fezzer

It looks like Qatar has finally gone ahead with their "Sin Tax" on Alcohol, Energy Drinks, Cigarettes and soft drinks. 100% increase on the already expensive price of alcohol is going to hit hard. From a list going around the whatsapp groups, a 24 pack of Heineken cans goes up from 255 QAR to 510 QAR - ouch. Will this mean the start of 1000 QAR brunches, or the start of a very different Qatar?

DOHDUBMAN

Seems a very silly move by Qatar. I dont see how the restaurants and bars will manage to stay open. I highly doubt that they will just double their prices also to keep there profit margin so high.

https://news.sky.com/story/alcohol-p...orced-11595884

I'm not 100% on this but i think this would make Qatar the words most expensive place to buy a beer now.

Millhouse

amy77

I'm guessing it means that the blockade is hitting them really hard, more than they would care to admit, and they're going to enormous lengths to make sure the impacts are not absorbed by the nationals, but are instead passed on to the expats.

As usual, it's extremely short-sighted - they're risking some of their best bars and restaurants and even hotels being shut down ahead of 2022 (unless the hospitality industry chooses to suck it up for the next 3 years with the hope of making a huge profit in 2022).

Millhouse

nonthaburi

Time to start brewing!

Standanista

Could well be, although equally could be a sop to the Saudis as part of greater machinations taking place off camera.

It will be interesting to see how bar prices settle out given the relative elasticities of supply and demand. QAR 100 pints they can forget. The price of a 330ml bottle of Stella bought in a case from QDC has gone up QAR 8 a bottle to QAR 16. The same sold individually in Trader Vic's (happy hour) for QAR 30 in December.

scrubbedexpat141

Take Heineken, 330m x 24 cans, 384 Riyals.

That's 7,920ml or 16.7 pints (imperial).
384 QAR is £82.86 (considering the worthless pound, this would have been mid 60s pre-Brexit).
That makes it under a fiver a pint.

Having just spent 12 days in the UK, I can assure you that you'd have to go up North or to an undesirable pub to get a pint of something 'premium' like Heineken for under a fiver.

Millhouse

scrubbedexpat141

Yes and no, it's just the environment and service. In a lot of bars I could argue that both are shit and therefore better at home.

I wonder what bar prices have done in Qatar. If they've barely moved because of the logic of tax doubling and not price then it will only affect the home-drinkers.

fezzer

Looks like bar prices haven't risen as much as expected. The Rose and Thistle has said there's an average increase to drink prices of 20%. The Belgium cafe is absorbing the cost (for now). Kempinski brunch going up from 450 to 520qar (doubling the difference in cost between the non-alcoholic and alcoholic option). Westin brunch still 430qar.

DOHDUBMAN

Shangri-la have just announced (We will take the cost for you) with a cheery flyer. This was the first hotel to flat out say its going to be a 100% increase.
Also not really taking the cost they are just lowering there massive profit.

Seems to be a bit of a knock on effect where all the bars are agreeing to not really increase prices or if so only by a small margin. Brings alcohol prices in Doha to roughly what it was 5 years ago when there was much less competition.

Pongo

DOHDUBMAN

Thats Belgian bar (best all day happy hour in town) confirmed that happy hour will be fully cancelled from today. Alas no more cheap(ish)beers for residents

Johnnyboy11

Look to the skies to find the answer, QDCs parent company is Qatar Airways who reported a very large loss in March last year and are under increasing pressure from US carriers over alleged state subsidies.

https://www.google.com/search?client...bution+company
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/30/unde...its-books.html

What's your contingecy plan if QA goes under, jet-ski to Oman?