Udon's most expensive bar

In the UK (where wages are a far greater cost factor than Thailand) it is generally agreed that the owner needs to make 100% markup on food & drink.
If you are happy to pay 160 baht for a large SM then good for you cryptic. However you were undoubtedly ripped off as that is about a 400% markup
Paying a competitive price for a product is prudence, not being miserly, just as boasting that you are happy to pay overinflated prices is foolish.

So what is a fair price for bar owners to survive.???

That is for any individual bar owner to decide. He knows what his overheads are, knows what his cost price is, knows what return he wants for his money.
If he has high costs because he is providing extras for his customers then he will (obviously) need to charge more. If customers believe that the extra service he is providing out weight the extra he is charging for his product then he will still have customers - if they don't then he won't!!
The final price that he/she comes up with has also to be seen in light of what similar businesses are charging. If the price is so out of line with his competitors then he is more than likely going to go broke!!!

Yes Pops. You can buy lots of cheap beer up there. A few weeks ago you drove a motor vehicle drunk and was castigated by your wife for doing so and you thought it was a joke, a drunk behind the wheel of a car, what lunacy, a menace on the roads.

And the same night another gent with glasses on dressed in white, videotaped prancing around like a startled gazelle. Hope he had enough brains not to drive.

Maybe if the beer was more expensive, people would not consume as much and have a happier lifestyle.

BobHelm wrote:In the UK (where wages are a far greater cost factor than Thailand) it is generally agreed that the owner needs to make 100% markup on food & drink.
If you are happy to pay 160 baht for a large SM then good for you cryptic. However you were undoubtedly ripped off as that is about a 400% markup
Paying a competitive price for a product is prudence, not being miserly, just as boasting that you are happy to pay overinflated prices is foolish.

Bob,

After about 20 years in the licensed trade, I can say that the figure of 100% markup on dry trade(Food) is about right, however, the mark-up on wet sales, is a little over the top, it is generally excepted that the mark up, is approx 30% + Vat, which would return about 12 - 18% net.

Anything over a 30% mark-up on drinks, would result in pricing the establishment out of the market.

Bangkok-Udon big differance, Bangers has got thousands upon thousands of possible visitors to some establishments, Udon well a lot less, if the owner can get the balance right they would survive, also location,service and in an Issan Town with not a massive amount of passing trade most definatley price....nothing to do with being a cheap-arse either..although i wouldn't split hairs over 5 baht.

beer monkey.
Why only a balance, why not 50 % net profit or more. Menaning would you be satisfied with only a balance if you had a business.?????

BobHelm wrote:In the UK (where wages are a far greater cost factor than Thailand) it is generally agreed that the owner needs to make 100% markup on food & drink.
If you are happy to pay 160 baht for a large SM then good for you cryptic. However you were undoubtedly ripped off as that is about a 400% markup
Paying a competitive price for a product is prudence, not being miserly, just as boasting that you are happy to pay overinflated prices is foolish.

Bob Helm,
They pay around 58B for a large San Mig, 400% mark up, dont think so, do your calculations again please. We were not ripped off, it was a fair price considering the surrounds location etc.

My friends and I are not foolish, we believe it was a good price. The owners I imagine would receive a profit of around 40-60b per bottle to put up with us. I hope you do not go down the track as a cheap charlie, I thought after reading many of your posts you if anyone was fair minded, and still think you are.

what is the rent at Vic Monument ?? its a hell of a lot more than Udon Bars.

Its a trendy area in BKK to meet for the students and lots of nice bars, Saxaphone Pub etc....

In Sukhumvitt now u pay 135 baht for a beer in Nana and approx 200 baht in Q bar,

Location location location = increased rent.

cryptic wrote:

handsome-Dane wrote:Are there any expensive bars in Udon.????????

Probably not. Just a lot of cheap charlies wanting to fill their guts with the cheapest beer and have no consideration for the bar owner. Yesterday we paid 160B for large San Mig at a small bar (non aircon and was cool) in Victory Monument (BKK), off the tourist track and we said the price was reasonable. The bar owner has to make some money.

The cheap charlies up Udon way want the bars to operate without a profit margin or force the owners to lower their prices to that effect. No wonder Isaan is known as the cheap charlie area of Thailand for farangs.

And its people that are willing to pay over inflated prices, that makes bar owners overcharge, ie rip people off.

I would suggest that if you think that not wanting to pay over the odds is being a cheap charlie, then I for one am happy to be classed as a cheap charlie!! pay over the odds if you are so inclined, - a fool and his money are soon parted

Thanks for the compliment cryptic.
My belief was that a large San Mig could be bought (by bar owners) for less 40 baht (about the same as Tiger) hence my calculation... Even at 59 baht it is still a pretty good markup though.
As I said if you are happy to pay 160 baht then good for you I just don't think many bars in Udon could survive if they tried to do that - unless they were offering seriously good additional reasons for people to go there. But, maybe, as BM said you were in BKK & this is Udon.

Cant compare the prices in BKK and Udon. More expenses to be a business owner in BKK. But to yak yak about 10 or 15 bath extra for a beer sounds CC in my ears.

I pay what I believe to be a fair price, after all it is my Baht, my choice. If a bar owner does not have the foresight or business accumen to reasonably forcast the future I do not see it as my business to extract him from the mire.

Any bar owner who is paying Baht 58 wholesale for a large San Miguel beer deserves to go down the gurgler. Remember the wholesale price is much lower than what we see in BIG C, Tesco etc.

One of the problems with some of the bars in Udon is that the owners have come here from down south where higher prices are expected and so higher returns. Also their TG partener has convinced them that no matter how much they pay for a white elephant of a bar she can make it work.

If a bar owner has paid over the odds for a bar and cannot offload it and is bleeding financially then I suppose upping the prices is the only way to go.

Any Aussie would remember when Kerry packer sold Channel 7 to Alan Bond for a sh*t load of money then bought it back later for half a sh*t load. His comment at the time, "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime". I would say Alan Bond has been reincarnated a few times in Udon.

There are any number of well run bars in Udon who have worked out the ratio of cost to profit and will prosper. Others will fall by the wayside.

John

BobHelm,

I for one am not advocating BKK prices be paid in Udon for beer, some bars in Udon charge 100-120B which I think is a fair price. Any more and they would not get satisfied customers. Certainly the rents up your way would be cheaper for a start, but not utilities and staff IMO.

A new bar up your way, Factory I think, has large Leo for 39B, he pays 35B for it, now where is the sense in that !. Sure he will sell lots of Leo and for what, just to say I sell the cheapest beer in Udon and to get customers in the door.

cryptic wrote:BobHelm,

I for one am not advocating BKK prices be paid in Udon for beer, some bars in Udon charge 100-120B which I think is a fair price. Any more and they would not get satisfied customers. Certainly the rents up your way would be cheaper for a start, but not utilities and staff IMO.

A new bar up your way, Factory I think, has large Leo for 39B, he pays 35B for it, now where is the sense in that !. Sure he will sell lots of Leo and for what, just to say I sell the cheapest beer in Udon and to get customers in the door.

Bums on seats, not a bad thing, its called loss leaders, working on the assumption that people coming in for the loss leader, will spend on other commodities, in this case, food, which bears the highest profit margin, "Good business "