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That’s a buzz kill!
Big Apple beer hounds may have to fork over 13% more for a brew as congestion pricing drives up costs for customers and businesses alike in some of Manhattan’s busiest neighborhoods.
Anheuser-Busch, whose brands include Budweiser, Michelob Ultra, Stella Artois and Corona, will raise keg prices by $5 across the board for customers throughout the NYC area, a company sales rep told The Post this week.
“We’re building the cost of congestion pricing into delivery fees,” the rep said.
And that means bars will likely have to charge an extra dollar per pint to offset the higher price, which he said the industry giant is in the process of notifying customers about.
“It’s death by 1,000 cuts,” one angry beer drinker in Midtown said of the impending price increase. “It’s particularly galling to me because this is nothing more than another Albany cash grab,” he added.
Some brew fans said the jump a price hike may turn them into teetotalers.
“It’s not worth it,” said Jaye Bartell, 42, a customer at the Tile Bar in the East Village who said he only drinks Budweiser because it’s cheap.
The beer boondoggle is another “nail in the New York coffin” for the industry, according to Lee Seinfeld, owner of Dive Bar and three other spots on the Upper West Side.
“This is going to be hard for me and I’m above 61st Street,” Seinfeld said. “Midtown bars are really going to suffer,” said Seinfeld, who noted his food prices have already gone up 45% since the pandemic.
Some vendors have even asked if he’d take deliveries after the bar closes at 4 a.m. in order to save some dough, since off the tolls go down to $2.25 in off peak hours.
“Five dollars is too much,” said Eugene Wilson, owner of the West 48th Street Pig N’ Whistle Public House on West 48th Street.
Wilson said he hasn’t been informed of any price hikes yet, though he knows they’re coming and is hesitant to raise the cost of a suds because “beer prices are already up there,” he said.
A Bud Light draft at his watering hole, which draws lots of Rockefeller Center visitors, is $8 and a Stella is $10.
A rep for a large independent distributor said alcohol distributors will likely follow Anheuser-Busch’s lead.
Price jumps in the service industry are being seen across the board.
Bar and restaurant suppliers have been notifying owners that the price of beer and other products will rise due to congestion pricing, Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance told The Post.
“This is precisely the scenario small businesses were concerned about,” he said. “The cost gets passed onto them, and then they must make the difficult decision if they can eat it or must pass it on to their customers.”
Cintas, which provides uniforms, aprons and cleaning supplies, recently informed clients about congestion pricing-related price increases as of Jan. 5.
“As you are aware, the costs of conducting business in New York City have continued to increase,” a letter from Cintas to its customers read.
“Despite Cintas’ strategic efforts to absorb all of these increased costs, we will be implementing a price adjustment on your service charge to help offset the expenses of continuing to conduct business in New York City,” it continued.
And the food distributor Sysco informed businesses that it would be adding a $1 “congestion charge,” in addition to an existing fuel charge, to all deliveries within the “impacted area,” according to an email shared with The Post.
As of Jan. 5, drivers must pay $9 to travel below 60th Street during peak hours.
Gov. Kathy Hochul resuscitated the contentious congestion pricing plan in November, claiming it will help fund MTA upgrades and ease crowding and pollution.
