Cheap booze leaves pubs dry
Saturday 9th August 2008, 11:10AM BST.
Pubs in Shropshire are emptying and closing their doors due to county supermarkets dropping the price of alcohol, it was claimed today.
Dozens have closed their doors in recent months, with many remaining shut because no new landlord can be found.
Roger Clutterbuck, director of Pub Locums of Shrewsbury, which is a company that provides relief managers to the pub trade, said people were getting their alcohol from supermarkets at cheap prices instead of going to their local.
He said an added problem was people drinking alcohol on the streets and then going into pubs to cause trouble.
Mr Clutterbuck said: “The situation is caused by the Government, it is caused by the supermarkets and it is the prices that the supermarkets are charging.
“The supermarkets are selling beers at low prices to get people in and that is where people are going.
“Even in Shrewsbury, which I consider is a nice town, you see kids on streets, gardens with alcohol they have bought, they drink it and then they go in a pub and cause trouble and this is what is wrecking the pub industry.
“It is worse for the smaller pubs. There are not going to be any left and it is worrying for small villages.
“The other thing is that there is not enough professionals in the market, we have to have a personal licence to run a pub but in a supermarket they don’t need anything to sell it.”
Among the pubs in Shropshire which have shut their doors and face an uncertain future are Wellington pubs The Bacchus, in Church Street, and the Smithfield, in Bridge Road.
More than half of the “locals” in St Georges, Telford, have now either closed – either temporarily or permanently – or otherwise have some question mark over them.
The casualty list runs: Bell & Bails, Church Street – closed and boarded up; Pigeon Box, Priorslee Road – closed and boarded up; Cottage Spring, Church Street – “lease this pub” sign; The Bush, West Street – “To Let” sign; and the Barley Mow, Gower Street – “For Sale” boards displayed and fading Christmas decorations still up.
The Albion Inn was also recently put up for sale.
The Hen & Chickens in Shrewsbury is also closed after the landlord left and the Kynnersley Arms in Leighton remains empty.
By Rhea Parsons
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We moan about petrol price, but beer prices £22 a gallon. Now wonder pubs are empty!
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Even the so called cheap drinks in supermarkets are overpriced compared to most other countrys.
It’s not supermarkets that are closing pubs, it’s the incompetent government over taxing Drink, Fuel and Tobacco.
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Over £6 for a pint and a vodka and coke! That’s why we hardly ever go out these days.
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Kavan – its called tax
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Is anyone really bothered – if more pubs closed down then the police would have less area’s to police at closing time when all the drunks flow out.
I say close all the pubs make drinking alcohol a crime ala smoking
Something people can only do in the walls of the home they own.
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Y Mab Darogan: Yes and kill the social life totally? Great idea…
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The Hen and Chickens is the wrong shape and size for a pub. These days you need to offer sport, music or food, or a mixture of them. The Hen & Chicks can’t do any of them.
Anyone whinging about the state of pubs should go to The Salopian Bar and see what Ollie Parry has done there from scratch. Real Ale, decent music, decent decour, cider festivals, belgian lagers, and it is packed every weekend and rightly so.
For too long landlords in spit and sawdust locals served awful beer and the catering was a choice of pork scratchings or nuts. Times have changed. But the market it out there – look at how C21 and The Source have grown and become really popular nightspots, and look at how many people are in The Crown, Coleham when the Champions League games are on. It is all about getting a good offering in the right place – that is what people pay for.
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What would you prefer Y Mab? Orderly drinking in public houses or disorderly drinking on street corners, parks and (if your prohibition were to be ennacted) speakeasies?
Pubs are a vital community facility for many villages and neighbourhoods in England. Not that the Labour government care. Do they care about anything these days? Are they in the pocket of the big supermarkets? Makes you wonder.
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People always say pubs and post offices are a vital community facility – rubbish – only if a majority reguarlarly use them might they be and clearly the majority don’t.
“Dave Matthias” – couldn’t agree more.
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Harry Saxon Esq Drinking would be banned in public.
We do not tolerate buildings set up for people to take drugs so why should drinking (and alcohol is a addictive drug) be any different?
Allow people to drink in the houses they own or rent and if anyone is caught in public drinking it should be a 500 pound fine.
And I consider it pretty sad if pubs are the only place for social gatherings – plenty of activities which do not require drinking
ie
Sports, walking, cycling, etc
The amound of council tax and funding for police will also dcrease as well
and I’m sure the police have far better things to be doing than escorting drunkards at home at night or to the local cells
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supermarkets have been selling cheap booze for years and it never affected the pub trade before.
its the smoking ban…
get it lifted before there are no pubs left, and the no smoking fascists kill off a great british institution
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ps i’m off to live on the planet y mab darogan, life must be perfect there.
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It is not the smoking ban that is killing pubs spencer, it is landlords not willing to change and move into the 21st. century.
As Dave said above we now want quality from the pub experience, not warm lager and crisps.
We are as a nation willing to pay, for the decent service that is sadly lacking in the old fashioned smokers pub.
Most will pay £20.00 for a decent 3 course meal in a pub, so the extra 10 pence on a pint is not an issue.
Clean pub, clean tables, good menu with quality wine list or a good selection of imported or real ale.
Who wants to breath in someone elses filthy stench and go home wearing it – not me.
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shrewforlife, clearly what you want is a restaurant not a pub, not smoking in a food establishment is something i agree with but its the good old fashioned boozer that is struggling. now if you don’t go in that kind of establishment then thats fine by me but my local is always empty beacause everyone is sat outside with a beer and a cigarette..
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planet y mab darogan has no crime, anti social behaviour, everywhere is neat and tidy, no litter, graffiti, everyone is polite and considerate to everyone else, no murders etc etc etc
If everyone listened to me Great Britain could reclaim the Great and be a Great place to live.
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i havent changed my life style of going out! i dont smoke but all my friends do so the smoking ban hasnt changed nothing! as for a pint going up 10p – 20p its called inflation, in 1958 a pint of beer was worth 7p now its £2.50 do the math
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spencer’s correct. What’s happened to all the anti-smokers who said they’d start going to pubs if the smokers were kicked out ? They haven’t materialised – many pubs are nearly empty with the bulk of customers out in the beer garden having a pint and fag. Come winter (or this summer so far…) they are going to be stopping at home with supermarket beer. This is what happens when a vindictive majority have complete say over how private business premises are run. Should have been left to the ‘market’
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Patrick why should people (the majority) inhale the minority cancer causing smoke????
We live in a democracy where the majority rules over the minority
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It is obviously very clear Y Mab Darogan that you live a very sheltered life. You talk about living in a democracy but, with you spouting on about closing pubs and making alcohol illegal is’nt that more like a total dictatorship? If you dont like the idea of drinking in a pub or the atmosphere in pubs dont go to one, its simple. Just because you dont like it doesnt mean it should be made illegal? I think youre ‘dream world’ would be something we would all strive for in this life, however by the sounds of things if everyone did listen to you Great Britain would be a total dictatorship not a democracy as you claim. Think you need to get off your dilluded high horse.
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And would a dictorship be that bad if it ensured that everyone was safe on the streets, energy companies would be nationized so no huge energy bills
I think that perhaps this democratic system we have at the moment has failed
so why not try something new.
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I’m absolutely in favour of a smoking ban in genuine public areas (hospitals, schools, libraries etc) but pubs are private business premises – should be up to the landlord how he runs his business , and it’s up to you if you walk through the door. Nobody was ever forced to go in a pub.
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The old smoking ban chestnut rears its head again. My local has not lost trade because of the ban, if anything its been quite the opposite of late. True, there were quiet periods as winter set in last year but by far the main reason for non attendance given by regulars was the cost of a night out – it’s as simple as that.
As for a previous comment asking where all the non smokers are now that the ban is in force: we’re seeing many new faces who previously wouldn’t visit in the evenings because of the smoke. Interestingly, all those smoker regulars who moaned about how the ban would “kill the atmosphere” (as opposed to the atmosphere killing non smokers), and threatened to stay away after July 2007 – guess what? They’re still there every night.
So there’s a smoking ban – get over it. The main reason for the downturn is down to simple economics.
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good if people drink at home then they can enjoy alchohol but without the negaitve social impacts of pubs such as fights, litter, urinating in the street etc
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It appears that Y Mab lives life by the Puritan’s creed i.e. is concerned that some people, somewhere, may be enjoying themselves.
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I paid £3 for a pint of Tetleys bitter in the Sports Bar in Leeds. Its a joke.
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mark,
its not an old smoking ban, its only a year old which is when all the pubs started to close
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so what? it will help people drink less if there’s less pubs plus we need the land for new houses, some of them can even be converted into lovely period homes
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Interestingly, the credit crunch is celebrating its first birthday around this time too. I’m a smoker, so are most of my mates – none of us have given up the pub since the smoking ban, even in winter. I doubt you have either, Spencer.
We live in tough economic times, where people are moving away from luxuries in favour of staple foods (which have also increased in price). I think you’ll find that many people simply don’t consider beer to be a necessary purchase.
If and when this whole credit crunch catastrophe ends, I’d expect the pub trade to pick up again, if not to its previous heights.
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perhaps we can then all save money by sitting outside a boarded up pub smoking fags and drinking cans of beer purchased from the local supermarket,
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If you want to be facetious, then yes, yes we can.
Otherwise we can wait for people to sort out their finances and hope for the best.
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If anything I’ve increased my drinking this year, most of which I do in pubs. Mainly I do this to spite Mr Darling and all those who think raising the price of alcohol will fix this country’s woes.
As I’ve said before, drinking in pubs is not the problem. It is cheap booze sold by corner shops and supermarkets to just about anyone at just about anytime. Penalising the pubs, making them close, won’t help the situation at all. If anything we should encourage the younger generation (of which I still regard myself as being part of) to use pubs rather than drink at home, in the park or on the street.
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Y Mab Darogan said: Aug 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
“And would a dictorship be that bad if it ensured that everyone was safe on the streets, energy companies would be nationized so no huge energy bills
I think that perhaps this democratic system we have at the moment has failed”
Sounds like you’re after the job, maybe we should elect you.
Oh no, sorry – that would mean using the democratic process, and you don’t like that.
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who cares?? I do – social menance you make them out to be but pubs have massive social benefits especially in the rural areas where they are a source of much needed jobs, company, social interaction etc
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“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.” — William Pitt the Younger
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It’s nothing to do with banning smoking, i don’t know anyone who’s given up going to the pub, but i know plenty of friends who have cut back what they spend.
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i do not buy the no smoking argument, the 3 fishes pub in fish st shrewsbury has been no smoking for at least 15 years and has gone from strength to strength and has a superb selection of ales and food. any pub that does not provide food or amenities apart from drink is at risk of being on the slippery slope to oblivion, especially if it is owned by a pub company.
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Totally agree Kath! Thank god Y Mab Darogan is not in charge of the country-how can anyone suggest that a dictatorship ‘might not be that bad?’Just because you do not agree with going to the pub, to either drink or just to socialise, does not mean it should be made illegal? shocking.
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