.

You just don't realise it now because you're young, but will be very embarrassed should this ever be archived and brought up in, say, five years when you're sick to fucking death of people 'reminding' you of when (in my case) The Beano was 12p, Mars Bars were bigger and cheaper, you could afford to get on the Property Ladder, Beer was under £2 and other cod-Kaye/your dad type shite.

Kill it. Kill it now.


(Sorry Art - I normally love your posts, but if you brought this up in my company I'd be fighting the urge to 'accidentally' sneeze on your shirt. x)

[Artemis]

Believe me, this is a soul-crushingly dull subject.

Kill it. Kill it now.

In hindsight, I already agree with you. This is an unforgivably dull thread. I can't kill it though. There's no option.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Beer was under £2

Ah, I remember the days of paying £1.65 for a pint of Skol in my local pub. Actually considering that was 15 years ago, I suppose it's not too bad really.

Anyhoo, I like this kind of nostalgia thread, sorry Rudi.

[chocky909]

Don't really go to gigs much these days, but passing The Forum in Kentish Town the other day I noticed that a lot of gigs there nowadays are in the £20-25 bracket, which used to be what you paid to see something at Wembley Arena.

Gig tickets I've bought recently have cost £20 + £3.25 (booking fee) + £4.80 (transaction fee) each. That's a 40% surcharge. Disgusting.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Prostitutes charge way too much these days if you ask me. Time was that you could get a cheap suck and fuck in Soho for about a tenner (and about three quid if you didn't mind doing a crackwhore on a matress in a wood somewhere), but now it's about fifty quid plus. Tsk, I don't know, inflation today, etc.

[rudi]

Gig tickets I've bought recently have cost £20 + £3.25 (booking fee) + £4.80 (transaction fee) each. That's a 40% surcharge. Disgusting.

Ah - now - bitching about 'booking fees' - there's a subject worth considering.

"Of course I booked from you - you're the only place I can buy them. Why am I paying MORE for this so-called priviledge??"

[Artemis]

Jesus, rudi - wait until you can't pay your mortgage or you're made redundant!!

[rudi]

Jesus, rudi - wait until you can't pay your mortgage or you're made redundant!!

Both happened you lairy cunt.

If I wasn't such a fan I'd kick you in your metaphorical labia, cheeky.

[Steve Lampkins]

I was at the Odeon cinema today to watch the disappointing 'Oceans 13' and was flabbergasted to discover it now costs an adult £8 a ticket for an evening showing of a film. £8!! And refreshments are invariably over five quid if you want a drink as well. I remember when it cost £4.50, and that was considered boarderline pricey.

In the early 90s, a local cinema wasn't doing so well - at one point, tickets were a pound each. Unfortunately it only lasted another year before being forced out of business. I think it was the Warner multiplex that did it in. Great times though.

[Lady Beaner]

Going to the latest bar that my sister is running and asking her much a pint of piss (Fosters) was... £3.30. WHAT?! That's fucking insane. Shurely shome mishtake? I very rarely drink pints, but is that how much they usually cost in London nowadays?!

[Artemis]

That sounds about right for the big smoke, Lady. I'd be happy with that.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

£8 for a cinema ticket? Where do you live? 2015?

[gazzyk1ns]

£3.30 for a pint isn't just big smoke prices though, is it, I've heard a lot of people say that. I went out in London for the first time in a couple of years the other week, and drinks were the same as they are around here, obviously we didn't go anywhere too pretentious though. My age means that I first started being able to drink in pubs 10 years ago, and an ale was £1.65 with the strong continental option being £2.10. If you put it as "A quid in a decade isn't too bad really" then it sounds... well, er, not too bad really, but then if you look at the actual current situation in isolation, which is that you have to pay £3.30 for one bog-standard pint of beer, then it's a bit shit.

Laughably, Ipswich only got "proper cinemas" in about 1998, before that it was a horrible late 80s Odeon with seats almost like you get on a bus. I've still got a ticket stub from something like Speed (I was only 12, I felt like a king seeing that in the cinema) knocking about, it was £2.60 I think.

The price of fish and chips surprised me the other day, but I almost never get them so it was to be expected really. I got 3 portions (cod and chips OBVIOUSLY, what's wrong with you, aren't you British!?) and the bloke should have just said "Look mate, you might as well give me fifteen quid, yeah, let's not bother messing about here.".

[Funcrusher]

£8 for a cinema ticket? Where do you live? 2015?

I think it's at least £12 to see a film in Leicester Square these days.

[The Duck Man]

Whenever I return home from the student-prices of Aberystwyth to the wealthy Tory heartland of the New Forest, it always astonishes me for a while that I have to pay £2:60 for a pint of Coke in my local.* In a supermarket I can buy 2 litres of it for half that price.

*I don't drink

[SetToStun]

Going to the latest bar that my sister is running and asking her much a pint of piss (Fosters) was... £3.30. WHAT?! That's fucking insane. Shurely shome mishtake? I very rarely drink pints, but is that how much they usually cost in London nowadays?!

It's certainly getting that way round here (EC3/E1). In fact it's already there in some pubs, although not the good ones, generally, so it's still under £3pp for me. But only just.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

I didn't believe you, I went to the Odeon website, to see Pirates of the Caribbean in Leicester Square this afternoon it's £12.50, £9 for under 15s. And those are the cheapest prices! For that price you might as well buy the DVD.

Living in the regions has it's advantages, clearly.

[hoverdonkey]

I just bought a birthday card and Q magazine (I buy it once a year) and it cost me £9. Nine English pounds for a magazine and birthday card.

[Dark Sky]

The other month I popped into a little newsagents in Nottingham to buy a can of Tango and then had a brief argument with the shopkeeper about its price of 70p.

SEVENTY PENCE FOR A CAN?!?!

Cans cost forty pence, or maybe fifty pence from a machine.  Seventy pence?! Yargh!!!

[thugler]

It's most noticable when you go abroad to certain places in europe and elsewhere, and most things are a good deal cheaper.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Whenever I return home from the student-prices of Aberystwyth to the wealthy Tory heartland of the New Forest, it always astonishes me for a while that I have to pay £2:60 for a pint of Coke in my local.* In a supermarket I can buy 2 litres of it for half that price.

*I don't drink

It's not even real coke. It's just Soda Stream type stuff mixed with carbonated water. The cheek.

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Pints costing 3 or 4 quid...yes, that always strikes me as ridiculous. It's turned 'going down the pub' from a casual affair into a Special Treat; something you have to budget for. Or at least stress out about to some extent.

Fosters is usually the cheapest option too.

[glitch]

I didn't believe you, I went to the Odeon website, to see Pirates of the Caribbean in Leicester Square this afternoon it's £12.50, £9 for under 15s. And those are the cheapest prices! For that price you might as well buy the DVD.

Living in the regions has it's advantages, clearly.

But then you don't get the lovely Prince Charles cinema, just off Leicester Square, doing films for a quid on Fridays.

There's a lovely indie cinema in Bethnal Green that also does £4 Wednesdays or something.

They're the only places I go to see a film in London, everywhere else can fuck right off.

[chocky909]

I just bought a birthday card and Q magazine (I buy it once a year) and it cost me £9. Nine English pounds for a magazine and birthday card.

Peckham Multiplex is £3.99 all day on Mondays up to a maximum of £5.99 for after 7PM Friday to Sunday. Not too bad. Was going to catch Spiderman today but am extremely ill.

I am sweating as I write this.

[Small Man Big Horse]

But then you don't get the lovely Prince Charles cinema, just off Leicester Square, doing films for a quid on Fridays.

There's a lovely indie cinema in Bethnal Green that also does £4 Wednesdays or something.

They're the only places I go to see a film in London, everywhere else can fuck right off.

The Kilburn Tricycle always has cheap screenings on Friday afternoon, and the Empire in Leicester Square is around the £6 mark before 5pm. It's always worth picking up Time Out and looking through their listings to find the cheaper cinemas.

[Rev]

Leicestershire Square is a special case, though.  If you go to an evening showing there, you're getting fleeced like an American tourist no matter who you are.  I've always accepted that as being the case, so haven't really noticed any major increase in the ticket prices over the years.  It's always been a bit more than it should be.

The price of a pint, though...  this barometer of the 'cost of living' in an area seems to be getting a little too settled throughout the regions.  I was charged £3.20 for a pint in a shithole pub in Sheffield about a year ago, and felt like screaming 'I'm sorry, where the FUCK do you think you are?'