November 6, 2002

1:41 PM

Election results got you down? Feel like drowning your sorrows, but don't have much to spend? If you're in Athens, GA, you can use the beerometer, thoughtfully provided by the local mainstream newspaper, to get the most beer for your buck.
posted by ewagoner (20 comments total)

partytime at loco's
posted by Peter H at 1:54 PM on November 6, 2002

One of the neatest beer price-related activities was from some documentary I once saw on television.

Forgive my lack of details, but some bar somewhere sold beer Wall Street style. A computer kept track of the beer sales, and it updated the price of beer every 15 minutes. Beer that wasn't selling well (most likely Milwaukee's "Best") would lower in price, and better selling beer (I would guess Shiner Bock) would raise in price.

A constantly updating stock ticker would keep tabs of the price above the bar. Watching the prices tinker up and down seemed almost as fun as watching sports.

I dream of finding this bar one day.
posted by mychai at 1:56 PM on November 6, 2002

If beer doesn't make you feel better, try taking it out on the cats.
posted by whatzit at 1:59 PM on November 6, 2002

Beer sweet sweet, beer.
posted by mr. man at 2:02 PM on November 6, 2002

Gr, sloppy commenting. Cat Bowling requires Flash, and I got it this morning from GaelFC's weblog.
posted by whatzit at 2:02 PM on November 6, 2002

I'm in Athens. Guess I should go drink then.
posted by hank_14 at 2:04 PM on November 6, 2002

I'm in Athens. Guess I should go drink then.
I was unaware there was anything else to do in Athens, even if I am one of those bluesky/starbucks yuppies
posted by jmd82 at 2:10 PM on November 6, 2002

mychai, you want the Market Bar.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 2:18 PM on November 6, 2002

mychai: Try London's Market Bar (also, software). Discussed as an example of dynamic pricing.
posted by dhartung at 2:18 PM on November 6, 2002

Although nice links about the Market Bar in the comments, many of us aren't in Athens, GA (albeit I'm an hour away). Bad post, please try to consider the rest of the community.
posted by Stan Chin at 3:02 PM on November 6, 2002

I'm a little suspicious of the 25-cent draft at The Armadillo on Saturday -- how the hell can they be making any money on this? Is it just yellow-colored water?

Being in NYC, and paying ~$5 for my pint o stout, I'm very jealous of these prices.
posted by meep at 3:09 PM on November 6, 2002

Stay away from the drunk fratboys downtown. Go to the Manhattan or the Go bar...
posted by Wizzle at 3:19 PM on November 6, 2002

Being three long days from Athens, we preempted the results with luscious nectar straight from the source. A couple pints of Redhook's  Hefe-weizen  ($3.50/pint) are enough to make the soggiest day warm and fuzzy, the most atrocious results a little more managable.
posted by YohonTheLarge at 3:34 PM on November 6, 2002

Maybe this has something to do with it...
posted by GT_RULES at 3:39 PM on November 6, 2002

Meep: there is most likely some cover charge... probably in the $3-5 range.
posted by internal at 4:27 PM on November 6, 2002

I was expecting this site to turn into Winonafilter by the evening. What happened?
posted by raysmj at 6:18 PM on November 6, 2002

Now that's a useful site! :)
posted by LouReedsSon at 7:10 PM on November 6, 2002

They need to work on that rating system a wee bit. I personally invented the international monetary unit known as the "Bier" when I was kicking about Europe in 1983. The general idea was, "if I buy that souvenier/gift for XXXXX, how many beers do I forfeit at the biergarten?" While the "Beerometer" is a noble effort it has at least one huge flaw that I noticed seconds into purusing it: there is no standard beer unit used.

Notice that the first entry is domestic bottles and the second entry is draft pints. The Beerometer states that $5 worth of $1.25 bottles is 4 beers and $5 worth of $2 pints is 2 1/2 beers. This does not take into account that fact that the bottled beers are 12 ounces of beer and the pints are (duh!) 16 ounces of beer. This makes the comparison a bit more even at 48 ounces ($.104/oz.) and 40 ounces ($.125/oz.) If you standardized the beer at 12 ounces the comparison should have 4 to 3.33 beers and depending on what they are serving this could be a critical calculation!

Their mistake is reminescent of the exchange rates going into East Germany in 1983...but that is a story for another time.
posted by RevGreg at 7:18 PM on November 6, 2002

you want the Market Bar.

If you're in Barcelona, try La Bolsa (no useful link available). Same general principle. Except when I was there years ago, they had a lot more than 11 beers on the screens. Periodically, there would be a market crash and all the prices would bottom out. Everyone rushed to buy the premium drinks. Those prices went up and then cheap stuff became a lot more enticing. Great way for the bar to manage inventory, I bet. Also, prices for the same drinks were drastically different on weeknights than during the weekend because of the volatility of the market.

Of course, after a few drinks, wild dot-com market speculation begins and rational financial planning goes out the window anyway.
posted by jewishbuddha at 8:09 PM on November 6, 2002

Although nice links about the Market Bar in the comments, many of us aren't in Athens, GA (albeit I'm an hour away). Bad post, please try to consider the rest of the community.

1. I work at one of the establishments listed in the beerometer. I live in Athens, and was unaware of it until I saw it here.

2. People who want to improve MeFi know where to take it when they spot what they think is a a bad FPP.

3. ewagoner provided a link to something most people in the "community" probably weren't aware of and hadn't seen before. I would wager (ZIP Code map aside) that most MeFi's aren't in any one place. Is every FPP that refers to anywhere outside of large North American cities therefore inconsiderate? If not, what's the criterion?
posted by trondant at 11:42 PM on November 6, 2002