Raise the prices / wages

[Wuffle]

Cards have done damage over the last 2 or 3 decades.
Everything in pubs used to be costed to assume a significant cash skim.
The only things with real mark up are food, coffee and the soft drink syrup, not beer.
Some boxes of syrup concentrate covered miles in between pubs to cover stocktakes!
Once the cash/card balance fell in favour of cards the scope for fiddle diminished and many became no longer viable.
We ran an entirely parallel business, multiplying up the veg bill, gateaux bill, then the big meat bill through the week and skimming all the weekend cash.
The pubco and beer tie thing all plays into this.
Same with wages/tips.
Highly educational businesses to work in back in the day.

W.

[AleisterCrowley]

B... Some are no longer pubs as such they are restaurants in pub premises. Where I lived outside Brighton, on the coast road there were 3 pubs within about 3/4 mile, all were restaurant pubs that were very unwelcoming to drinkers, it was a case of have a meal or go elsewhere in 2 of them and the 3rd had a small area set aside for drink only customers.

It may have been different in other areas but I've lived in Sheffield, Lincolnshire, Worcestershire and Brighton and it's those I speak of.

So overall have restaurants stolen pubs lunches or was it the other way around and restaurants are now getting their own back

Yuck , I hate that. I'm quite happy with pubs serving food in a separate area, or during the day, but I don't want to go out with a group of friends and have a few pints in the middle of a restaurant..
Thankfully there are not many restaurants-disguised-as-pubs back home (Shropshire) although the more rural ones need to make their money on food to survive
I've come across a few in Berkshire - where 'Ye Olde Bull Inn' (made up name ) in an affluent village clearly wouldn't welcome people popping in for a pint or two. "Table for how many Sir? Would you like to see the menu now? Please order a drink at the bar while you wait to be seated"
Thankfully my large village has four pubs which are in every way 'pubs that do food', and they are usually full of people standing or sitting in groups doing some proper drinking

[didds]

Strange that the pubs which have been diminishing at such a pace over the past two decades have suddenly become such an important part of our UK culture that people are prepared to queue up to sit out in the rain and gales to enjoy.
John

whats not to say those sitting outside etc arent the people that have been going to pubs all the time before lockdown, and those that never went much are still not going ?

didds

[didds]

Back in the day most northern pubs didn't do food, a bag of crisps was your lot in most. In some you could get a sandwiche if you were unlucky, curled up at the edges and about 3 days old.

This was my expereince in Kent 40 years ago also.

And in my preferred five pubs in our town (four of them being in the GBG, the 5th would be if it sold real ale - its a "modern keg" pub - and there was a 5th slot availble!) , only one of them offers meals every day. One offers food maybe once a week at most. the other three are totally wet led - crisps, nuts, scratching etc being what is on offer. Not even a stale sandwich.


didds

[redsturgeon]

Strange that the pubs which have been diminishing at such a pace over the past two decades have suddenly become such an important part of our UK culture that people are prepared to queue up to sit out in the rain and gales to enjoy.
John

whats not to say those sitting outside etc aren't the people that have been going to pubs all the time before lockdown, and those that never went much are still not going ?

didds

Because I never had to book six weeks ahead to get a seat in a pub garden before lockdown?

When I was talking to my local pub landlady a couple of years ago to ask if she would be open a usual on Xmas day from 12 til 2pm, she replied she had decided to end the tradition. She said it was lovely to see the faces she had been serving all year but most of the people crowding the bar for a pint and free mince pies were people she never saw the rest of the year.

As I now no longer drink alcohol this is all academic to me now.

John

[didds]

Because I never had to book six weeks ahead to get a seat in a pub garden before lockdown?

neither have I since last year's lockdowns etc .

?

All of my locals I have always been able to turn up, sit down, be served and quaff etc. as per whatever regulations are in place.

But certainly no booking required.

didds

[didds]

When I was talking to my local pub landlady a couple of years ago to ask if she would be open a usual on Xmas day from 12 til 2pm, she replied she had decided to end the tradition. She said it was lovely to see the faces she had been serving all year but most of the people crowding the bar for a pint and free mince pies were people she never saw the rest of the year.

well thats a bit of a ... debating ... point amongst various pub regular groups etc. The once a year drinker syndrome. But I get the landlady's "issues" with it entirely.

Not that it has anything to do about raising prices and wages.

didds

[redsturgeon]

Because I never had to book six weeks ahead to get a seat in a pub garden before lockdown?

neither have I since last year's lockdowns etc .

?

All of my locals I have always been able to turn up, sit down, be served and quaff etc. as per whatever regulations are in place.

But certainly no booking required.

didds

You are lucky!

John

[AleisterCrowley]

...As I now no longer drink alcohol this is all academic to me now.

John

Yep, I'm giving up for good after my birthday celebrations*
I was in Newbury shopping yesterday, and bought some Black Cat ''Prowler' which you have mentioned in the past (well, at least the brewery in Winchester, if not that particular beer)
cheers
AC

*100th Birthday, in the mid-2060s

[didds]

You are lucky!

John

maybe ... but now i think about it during the times we could last year travel within the UK etc etc the pubs etc I visited them didn't need booking either. (Dorset, Devon, Somerset, Wiltshire, Burton On Trent and immediate surrounding areas).

whilst understanding its all one's own experiences etc I wonder why _some_ pubs presumably are not permitting walk ins? (other regs notwithstanding etc - Im not suggesting anywhere would be allowing bellying up to the bar etc). Some of these pubs were offering the potential of booking, but weren't insisting on it - caveat being if there was somewhere suitable to sit etc (never ever happened when i went to such a pub)

[monabri]

I haven't been in a pub for years...and if a pint is £5, I won't be going in one anytime soon!