Why a bottle of water at a restaurant or bar, has to cost ridiculous prices in this country? Is it justified somehow? My personal record so far, has been 10.5 eur for a 1L of plat Chaudfotaine…

EDIT: for reference, as many says this is normal, please have a look at the article below – Wallonië tried to impose free water as social responsibility

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/article/2023/03/06/belgium-s-promise-of-free-water-in-restaurants-fails-to-materialize_6018271_19.html

by hallokes1234

22 comments

  1. Cool, we nearly made it a month without this complaint.

  3. There are a few reasons.

    What it mostly boils down to is that, unlike what everyone thinks, profit margins in the restaurant industry are very low. Yes, the profit margin on a bottle of water is high when you compare it to the cost of that bottle, but you have to consider the full picture.

    21% goes to VAT and about 10-15% goes to the price of the bottle. The remaining 65% is used to pay for the staff (high labour costs in Belgium), steep rent for the building, utilities (gas and electricity prices have gone through the roof), insurances, equipment for the kitchen, maintenance, interior design, table cloth, etc.

    Excluding outliers, most restaurants make around 5% profit on their total revenue. Which is rather terrible considering how heavy the labour is and how financially unstable the sector is.

    The classic argument is that they should make water cheaper and other drinks more expensive. Unfortunately this wouldn’t work because plenty of people only drink water at restaurants already.

    So, this is why water is expensive. It’s not that water itself is expensive, it’s just that running a restaurant is and you can’t lose out on revenue.

  4. In addition to the other comments: free or cheap water = people are less thirsty and feel full= they are less likely to order (more than one) more expensive drink, like beer, or a dessert. Hence, cheap drinks is economically not a good option on menus.

  5. Because this country is expensive as fuck. Low wages and high taxes, baby!

  9. Isn’t there a law that they also need to provide free tap water if you ask?

  10. What you’re paying for:

    * to take up a seat
    * the tax on the sale, the wages, …
    * The fridge they keep that bottle in
    * Waiter to take your order, and bring it to you
    * someone to washing the glass you’re drinking it out of
    * Rent of the space, which you want in prime locations
    * The lights, electricity, heating, …
    * a drink that is 4 times the size of a coke or lemonade they’d sell you for 2.7€’s, so per drink it checks out.
    * upkeep of the restaurant
    * … the list goes on. The actual drink almost does not factor into price at all.

    You saw the price, you ordered it anyway. Drinks, not food are where restaurants make most their money. If water is way cheaper than any other drink their profits plummet.

    It’s like asking why it costs you 200€’s for a mechanic to install a 20€ part. You’re not just paying for the thing, but everything around it.

  12. So I don’t at all judge individual restaurants for this. The problem is the tax system and the labour market. Restos do what they must to survive.

    That said, I avoid restaurants as much as possible. I simply refuse to pay those prices for water.

  13. because the restaurant owner deserves a Taycan, just like you!

  14. I’ll always remember being in a Spanish night club where a cola was 8€, yet a 50cl bottle of water was exactly 1€.

    There should just be a European law that states that water should always be available for free or very cheap.

  16. I never get this.

    In my business there is something that costs us 500 and we sell for 2.4k

    And then there’s something that costs us 750 and we ask 750 for it. We literally get a bill of 750 and ask that of the customer.

    The specifics are rarely important to a business as long as the total is profitable. Here in Belgium we basically acknowledge that drinks are the money makers. If there’re not in other countries they’ll get more profit from other items. The total doesn’t change much.

    I can complain that I paid for a lot more stuff in Italy, things that are free here, yet the total bill doesn’t really change much.

    Like, imo this is just not realizing how businesses work.

    If you go to the baker and complain the pies are expensive for what they are compared to the bread, same principle applies again.

  17. I never go back to places that charge that much for anything. Some restaurants have suggestion cards, and I usually write the food was good, but I’ll never go back to a place that charges 9 euros for water, 25 for a spaghetti and 1.5 euros for Tabasco. At home I drink water for almost nothing and I make spaghetti for 2 euros.

  18. How frowned upon is it to bring your own bottle of water into a restaurant and drink it?

  20. Thanks to the likes of Bart Tommelein it is now very hard to keep open a bar or restaurant. You work your ass off and the maffia government will take 75% of your profits (often even off _asssumed_) profit.

    This is why most restaurants and bars aren’t open for very long before they go bankrupt.

    Support these hard working people if you’d like for “normal” restaurants to still have a chance. Or it’s a matter of time before we only have fucking fast food chains and fancy restaurants.

  22. 5%??? Can’t believe it where are more info about this? Or it’s a niche?

Leave a Reply