Is there still money in booze and food?

[singlecoil]

Wetherspoons obviously think so

This is the pub across the road from my shop in Bletchley. It was shut down for quite a long time, I figured it was going to be demolished and flats built on the site. But no...



The builders have been in for a few weeks now, the place is a hive of activity, never less than a dozen blokes there, sometimes more, and the place isn't scheduled to open until late October. They must be spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on the place. At least.

One's got to think they know what they are doing, and rumours of the demise of the licensed trade are exaggerated.

[singlecoil]

The Mad Monk said:

CaptainMorgan said:

Ah I'm guessing you're in the ex cake corner premises?

Spoons have been trying to get a location in the area for ages, I would guess due to the football crowds, they were trying for somewhere nearer the station end of town but for whatever reason couldn't get anywhere. I can help but feel it's a bit out the way if the footie lot are their intended punters but I'm no expert. It's going to be a 'spoons hotel too, massive extension on the rear (the garden is/was huge) and the front car park will become seating outdoors.

Will be interesting to see how it goes, I went to Manchester a while back for a business expo, stayed at hotel football next to Old Trafford, went out to find a pub in the evening and found a random spoons. For a weekday evening it was busier than I expected, we weren't the only ones being kicked out at closing.

Which post are you responding to?

It will be the first one I should think. He obviously knows Bletchley/Milton Keynes and he is correct about my having set up in the premises previously known as the Cake Corner.

[singlecoil]

untakenname said:

It seems quite a few pubs are purposely kept empty and derelict as it's cheaper than having them open due to business rates.
This one for instance was closed back in 2009 yet despite being refurbed back in 2015 (knew a friend who spent a few months working on it) didn't open and is once again derelict and apparently has problems with water damage and pigeons.
https://www.bobneill.org.uk/sites/www.bobneill.org...

I've heard people say that, but business rates are so small a proportion of the overall costs of running a business that that claim doesn't usually stand up to close examination.

[singlecoil]

I pass a pub called the Betsey Wynne in Swanbourne (Bucks) every day on the way to the shop. It was for sale a while back and has been bought by a small group that has a dozen or so pubs in the area. Closed for refurbishment (not much wrong with it when I was last there) and a whole stload of money is being spent.