Looks like Americans have another reason to dislike hipsters!
Thanks to the independent thinking, plaid-shirt-wearing, indie-rocking subculture, famously low-cost beers like Budweiser, Miller Light and Coors Light are not as cheap as they once were.
Think that’s weird? It’s actually just simple supply and demand. A recent study conducted by the food research group Restaurant Sciences found that the price of cheap beers has increased by anywhere between 3.5 percent to 6.8 percent in bars, restaurants and other drinking establishments in New York City over the past seven months.
“While all the attention has been on Craft (Ultra-Premium) beers, the price of mainstay brands in the mid-price (Premium) tier have risen more dramatically. And traditionally lower-priced beers such as Pabst Blue Ribbon have seen sizeable double-digit price increases in both restaurants and bars & nightclubs,” Chuck Ellis, the head of Restaurant Sciences, said in a press release.
As cheap beers like PBR continue to become more and popular among the contemporary subculture, it increases the demand for them, prompting drinking establishments to play on the rising popularity by increasing prices.
“I believe the single biggest driver in sub-premium beer price increases is indeed specifically PBR,” Ellis told the New York Daily News. “It’s become quite popular.”
So the next time you head to buy some cheap beer and realize that the prices have taken a hike, blame the bearded dude at the grocery store purchasing a six-pack of PBR.
