MPs and Pub nonsense
Discussion
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/51106...
^^^
Dear MPs,
Stop fecking about and moaning that supermarkets can sell beer cheaply and therefore many people are choosing to buy beer and drink it at home. That's not killing the "Great British Pub". It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
It's their prices.
Yesterday I paid £3.15 for a pint of lager in a country pub - which was empty. I can go to the pub in town, that's always FULL and buy a pint of lager for £1.29.
That's the problem. The pubs had better deal with it themselves.
If you sell good beer at an attractive price people will come. Then they will also buy your overpriced food and soft drinks you sell at unconcionable markup. The pubs do not have to go bust. They have to get competetive. Same as the rest of us in these difficult times...
Yours,
Don
^^^
Dear MPs,
Stop fecking about and moaning that supermarkets can sell beer cheaply and therefore many people are choosing to buy beer and drink it at home. That's not killing the "Great British Pub". It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
It's their prices.
Yesterday I paid £3.15 for a pint of lager in a country pub - which was empty. I can go to the pub in town, that's always FULL and buy a pint of lager for £1.29.
That's the problem. The pubs had better deal with it themselves.
If you sell good beer at an attractive price people will come. Then they will also buy your overpriced food and soft drinks you sell at unconcionable markup. The pubs do not have to go bust. They have to get competetive. Same as the rest of us in these difficult times...
Yours,
Don
Don said:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/pubs/51106...
^^^
Dear MPs,
Stop fecking about and moaning that supermarkets can sell beer cheaply and therefore many people are choosing to buy beer and drink it at home. That's not killing the "Great British Pub". It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
It's their prices.
Yesterday I paid £3.15 for a pint of lager in a country pub - which was empty. I can go to the pub in town, that's always FULL and buy a pint of lager for £1.29.
That's the problem. The pubs had better deal with it themselves.
If you sell good beer at an attractive price people will come. Then they will also buy your overpriced food and soft drinks you sell at unconcionable markup. The pubs do not have to go bust. They have to get competetive. Same as the rest of us in these difficult times...
Yours,
Don
I can't be bothered to type my full response to this because it'll take far too long. In summary, though, you are essentially right but it's not quite as simple as dismissing the smoking ban and supermarket loss-leading as irrelevant.^^^
Dear MPs,
Stop fecking about and moaning that supermarkets can sell beer cheaply and therefore many people are choosing to buy beer and drink it at home. That's not killing the "Great British Pub". It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
It's their prices.
Yesterday I paid £3.15 for a pint of lager in a country pub - which was empty. I can go to the pub in town, that's always FULL and buy a pint of lager for £1.29.
That's the problem. The pubs had better deal with it themselves.
If you sell good beer at an attractive price people will come. Then they will also buy your overpriced food and soft drinks you sell at unconcionable markup. The pubs do not have to go bust. They have to get competetive. Same as the rest of us in these difficult times...
Yours,
Don
You could add that bringing in drink Driving legislation also sounded the death knell for many pubs.
I would say that it's the general avaialbility of alcohol that is probably doing the damage. Not just the price. You can buy it anywhere nowadays (including, ironically, petrol stations).
It wasn't too far back in people's memories that you could only get booze at an off license, or in the pub. Supermarkets used to have a tiny amount, usually poked behind a counter where you used to get fags. And the beer was usually tinned awfulness (like Watneys or Double Diamond), or in awkward to carry small bottles - brown or pale ale. Relatively it was expensive.
The quality and variety of take home booze (and its handy packaging) has improved enormously. Thus engcouraging people to have beer and wine at home rather than the pub.
The loosening of licensing and alcohol sale regulation has hit both off licences and pubs hard.
Now, if you can't drive to a pub and have a few drinks, smoke when you get there, and you can buy what you want from as part of a weekly shop, then aren't you surprised that the establishments opriginally set up to allow controlled drinking are now all going bust?
You can't just blame it on one thing though. There has been a gradual, but but large piece of social change around alcohol, and it's not going to take putting prices up alone whcih will reverse it (if that's what we want anyway).
I would say that it's the general avaialbility of alcohol that is probably doing the damage. Not just the price. You can buy it anywhere nowadays (including, ironically, petrol stations).
It wasn't too far back in people's memories that you could only get booze at an off license, or in the pub. Supermarkets used to have a tiny amount, usually poked behind a counter where you used to get fags. And the beer was usually tinned awfulness (like Watneys or Double Diamond), or in awkward to carry small bottles - brown or pale ale. Relatively it was expensive.
The quality and variety of take home booze (and its handy packaging) has improved enormously. Thus engcouraging people to have beer and wine at home rather than the pub.
The loosening of licensing and alcohol sale regulation has hit both off licences and pubs hard.
Now, if you can't drive to a pub and have a few drinks, smoke when you get there, and you can buy what you want from as part of a weekly shop, then aren't you surprised that the establishments opriginally set up to allow controlled drinking are now all going bust?
You can't just blame it on one thing though. There has been a gradual, but but large piece of social change around alcohol, and it's not going to take putting prices up alone whcih will reverse it (if that's what we want anyway).
mattley said:
Don said:
It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
I think you'll find it is.Blokes used to go to the pub after work. Every day. Then someone invented 'lib' for women and they told us to get our backsides home straight after work.
Game over for pubs.
V8mate said:
mattley said:
Don said:
It's not the smoking ban that's doing in the pub.
I think you'll find it is.Blokes used to go to the pub after work. Every day. Then someone invented 'lib' for women and they told us to get our backsides home straight after work.
Game over for pubs.
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