The Great Pittsburgh Wine Rip-off (Oakland: 2014, homes, to buy)

[UKyank]

Ok, not that exciting but interesting nonetheless (apart from the very odd choice not to name names in the article)
Tastings: Gouging by the glass of wine - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[Aqua Teen Carl]

And beer rip off.

And liquor rip off.

And absurd laws.

....and so on.

While this issue has been somewhat addressed here in the past I think that it's good that the Post Gazette brought part of the problem to the forefront. It's pretty absurd that such a "livable city" destroys the wallets of anyone who wants to have an alcoholic beverage while outside of their homes. It's all part of the racket I guess.

[Moby Hick]

They way they did the math seemed strange to me.

A way to test this is to take the PLCB licensee cost of a bottle and divide by 31 percent, or .31, to get a target price for the restaurant consumer.

It seems to me a very convoluted way to avoid saying that the normal mark-up on wine is 322%.

[okaydorothy]

I cannot believe the price of a glass of wine. $10 in two of the places I frequent from work.

[sskink]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

I cannot believe the price of a glass of wine. $10 in two of the places I frequent from work.

Depending on the wine, $10 per glass can be a fair price. But not for the wines cited in that article.

I don't know a ton about wines, but if one does any wine shopping at all, one should know that Marques de Cacera and J. Lohr are $10 bottles and should sell for $5-$6/glass tops. They're very visible wines at the larger PLCB stores.

I'd love to know which "popular chef-owned restaurant" does the $35 wine flight with "common" wines. That's not doing anything to help our restaurant scene.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by okaydorothy

$10 in two of the places I frequent from work.

I don't want to tell you how to live, but if I were drinking at work, I'd stick with vodka to make it harder to detect.

[erieguy]

Sounds like a consumer issue/non-issue. As long as people pay, bars/restaurants will continue to charge more. Can't blame the establishment/s for making as much as they can when there's a demand.

[Aqua Teen Carl]

Originally Posted by erieguy

Sounds like a consumer issue/non-issue. As long as people pay, bars/restaurants will continue to charge more. Can't blame the restaurant/s for making as much as they can when there's a demand.

Don't restaurants have to buy their wine from the PLCB as well?

Considering that such organizations as PLCB are true examples of socialism I don't think this can be chalked up to supply and demand so easily.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

Don't restaurants have to buy their wine from the PLCB as well?

Considering that such organizations as PLCB are true examples of socialism I don't think this can be chalked up to supply and demand so easily.

They do (with a 10% discount), but the article discusses the mark-up from the retail price to the restaurant price in Pittsburgh and compares it in percentage terms to the same mark-up common in other places. In other words, even allowing for the higher costs of wine when Pittsburgh restaurants purchase their wine, the mark-up is large.

[Moby Hick]

By the way, if people want to get a table wine without paying a big mark-up, the Union Grill in Oakland has a reasonable selection of $10 a bottle wines.