This picture is not representative of the experience. Neither of us had Ginger Ale and the pop wasn't from a can. I just like pictures.

Watching football in a bar it was only appropriate to order a beer and wings. Thankfully it is happy hour (another rant, it should be called happy day or happy hours) all day on Sunday so the wings were cheap, (so were the mini burgers and they were delicious). The only issue was that, having to go back to work after and requiring a clear head, abstaining from beer was the best option for me;therefore, I opted for pop.

Our food came, our drinks came (my second iced tea was crazy week as the syrup was running out), we ate, we watched, we asked for our bill. $7 for each entree (happy hour indeed) of which we had two, and the bill is around $22. What’s going on there we asked? The answer is that pop and Hudson’s Canadian Tap house is $3.25! Bend me backward, that’s steep. I’m interested to know what Brewser’s charges but according to Kelsey’s website they charge $2.79 for bottomless pop (still really steep). It would have been 75 cents more to get a beer at Hudson’s, what is this europe?!

I understand that drink sales are where the money is made but the mark-up on soda (when it’s literally pennies a glass) is out of control! Something about the three dollar threshold; once you get over that you think to yourself, I could buy so much for $3. I could, for example, buy a case of pop if on sale or I could buy one and a half coffee’s. You can provide more examples of $3 purchases in the comments if you so desire.

So, I’m not going to buy soda from restaurants (unless I’m out of control desperate or it’s Red Robbin Dr. Pepper, damn that’s good fountain pop). The problem, as I see it, is that by pricing your cheap item so unreasonably the rest of your menu is devalued and somewhat invalidated. If a restaurant where to charge a reasonable fee for items that you know the cost of (eg. pop, coffee, ice cream) then the consumer would assume that all the other prices were in line with actual costs. It’s a crazy idea but it just might work. If my coffee cost a dollar but my calamari cost $12 I’d be okay with it because I never buy calamari and have no idea what it costs I’ll just assume it’s fair.

So, I’m sure it’s not just Hudson’s but that $3 factor kicked in and I was incensed. The worst part is that I’m willing to pay for something if I know the price but I didn’t see the price of fountain soda indicated on their menu. I bought something assuming a certain price range based on previously socialized experience and what I received didn’t fit within my range of acceptability.

So, Hudson’s, the food was good (though slow because of football, a busy bar, and lack of servers), the atmosphere was fine, but either lower your pop prices or start making it a little well known to customers. Perhaps servers could say, “just so you know, pop is $3.25 and for only 75 cents more you could be on your way to a buzz.”

But, that’s just my 325 cents.