A Toronto Redditor probably came up with one of the most ingenious (and crowd-sourced) ways to find the cheapest beer spots in Toronto. Two months ago, Redditor Joshua Buxton shared an indexed map called “Toronto’s Taps” that he created on Google Maps. The map highlights Toronto’s best bars and corresponding prices of the cheapest beer spots in downtown Toronto, all in effort to make booze planning and budgeting easier within the city.
“Ending beerflation by indexing the prices of the entry-level drink at bars across Toronto,” the map description reads.
Buxton asked Reddit for advice on what places to add, and according to an updated post about the initiative on Tuesday, more than 500,000 people have since ended up accessing the map! So, he decided to build a tool called “Taps”, which aggregates bars by the price of a beer. It also shows parks where you can legally drink in the city.
“Which spots should I add?” Buxton again asked the Toronto subreddit.
In true “Toronto the good” fashion, the Reddit community seems super supportive of the Taps tool, providing suggestions for the best and cheapest beer one could find in local bars and restaurants across town.
“The John on bloor is a solid option,” one user suggested, while another noted that Sneaky Dee’s has five domestic tap options for $5.
“They’ve had it going for about 2 years,” the user added. “Menu still says it’s more expensive but it is 5$ all day ever day, they have it on a sign out front and make sure to tell you when you are seated”.
A few users gave some practical feedback on the design aspects of the tool.
“Love this! As a UX designer, Id only change the yellow bg of the price tags to a much lighter tone so you can read the red numbers better! Its hard on the eyes” one user stated.
Another noted that the tool is a great idea but needs a bit more information to be really useful.
“E.g is the price happy hour vs always available, what kind of beer is served” the user asked, to which Bruxton responded that none of the prices are happy hour prices.
“We’ll probably only be sending out special discounts via email because it’s much easier to guarantee it to people without potentially dissapointing [sic] with higher prices than we posted because of confusing instructions” he added.
Click here to submit your Taps suggestions!