Letter: No wonder pubs are closing
Wednesday 7th July 2010, 9:49AM BST.
Letter: I went to a local pub recently with my wife and ordered two half pints of bitter shandy along with an unexciting and overpriced meal.
The drinks cost me £3 and when I got home I couldn’t stop thinking of how I had been ripped off.
Now I can go to my local supermarket and buy two litres (3.52 pints) of good quality branded lemonade for £1.50.
I got my calculator out and if my maths are correct this means that the content of lemonade in the two halves of shandy costs 21p and the content of the beer in the two halves of shandy works out to £5.58 a pint.
No wonder pubs are closing.
Peter Hassall
Shifnal
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Pubs do tend to be more expensive than shops because you are paying for the whole package, same as it costs more to eat in a chinese restaurant than it does to have a take away.
It also costs more to have someone fit a set of brake pads to your car than if you were to buy the pads from Halfords and fit them yourself.
This has been happening for hundreds of years Peter, why write about it now..
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This has long been a problem with pub pricing…
Ripping customers off with non alcoholic drinks also could be a contributory factor to drink driving, especially in rural areas.
Do the govt levy tax on these drinks the same as for alcoholic ones? Or is it just pubs and breweries fleecing their customers?
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They would only be ripping you off if you didn’t have a choice. Nobody hold your arm up your back and makes you drink in a pub.
I personaly prefer them because i don’t want to sit in front of my kids having a drink, i want to sit with my mates..
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In America I ordered a coke at a bar and stood for a while waiting to pay. I had to ask the bartender and turned out soft drinks were free for designated drivers. Perhaps cheaper non-alcoholic drinks in pubs would be a good “carrot” to stop people drinking so much…
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My point exactly, Jon.
Beer is expensive because of the huge tax levy, but this levy, (to my knowledge), isnt applied to non alcoholic drinks.
So for every pint of beer the landlord sells he makes perhaps 5p, (never worked in the trade I am using figures for illustrative purposes). He then sells a pint of coke and makes about £1.90 profit…
Now I think that IS ripping people off…
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And sir the pubs overheads, rent, etc etc have you factored these in ? and the supermarket is also selling booze at a loss, and buys in soft drinks at pence per bottle due to the volume.
Speaking as a self employed person and and having some empathy for the poor pub land lord it always amazes me how some punters deny you a decent worth while profit. I would also add all punters are aware of the cost before hand so the answer is leave or do not take up the service if you think you do not wish to pay that particular price . The price is the price may be dear for you but not others .
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I was in a nightclub once and the offer was buy one get one free.
Since I was driving, I ordered a coke. Then asked where my free one was.
The reply was, “Oh, that order is only on alcoholic drinks”.
Not impressed!!!
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I don’t think anyone denies people making a living, it is when the profit is excessive.
For the normal punter, pub prices appear excessive!
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If they were making excessive profit then they wouldn’t be closing..
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The pubs are closing in many cases due to the greed of the breweries to which they are tied. There are many cases of people investing their life savings into their dream of running a local. They spend their money on refurbing the pub and if the profits after the primary supplier has taken their often unjustifiable slice of income arent enough then they are ousted leaving the brewery with a nicely refurbished pub and the investor penniless and broke.
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Pubs are also closing because they are becoming more and more restricted as to what they can actually do. I used to have a pub in the centre of Shrewsbury, i was unable to put on any form of live music, ( nasty solicitors letter after one acoustic session ) and i wasn’t aloud to put benches outside so people could enjoy a pint in the sun, ( nasty solicitors letter within a week of putting a bench outside ). I totally agree with comment #8 below about folk who move close to a pub and then do their best to get them closed down.
My old pub is now a surf leisure wear shop and i’ve done really well up until now to not mention the STCRA.
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I think the pricing issues lies with supermarkets, in the past when owning a pub was a thriving business opportunity there weren’t the amount of supermarkets around and you certainly couldn’t buy alcohol in the amounts you can now from petrol stations etc..
I feel it should not be allowed for alcohol to be sold at such a low rate, this of course encourages under-age drinking, and for people to drink at home rather than socialise in their local.
If pricing was the similar accross the board i feel more people would return to the pubs, i dont blame landlords for this but the greedy multi-national owners of these chain stores for pricing pubs out of the market.
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We all moan about the price of petrol and diesel, it attracts a similar ammount of duty as beer does, Beer is now upwards of £2.50 that makes it £20 a gallon, and beer does not have to be pumped out of the ground and undergo a complicated process, delivery costs are proberly the same so who is fleecing who?
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What a ridiculous example jeffb. Pubs overheads are far far higher than a garage.
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How many times do people have to be told. The landlords aren’t fleecing you, the brewery is forcing them to charge high prices because the brewery in turn is fleecing the landlord. The brewery mark everything even down to your soft drinks containers to make sure you as a landlord are buying from them at over inflated prices instead of buying in cheaper.
I’ve run a brewery owned pub, it’s a lot of hard work for no profit and barely a living wage. 18, 19 hours days on your feet all day, fighting with the brewery to get any kind of repairs done or the money back they promised you for repairs, endless red tape with the council, complaints about noise from neighbours who amazingly enough thought when they bought their houses (at reduced prices) next to a pub it would all be opera in the beer garden instead of Meatloaf on the karaoke (I mean, how stupid can you be when buying a property?)
You don’t want to pay pub prices Mr. Hassall then dont go in there, sit at home whinging instead and give the other punters ears a rest.
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Fair point,
Where people are using “Landlord” unfortunately sometimes they mean “brewery” – myself included on occasion.
I think I sent out mixed signals…
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Even though my property is freehold we often buy spirits from the supermarket because we cannot get that low price from our own suppliers, those in tied premises do not have that choice.
So some people want to equate supermarket prices with those in pubs, perhaps next time they fancy a quick pint they could pop into their local Supermarket, I am certain that the establishment will be only to happy to provide them with seating, perhaps in the sunny garden and serve their pint in a nice clean glass and then clear up after they have finished, whilst having a member of staff standing by in case then need a refill and a license holder on the premises to comply with the law. You might fancy a packet of crisps or a game of darts, or perhaps pool, or just a chat with your mates around a nice warm fire in comfortable seating on a long winter evening! Yes Supermarkets will be only to pleased to provide you with this service of course they will and the prices will be the same as if you had just grabbed something off the shelf paid for it and then left the shop.
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Funny how people aren’t complaining about the fact that you can go to a supermarket and dance to the music being piped around the store instead of going to one of those rip-off night clubs..
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Time for supermarkets to diversify into opening pub chains too me thinks!
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They all ready have…it’s called “Wetherspoons”.
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I agree with Unsympathetic, i too used to run a local pub and trying to get the owners to do anything that involved them spending money, was impossible
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Bought 2 250ml glasses of wine in a bar last year £11 thats £14.50 per bottle for a £4.49 bottle from the supermarket.Maybe tax should be increased on supermarket alcohol and decreased in pubs and help close the gap.I would love a good drink down the pub but i cant afford it.
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[ nasty solicitors letter within a week of putting a bench outside ). I totally agree with comment #8 below about folk who move close to a pub and then do their best to get them closed down.]
Not a pub in this case Spencer but the Star to my knowledge have not got a story about this recent planning decision.
Someone applied to have a mobile unit in the Square with tables and chairs. This was supported by the disenfranchised residents facebook group and a couple more folk.
Surprisingly well supported by the conservation section who infact encouraged longer opening hours and a more funky colour to the unit. Their only concerns were that seating was packed away everyday and the unit could be sited satisfactorily to them.
This could be controlled by a condition I’d have thought.
The planners then also gave support but surprise, surprise the STCRA said it did not enhance town centre conservation area (not agreed with by historic officer)It was not how they see the Square should be used which is, in their opinion, for quiet reflection!!!!
Sadly this application was then turned down by committee and an appeal would mean that the applicant of course, will be too late to catch the summer season.
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The reason given to me was because they thought it encouraged drunks to sit in the squars yet my benches were policed far more frequently than the public benches put there by the council..
It was 15 years ago by the way and the pub is now a surf leisure wear shop..
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People seem simply not to understand that you cannot compare bulk purchased supermarket prices with those in pubs.
The comparison is like apples and oranges first your average pub will not even be able to buy at the same price as supermarkets! In fact many would wish that they could even buy at supermarket selling prices, they a forced to pay more from their suppliers to whom they are tied.
The supermarket is not offering the service of pubs the supermarket is not selling a single glass of wine served in a glass ect.
Pubs also have to make a profit in order to survive and many are not doing so these days, so please stop this nonsense. If you want to use the services of a pub be prepared to understand they are not supermarkets, if you want to drink cheaply buy from the Supermarket and drink at home. But do stop saying pubs are ripping people off because they charge more than supermarkets, of course they do they operate an entirely different business.
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yeah i agree, its one thing on alchohol you can blame the clown brown government for that but soft drinks cost pennies so its pure profiteering, its actually cheaper to drink beer most of the time so naturally it limits things for the customer
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