Beer on the terrace is about 10% more expensive than last year

Summer weather is approaching and Dutch residents look forward to long afternoons spent on their terraces. However, you might be shocked by the higher drink prices compared to last year. Beer on the terrace is about 10 percent more expensive than last summer, but prices vary from municipality to municipality. RTL News Report after surveying catering entrepreneurs.

John Paulus, owner of Forum and Paulus cafés in Maastricht, estimates the price increase for beer on the terrace is about 10%. And other menu items are getting more expensive, he told the station. “It’s very difficult to give a general image.” Cities are generally more expensive than small towns, and traditional brown bars are less willing to raise prices than popular places.

Paulus said catering entrepreneurs don’t want to incur higher costs on consumers, but they have few options. “I feel like we can’t really make it,” he said. For many businesses, costs are spiraling out of control.Paulus said his company’s expenses increased by 15%, but the entrepreneur only give half to the customer. “There is restraint, but margins are squeezed.”

As a result, beer prices have risen to well over €3 in many catering establishments. Craft beer is even more expensive.

According to Paulus, many entrepreneurs find creative ways to ease customer pain. For example, some people deliberately underprice some portions of Bitterballen in the hope that they will buy a drink with it. Some stores have cheaper prices for bottles of wine.

Trade group KHN admitted that entrepreneurs struggled to raise prices high enough to keep them afloat, but not enough to scare customers. A spokeswoman told RTL that many catering entrepreneurs aren’t making a lot of money.

on tuesday, Dutch statistics Confirmed the initial assumption. Inflation rose to 6.1% in May, compared to a year ago. This is higher than April’s 5.2% and March’s 4.4%.

Prices for alcoholic beverages and cigarettes in the Netherlands rose by 4.1% compared to May last year. However, prices in the restaurant, cafe and dancehall categories rose by 7.9%.