Free water!

Nothing makes me more angry than a bar that charges you for water. If I just spent $10 on a couple of beers and I need to rehydrate, how dare you to force me pay $2 for a bottled water when water comes out of the faucet!

Two notable perpetrators of this are Skybar in Somerville and Harper’s Ferry.

If I’ve been patronizing a place the entire night by paying a cover charge and purchasing alcoholic beverages, I think it’s disrespectuful for the venue to force their patrons to purchase a bottle of water when they can just as easily pour them water straight from the sink. And $2 is such a rip off for a bottled water too.

This ridiculous policy makes me not want to see bands at the venues, and if I do, I am reluctant to patronize them at all beyond a cover charge. Alcoholic beverages are dehydrating, too, so when drinking it’s important to keep hydrated by drinking water. If I’m drinking beer, I like to have one glass of water for every beer I drink to ensure that I stay hydrated through the duration of the night. But if I have two beers at a venue like Harper’s Ferry, I’ll wind up paying an extra $4 just to drink water!

This doesn’t just anger me because I’m cheap. I just think it’s poor business ethics and it’s a turn off to the consumer. I know it’s the establishment’s right to do this but I still think it’s wrong. I no longer make that extra effort to see a cool band at Harper’s Ferry and I won’t go to the Skybar unless one of Matt’s bands is playing there. (It doesn’t help that the latter venue’s cover charges are outrageously high!)

I’m sure Harper’s Ferry makes a fortune off bottled water. People get drunk, people dance, and people get thirsty for water.

I’m not 100% sure but I believe that Massachusetts law requires bars to have restrooms. I think it should also be a law to provide patrons with free water.

Filed under Greater Boston (General), Politics (general) | Comments (4)