Thursday 7 February 2013

Feeling Pessimistic About Pubs?


If you are worried about the future of pubs, you ought to read this article from the Morning Advertiser.  It illustrates clearly how bad the Pub Companies* have been and are for British Pubs.

At least you won't have to pay income tax if you run one. You won't earn enough.

*I mean here (mostly) Punch and Enterprise.  The British Brewing and Pub Association gets a spanking too.

7 comments:

Cooking Lager said...

I read that and sympathise with anyone unfortunate enough to have ploughed their savings into a licence with what are sharks. I am self-employed and have traded job security for short term higher income. Buying one of these licences seems to be trading job security for a pittance. A job on the tills in Tesco looks better.

However as a customer I don’t get why I ought to pay more to prop it up. Whether through supermarket or pub prices. The market has other options from good old Spoons which in the main are decent, regionals which are 50/50 and free houses which are also pretty decent. All offer me lower prices & a better offer than Enterprise & Punch.

Maybe I will have a different opinion if it looks like my choice is of the one pub where landlord and punter are being stiffed by the pub co, but currently I think,”yeh whatever” Sorry if that sounds harsh.

As pub co’s divest, some of these pubs will remain pubs and be better pubs, some will become convenience stores. Change is the normal natural occurrence of a market economy.

Tandleman said...

I don't think you should pay more to prop it up. I just, like you feel sorry that we have come to this and that gullible people are still being fooled.

Mark said...

...and CAMRA publications continue to run advertising for these pubcos, who recently appear to be getting a bit desperate for someone (anyone!) to run their pubs.

Tandleman said...

I'd guess that's a free market thing.

Mark said...

Of course it is, but identifying and criticizing the cause of so many failed businesses and closed pubs, whilst taking advertising from the same pubcos aimed at suckering even more people into the same situation is never going to look good is it...

Tandleman said...

I kind of agree.

Neville Grundy said...

I've only just found this post; I can't disagree with a word in the article. Good to see someone else pointing out that the government and the industry are both keen to blame the other while denying any responsibility themselves, when we all know it's a plague on both their houses.