Monday, August 4, 2014

(Un) Happy Hour In British Columbia



Here in British Columbia, traditional Happy Hours have always been banned. Big Brother can't have us drinking too much now, can he?

Recently our liquor laws have been brought a little more up to date. We are now allowed to order a drink (if allowed) in a restaurant without ordering food to go with it, we can take a partial bottle of wine home from a restaurant and we can take our own bottle of wine (commercial, not home brewed) into a restaurant if the establishment allows it. Wine makers can have a booth and sell wine by the bottle in Farmers Markets.

They have also allowed "Happy Hours" so everyone immediately visualized 2 for 1 deals and cheap beer for an hour or two after work. Just like everyone else in civilized countries can! Bars were happy because this usually means that people will order appy's or stay for dinner and they will make more money, something the government should like.

Well, we should know by now that there are no gifts from our government. The legislation that allowed Happy Hours, also put a new minimum per ounce price on beer (25 cents per ounce) and liquor ($3 per oz). This means that a "pint" (we will talk about this in a minute) cannot sell for less than $5, Happy Hour or no Happy Hour. This is about fifty cents more than the previous regular price in many bars. So, in BC Government speak, beer costs more after the introduction of Happy Hour. If a bar wants to introduce a cheaper Happy Hour to attract customers then they will have to charge more for a pint during regular hours so they can reduce it to $5 for Happy Hour. Does this make sense to anyone?

On Friday they reduced the allowed sale price of beer to twenty cents an ounce but only if the serving is over 50 oz. This means the best deal is buying a 60 oz pitcher (3 pints) for $12 if your favorite bar wants to sell them for that. However, the new rules state there must be a minimum of three people sharing that pitcher so you and your buddy or a couple cannot order one. You have to order the $5 "pints" and pay the extra price per ounce. Thanks a lot!

Now we get to the "pint". In Canada we use Imperial Measurements when talking pints and quarts, meaning a "pint" is 20 oz. In the US, it is 16 oz, but that is not here, it is there. When you order a "pint" in Canada, you are ordering 20 oz. A Canadian pint, not an American or a Yugoslavian "pint".

The Vancouver Sun newspaper sent reporters out to drinking establishments in Vancouver with measuring cups and a credit card to order and measure "pints" (now there is a good job). They measured "pints" from many of the popular pubs and their results were surprising. Not one "pint" contained 20 oz. A couple were 18 oz and one was 14 oz. The rest were somewhere in between. Excuses ranged from, "'pint' is an expression describing the type of container, not the quantity of beer in it", to, "the glass only holds 20 oz if filled to the brim. Our servers could not carry them if they were that full and besides, there has to be room for the head".

What surprises me is that consumers put up with this. If you bought gas (or any other product) and only received 2/3 of what you ordered and paid for, you would call the cops, right? Why do we put up with it with beer? What if a "gallon" of milk came only 2/3 full and the grocer said, "No, no, "gallon" only describes the type of container, not the quantity of milk in it"?

And while we are on the topic, I wonder how many ounces are in the average 60 oz pitcher?

24 comments:

  1. And here I thought we had gone metric!

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  2. Enough to make your head spin - and not from drinking the beer. What ever happened to the days when a pint was a pint?

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    1. They used to regulate glass size but now they serve in any size glass they want. The most confusing is a "sleeve" which can be any size and it is hard to tell by looking how much you are getting. But a pint is a legal measurement.

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  3. Oh the days when beer was cheap. Most Happy hours I see here only give you 1/2 price appetizers.

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    1. Yes, I can remember ten and twenty cent size glasses. You gather with your friends, everyone throws a dollar on the table and you were good for the night.

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  4. I suspect this is a misguided attempt to deal with impaired driving.

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    1. You are right of course. Whatever happened to personal responsibility? This overpricing of short poured beer does however keep me out of bars for the most part.

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    2. I enjoy a pint or two, but always make sure someone else drives who isn't drinking or has only one. They still shouldn't short the pints.

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    3. This actually makes it harder to judge how much you have had. If I have a full pint that I nurse over an hour and then have a cup of coffee, I know (considering my weight and metabolism) that I am well under the legal blood alcohol limit and can drive home. If I am served a "short" pint then I might think I could have two. Maybe I am still under the limit, maybe not.

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  5. What ever happened to the Plimsoll Line? I think it was at only 8 ounces, bur all glasses had to contain that much beer.

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    1. Rod, you are way too young to remember those. Yes, there were lines on the $0.10 and $0.20 beer glasses and the beer had to reach that line (before the head). The waiter carried an extra glass on his tray and if the beer did not make the line, he would add a little from his extra glass when he served it. Back then you got what you paid for.

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    2. Hate to tell you, but I'm not that young, although I will admit to getting into the Legion underage with some fellows from my first job and experiencing the Plimsoll Line. I seem to remember tne cost going from 0.10 to 0.25 a glass the year I came of legal age. It was much harder to get drunk at Friday Lunches at the Skyline Pub in Richmond when it his a quarter a glass.

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    3. Was a quarter a glass. Sometimes I get very frustrated with Auto-Correct!

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    4. There were a couple of bars in Vancouver where, if you could see over the bar, they would serve you. A bunch of us used to go to the Dufferin where our favorite waiter would seat us at the table nearest the door and when the inspectors came in through the hotel entrance, he would give us the word and half of us at the table (the underage ones) would quickly leave. One time I did not leave and he told me to quit kidding around and to get out. No, I said, I am 21. BS, he said and made me show him my ID. It was the first time he had ever asked for it in the three years I had been going in there and sitting at his station. I guess we behaved ourselves, gave him tips and looked older.

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  6. Yeah. Welcome to Canada. We have far too many rules here...

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    1. Some rules are good, some bad, this is a bad one.

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  7. Another reason to spend more time in Mexico.

    I was stationed in Maine when I was in the Navy back in the 60s. They had "Blue Laws" such as - you can't stand or walk with a drink in a bar or restaurant - if you want to change tables a waitperson has to move your drink for you - and - you can't have a drink in your own front yard.

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    1. Those same rules were in place here in BC for a long time. One bar I went to when I was young had a no changing tables rule. They called it "Table Hopping". I am not sure what was bad about it. And yes, no drinking in view of the public. Restraunts could have sidewalk tables but no drinking out there.

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  8. NO WAY could I live under that iron hand! Being a libertarian I reject most authority - certainly abhor the greedy, boot-on-neck regime you describe. Mexico seems to be the most free country in North America - Dangerous perhaps - FREE for sure!

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    1. John, I don't mind authority when they set the speed limit in front of a school but when they legislate the price per ounce of booze? No thanks!

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  9. It's so unbelievable It's funny! Although the job of checking would be a good one! During our stay in San Antonio we ate out with some friends we hadn't seen. A Dos XX was $9.50. Glad I didn't order that. Amazing what has happened with beer, wine and booze over the years! I might have to start sipping at happy hour!

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    1. $9.50 for a DosXX! My God! After tip it would be $11. Obviously the problem is not only in Canada.

      Another Blogger was in Portland OR and a Happy Hour pint of Rainier Beer (Local WA brand) was $1,50. If the doom and gloomers were correct there would be lineups of potential drunks getting this bargain. In actuality, few people were drinking the sale price beer but chose the more expensive and tastier craft beers. They were sippers, not guzzlers.

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  10. Governments do have a way of sticking spokes in our wheels, don't they? Some government employees are forever trying to justify their jobs and these idiotic rules seem to come from that idleness. It seems that governments (Federal, Provincial and Municipal) have long forgotten what their core tasks should be.

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