Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Been to alsancak bar today to see all drinks bumped up since last week. Again prices in supermarkets still the same so why the hike. Price disparity at it again. Cider up from 120 to 150 beer up from 100 to 120 .yet cider has and still is cheaper to buy than beer.
Enough is enough. Not going to go there again. Rip off .

As I have just remarked in my last message re Water Bill, Anyone living in Alsancak is supposedly Richer than other towns.

You want to head out Tatlisu/Esentepe way then, we must be absolutely loaded! In fairness, I can't talk about bar prices, haven't a clue, just going on eating out pricing, and not fine dining by any manner of means, but my pocket feels that I am doing the latter.

Apparently suppliers have increased their prices to bars and restaurants

Greedy so and so's. Must be hard enough trying to run bar/restaurant at the moment with folk keeping a tighter rein on pursestrings.

Beer gone up to minimum of a fiver a pint in UK last week according to UK paper.

£2,20 for lager in my home town. Wetherspoons. £2.50 most other bars. As of today. Lancashire of course. Just bought a cider in supermarket 36 tl for a 500 ml can here. So selling at 150 is taking the mickey.

Yep, taking the Mickey. People will just avoid

Frugal90, or be like me and give up drinking. HOWEVER the price being asked for small bottles of water in some places, is more pro rata than the beer.

Totally agree, water yesterday in an Esentepe resturant 80tl only 18 in dima? But set menu had gone up 150 tl in week, so no tip left and won't return. Think that's what many are doing. Just fed up with being ripped off.

Seems to me many of you don't want bars and restaurants to run at a profit... Comparison between supermarket prices and restaurants is pretty daft. They have all the overheads, taxes, rent, rates, water, gas, electricity, wages, cleaners, staff permits, on and on... I suggest you try running a business here before you gripe incessantly because it's pointless isn't it?

benjaminbutton wrote: ↑

Fri 20 Jun 2025 1:14 pm

Beer gone up to minimum of a fiver a pint in UK last week according to UK paper.

For some uk papers the world begins and ends in the south east!

Totally with you and your comments Groucho... Well said!

Agree Groucho, although I have really moaned about price of a cup of coffee in the past, it's quite some mark up in some places and I just avoid now. However in this heat, water it is. Look at the mark up in UK on a glass of wine, compared to buying a bottle in a supermarket....it's around the same. Doesn't stop me having a glass if I want one, so long as I'm not driving. Here, I am practically always driving, so no idea of price of alcohol in bars/restaurants.

But running a business is difficult anywhere, not just here! A business must make a profit or it will close, a bar that sells just drinks buys cheap and sells at a profit so I expect to pay more, everyone should! But there is a difference between a fair profit and profiteering! Surely the supermarkets have similar outlays to cover minus serving you the drink you pay for? If you want cheap, go where it is cheap, if you want quality - and can find it anywhere here now - then you will pay extra for it. Not all are equal but it seems that all prices are, that is the problem!

Went to roxys yesterday . 10 of us. 50tl per drink cheaper than a bar a few yards down the road. So every round was 500 tl less. Times that by the 5/6drinks we all had. That's a big chunk.
Bar still made 65tl per drink . 650 tl per round etc etc. Need i go on. A fair profit against profiteering.

Can you explain your maths?

Ok. For instance . Cider 100tl. Which are 50tk each cheaper than the nearest bar.
10 people x 50tl saving is 500tl. Per round of drinks .bestmar supplying atc38 tl. So a profit of 62tl per drink. I know it is not that simple. My point was why be greedy and charge 150. Which is up 30tl per can from the week before

I dont own a business here.

But
Red tape
Rent
Taxes
Licenses
Company costs
Electric water rates
Taxes
Fitting out
Staff costs
Etc etc

Id suggest some people who are advocating their wisdom on what gross profit a bar should set its prices at should try running one...i certainly wouldnt .

Its only the like of bars in benidorm with high footfall that can make this work .there isnt enough demand here now for bargain loving brits.

Oh sorry i didnt grouchos comments just saw the first few posts from before...anyway i agree

Reyntj wrote: ↑

Mon 23 Jun 2025 8:10 am

I dont own a business here.

But
Red tape
Rent
Taxes
Licenses
Company costs
Electric water rates
Taxes
Fitting out
Staff costs
Etc etc

Id suggest some people who are advocating their wisdom on what gross profit a bar should set its prices at should try running one...i certainly wouldnt .

Its only the like of bars in benidorm with high footfall that can make this work .there isnt enough demand here now for bargain loving brits.

Oh sorry i didnt grouchos comments just saw the first few posts from before...anyway i agree

Add to that the rent is paid in £ not TL which the bars earn

Reyntj wrote: ↑

Mon 23 Jun 2025 8:10 am

I dont own a business here.

But
Red tape
Rent
Taxes
Licenses
Company costs
Electric water rates
Taxes
Fitting out
Staff costs
Etc etc

Id suggest some people who are advocating their wisdom on what gross profit a bar should set its prices at should try running one...i certainly wouldnt .

Its only the like of bars in benidorm with high footfall that can make this work .there isnt enough demand here now for bargain loving brits.

Oh sorry i didnt grouchos comments just saw the first few posts from before...anyway i agree

Well said

Reyntj, I agree with you that I would not like to run a bar here either. Long time ago my TC friend told me the secret of Cypriot business - Ali and Muz have aircon shops next door to each other, Ali sells his at X price and Muz sells his at Y price which is cheaper than X. Very soon Muz sells all his stock, closes his shop and opens another one further away! Ali puts his prices up again and waits! Muz had retired now and Ali still has all his stock so he puts the price up again! The idea is that one day Ali will sell all his stock and make a huge profit! Who was right?

Another way of making money (or not) here. Ali buys his daughter a nail bar or ladies clothes or shoe shop, which appears to do quite well. One small block down and three months later Unsal buys his adoring daughter the same which does OK , but two months after that, 30/40/50% indirim signs appear in the first shop which closes down. So not having bothered to ascertain foot fall, parking spaces etc., shop two goes the way of shop one. More women sit outside these shops, chatting, smoking, drinking coffee, than they have customers in a month. If you talk to them, you find that masses of the girls have degrees, but are too lazy to work and Daddy has the money or works for the Government.

Strange really. Back in the day when I was self employed I worked all the hours going, but not here it seems.

BJB answered the question then - Ali must have been right because he must have made a huge profit in order to buy his daughter a Nail Bar - lol. Anyway, once again it comes down to footfall and how the bars/restaurants can increase it to survive!

Stop the needless profiteering, sell their products at an acceptable price that provides them with a profit and entices customers back in to stay longer! Honest profit making is acceptable to everyone, obvious profiteering reduces footfall dramatically! A fast buck is never the answer in a small business!

There is a mentality here that they would rather not do any business rather than not get as much as they think they are worth. You see it with rents where the landlords would rather have a place empty rather than rent it out for less of a rent. Likewise with cabs who would rather sit idle than reduce their fares. Volume seems to be an alien concept.
That said, running a bar like a restaurant involves a lot of overhead.
I know with restaurants in the U.K. set dish prices as 4 times the ingredients cost so as to make a profit given they have to cover rent, council tax, wages, utilities etc etc as well.
Obviously there is less labour involved in pouring a drink but I wouldn’t see a multiple of 3 times the ingredient cost as profiteering.

You are so right on the rather not do any business with some, ETS. A restaurant had been empty for over 2 years and earning zilch, lovely people take it on and make a success of things for a year or thereabouts. Landlord has greatly increased rent to a stupid amount. Result, they have moved on elsewhere and property lying empty again earning zilch. I honestly do not get the logic behind that at all, surely better to have something coming in than nothing, it wasn't as if the original rent was paltry. It's not the only instance of that I have heard in the past few months unfortunately.