BIRDSVILLE BAKERY

Absolutely, planning a trip to the "Simo" in April/May.

Macca.

Actually, I'd be aching for a reopen of the place as an alternative to the obscene beer prices at the hotel! Used to be much less cost at the bakery.

Cheers,
Mark

Silkwood , its called FREIGHT costs that rise with the cost of fuel , and now the Pub has new owners , anything is possible ...... Cheaper beer at the bakery is one reason the owner ended in financial strife ...

Had a beer in a hotel in Tanunda the other day, $9.50. I wonder how much of that can be excused on freight??

Freight and turnover , turnover and freight are the biggest 'bugbear' for small outback pubs , need to remember that if we do not support them they will disappear and then we will really have something to complain about ...Case in point , the Muttaburra Pub is 'For Sale' again , new owners required , since 09 has been 3 Leases and followed by 3 onsite owners ..... freight and turnover means a single bottle of run 'costs' $10 more than in Longreach or Barcaldine ....

I don’t care much about price of beer in wherever. It’s one of the costs of travelling, though unlike others it is optional.

But I am interested in whether the bakery is coming back.

Cheers

Totally agree Alloy,
I always have a beer or 2 when remote, love a cold beer and love to support those places.
As you say , turnover ! , same for any small pub really.
I know freight isn’t cheap to somewhere like Birdsville. But freight is used as an excuse for inflated prices all over the place, if freight was the only thing making whatever product that much dearer, I’d want to be running a transport company.

Thinking back to 2018 , we had 2 cv shafts flown in to Birdsville, cost $100 which I thought was quite reasonable to get pats that size in.

Hope the new owners do well, and hopefully the bakery gets going again too!

Not sure why anyone would complain about alcohol prices at any outback pub, have you seen the prices big city pubs charge for thier stuff. I live in a capital city and avoid drinking at the pubs these days because of thier rediculous prices, rather stay at home and have drinks with mates on our back verandah instead.....though I’d love to be having a drink in an outback pub more so.

exactly ,had a few beers in Melbourne city all around $9-9.50,guess freight adds to the cost there as well.

boys..have you seen the Swanson St traffic...no wonder the inner city freight costs are so high..

Ever thought how much maintenance, fuel and eventual replacement costs of the gensets to keep that beer cold are?

.
And the cost of having customers for only half the year?

shane r1, I was working in Nuriootpa in 1976 and a group of 20 odd of us went to Tanunda one night for tea. It was a place that had a 3 course meal, with pig on a spit plus all the house wine you could drink for less that what you paid for your one drink. Midnight and we were the only customers still there and staff said last orders, so everyone ordered another carafe each of their choice. Not sure the staff expected that. Was good value for money. How times change. We worked the next day but those of us that had started the evening with the Mead Wine had some bowel issues.

Alloy, the bakery had those freight cost too. Last time I was there we had a couple of beers in the afternoon (actually, over a couple of afternoons) at the bakery, along with about 6 other groups, one of which I believe was made up of locals. Someone started a conversation about the beer prices and pretty much everyone joined in in saying they were surprised at the significantly higher cost of the beers at the pub. The owner said he loved it, as many people (ourselves included) had one or two beers at the pub (just to have a beer at the Birdsville pub) then came to the bakery thereafter. I asked him if he was running the beer as a loss-leader, his response was- no, he made a profit on the beer and it still brought him extra custom.

It was noted the pub would have a much greater turnover of beer, costs (landed and service) would have been lower per serve than the bakery. I was no orphan in considering the pub overpriced. I had paid less for the same beer in more remote, less populated bush pubs than I have ever paid at the Birdsville pub. Happy to stump up extra at almost all remote venues, as we all do. I still say the pricing at the Birdsville pub was excessive. I can't speak for the last two years, haven't been up there since.

Cheers,
Mark

Silkwood , 2002 was the 1st year the Birdsville pub actually got beer 'on tap' ..taps turned OFF the Wednesday before the Races ...[ just a bit of trivia ] .. bet you a $$$ or 3 that the 'bakery' sourced its beer from the pub at 'commercial ' rates and then on-sold for less actual 'markup' than the pub could with much higher 'overheads' .... bit like the small corner shop that bypasses the 'coke' [soft drink] rep and gets their's from the supermarket where 'turnover' can make the product cheaper than you can source any where else.....Our bowls club and golf club and football club and race club ALL source their requirements from 1 of the 4 pubs in town and can onsell at less than the pub needs to 'retail' at ....less overheads like wages ....and the pub is happy because of 'turnover' ....

I'll confirm that buying Coke in cartons from Coles is cheaper than buying from the Coke rep. It wouldn't surprise me for most other products.

Alloy, let's agree to disagree...

3yrs ago I had a Bundy rum can at Fitzroy crossing in the bar at the C/Park
an it was $13 .I nearly choked on the first half . only bought one
mechpete

Those 345ml Bundy and Cola bottles are usually about $13.50 at many Brisbane pubs (paid that a good 4 years back and since)...sadly many inner city Brisbane pubs have gone trendy and don't even sell Bundy any more, and if they do it's not in a can it's the smaller bottles.

Unless someone coughs up a million and a bit to buy it then I doubt it. Poor bugger has had no luck at all. Buy a bakery in the middle of nowhere and pay top dollar, then be cut off from your customers for the first couple of months.

Too true Ivan.

It would be hard enough to run a seasonal stand alone business like that when everything went right .

Lots of remote towns have several businesses in linked ownership. In Marble Bar the Travellers Rest roadhouse and the store are both owned by Lang Coppin (although last I heard he was trying to sell them ) and his son-in-law has the pub.

The bloke who has bought the Birdsville Hotel could maybe buy the bakery.

That could solve the price of beer problem.

Cheers

The guy who bought the Birdsville Bakery already owed money to a string of people from another failed business according to news reports at the time.

Terryt,

Amazing how a post about a specific subject gets hijacked into a discussion about something completely unrelated.

Macca.