This will be £9.40 please love” – words you never, ever want to hear when you order a pint. But if you have the courage to buy one from the Wardour Street branch of O’Neill’s in London’s Soho, you should hear about them. However, truth be told, this eye-watering amount will only be asked of you at certain times of the night. Yes, that’s right – Irish chain deals with “surge pricing”.

So far this capitalist, market-driven form of price gouging has largely remained in the transportation field. This is generally limited to taxi companies like Uber and Lyft; the idea is to literally embody the principle of supply and demand. When more people book a taxi, that is, when there is a “surge” in demand, the price of a taxi reservation increases accordingly.

However, it is in the same family as “smart” and “dynamic” pricing, which are increasingly used. has infiltrated almost every aspect of modern life. This is like surge pricing, where the cost of something reflects how popular it is on a particular date or time. This is standard practice for many hotels and Airbnbs, as well as airlines; An algorithm is applied to determine how much you will be charged for a flight or room. It is unlikely that a human will be involved in this process. At this stage, artificial intelligence is in the driver’s seat.

Even businesses like Amazon do this, although customers are less likely to notice it; There are millions of price changes every day; This is equivalent to one change every 10 minutes for each product. From 2025 fast food will also come into play: Last year, Wendy’s new CEO announced that the chain would “begin testing dynamic pricing and daypart offerings, as well as more advanced features like AI-powered menu changes and suggested sales.”

Meanwhile, musicians and ticketing sites have received much more attention and condemnation for charging large sums of money for concerts using this technique. Oasis used Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing The model for their reunion tour in 2025 is tease the fans The person who queued for hours online only to find out when they got to the checkout that the ticket price had more than doubled (from £135 to £355).

The issue attracted so much attention that it was discussed in parliament with the proposal to introduce maximum ticket prices. Culture minister Lisa Nandy said she wanted to make sure tickets were sold at “fair prices” and that it was “disheartening to see prices so high beyond casual fans”. Even The European Commission stepped inAmid the outrage, an acting spokesperson announced that EU consumer law on digital justice was working on a “compliance check”.

Now it’s O’Neill’s turn to fuel the criticism. The venue on Wardour Street charges the still-pretty regular price of £7.40 for a pint of Brewdog IPA, which goes up to the aforementioned £9.40 until 10pm. Even soft drinks aren’t exempt, with a 500ml bottle of Budweiser going from £6.06 to £8.05; Once the time reaches 10pm, water goes from £2.15 to £3.15.

“Dynamic pricing varies from site to site as it reflects local market conditions, but temporary price increases tend to reflect the need to offset additional costs, for example at times when door security is required,” a spokesman for Mitchells & said. Butlers, the company that owns O’Neill’s, said by way of explanation.

Although rare, the strategy is unfortunately not specific to this specific bar. Last year, England’s largest pub company, Stonegate Group, came under criticism for this reason. Adding 20p to the price of a pint during busy periods such as weekends. The business, which owns chains including Slug and Lettuce and Yates, claimed making drinks more expensive was merely an attempt to cover the cost of additional staff and cleaning at busy times.

“Our dynamic pricing across the managed business includes the ability to offer guests a variety of promotions, including happy hours, one-for-one cocktails, and discounts on food and beverage items at different times on different days throughout the week.” the spokesman said at the time. “This flexibility may, on occasion, mean that prices may increase marginally in certain pubs and bars due to increased cost demands on the business and additional staffing or licensing requirements, such as additional door team members.”

At least the experts at O’Neill’s salon are less than impressed with the way surge pricing is advertised — or rather, Negative advertising – to customers. Consumer rights expert Scott Dixon said: Telegram “more transparency” is needed.

Taking aim at the Wardour Street branch’s failure to mention any of the “increase” prices on the menu, he said: “Price policies are confidential and consumers are misled into purchasing decisions they would not otherwise make.” or elsewhere. Instead, he relies on an A4 sheet of paper at the end of the bar saying “We operate a variable price list at this venue” to do the job of informing customers. “This is immoral and will rightly put customers off,” Dixon said.

I can’t help but agree. Although an O’Neill’s in central London wouldn’t be my first stop for after-work wine, it certainly won’t be now. And neither will any other place that rips off customers who dare to buy drinks at a popular time of day.

The saddest part is that the British pub, our most beloved institution and one of the few institutions that can truly unite the country in patriotism, is already under threat. Data released in 2024 reveals that 239 pubs in England and Wales were demolished or converted for other purposes in the first three months of the year. equivalent to 80 per month. Official government statistics show a 56 percent increase in annual closures. Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer and Pub Association, blamed the poor results on high energy costs, food and drink inflation, as well as high taxes.

While it’s understandable that bars would have to resort to extreme measures to keep the lights on under such conditions, surely the answer isn’t to follow Uber or Amazon’s playbook? The idea that an algorithm makes our decisions is starkly at odds with the reality that bars have long filled the role of churches, acting as the heart, soul and social center of communities across the nation. There is something distinctly bleak about the division of everything into “peak” and “off-peak”; National Rail Friends instead of enjoying a trip, as if someone were trying to avoid having to sell their kidney to be able to buy a train ticket through the National Rail website.

We may have had to accept this insult. £7 pint. So, is there a price increase in drinks? I’m afraid this is too bitter a pain to swallow.