The biggest markup on that cold one in your hand generally takes place at the retail level—the bars, restaurants, shops and supermarkets that sell beer directly to consumers. Here’s where D.C. propels local beer prices into the stratosphere... the tavern owner figures you can afford it. “The recession never really hit D.C.,” says Brian Kruglak, beer director at Jack Rose Dining Saloon..."In other words, part of the answer is boring old supply and demand. DC has more well-off young people than almost anywhere else in the nation. That means there's high demand for all products here that appeal to young demographics, including beer. Beer is expensive in the DC metro for the same reason housing prices are so high.
But politics aren't completely absent from the equation.
The District’s neighborhood politics—which make it very easy for local residents to get in the way of liquor licenses, adding new costs for retailers—also pushes prices above where they’d be elsewhere... Most retailers I spoke with point to a standard mark-up of 40 percent on beer. But sometimes even that substantial margin doesn’t begin to cover the high rent and overhead... Add to that 40 percent figure a 10 percent sales tax on alcohol in the District, and us brewhounds are paying nearly 50 percent over wholesale prices for each six pack.Beer is only the most obvious example, but this occurs with all sorts of products you buy. Very rarely is the answer just economics or politics; it's almost always both.