So why are Pubs closing all over London?

[simonm]

The only problem with that line of reasoning is that I find it hard to admit that anywhere makes better food than I do at a price I'm willing to pay :lol.

e beer and a burger is my excuse to myself that it's better value and just as good as a zinger meal, subway, boots/Tesco meal deal and/or greggs and includes beer.

s just a lunch thing  :\

[pete786.u]

Not just London. The village I live had 4 pubs when I first moved here. There is now 1. They were all tied pubs and the brewery kept putting the price of their beer up which the Landlord had to pass on to the customers so less people could afford to drink more than once a week. The last one to shut was going to be refurbished by the brewery but is now up for sale so will probably end up as a private house.   

[steeeve66]

I have a flat in Southwark that I use when I'm 'uptown' and the pubs around there seem to be thriving during the week, a lot of the city boys come over after work for a pub crawl but they are mostly white or rich young Asian types who have money to burn and they arn't local. At weekends it's tourists who throng the bars from Blackfriars to Borough right down the river to Wapping (a pub crawl I've done often) The pubs that are closing in London are those that are off the tourist trail and in areas where the number of immigrants is almost a majority and very few of them drink.
At home in Cornwall, I only go to the pub occaissionally after fishing on the coast, my local pub is ruined by over loud music which seems to be for the benefit of the young staff rather than the customers who can hardly hear themselves speak.
Si

I can remember when The Anchor on Bankside was a great place to go - ruined now by the appalling Travel Inn bolted on to the side and in what was the beer garden; tourist hell now sadly.

[Tiberius Onklevaart]

Pubs are closing cos they're fuckin extortionate. And its not restricted to London. 
On the food aspect. If its wethergoons or shitbread, the fact is that its frozen chip amd microwaves.  Ok, steaks and other meat products may come in uncooked, but the cheffing involved is minimal. I have plenty confidence I can do better at home, and regularly do so. I won't eat lasagna anywhere because mine is so good (it really is).
Restaurants on the other hand I do like because they are cooking (or at least they should be) but sometimes I think I can do better. Not often mind, although it depends where it is.

But the problem is that while I'm happy to get pished in the hoose, I like a draught pint. I'm not too bothered about social adpects as I often drink alone but I do like a good pint and hopefully a quiet pub to drink it in.
Currently, for the level I like to drink at, I need anywhere between 30 and 50 sheets to spend a few hours supping. Its an average price of a pint in the weege is easily 3.50 unless you go to wethergoons or similar. Thats fine,  or it would be if they weren't full of arseholes, which they are in glasgow too often for my liking.

People say the smoking ban had an effect on trade.  In glasgow, not so much. 2006 it came in and I been working in pubs on and off for the last 13 years, consistently (full time almost) between 2007 and 2011 and noticed no significant drop until around 2009 ie housing crash and recession. Clubbing took the hit earlier but only in the bigger scale superclubs like fabric and the arches as more people moved away from higher and higher ticket prices to get a more intimate experience. These big acts playing these venues now do stadium tours and traditional gig venues.


Overall its just shit. Raise our wages and we might start kicking the trade back in as we look to spend our dosh

[Tiberius Onklevaart]

Its closer to 4.50 a pint rather

[Slaninar]

Its closer to 4.50 a pint rather

I remember a walking past a drunk English tourist yelling on his mobile: "mate, you must come here, it's xxx euros per pint!"  (don't remember the price he quoted, but it was funny still). Beer here is around 1.5 euros in pubs. For 2 euros you can get really nice German beer. I remember days when beer cost around 0.2 euros in pubs and it was good! 

At the stores, prices are 2 to 4 times lower. Pubs thrive in my city - we love to drink and eat obviously. 

[DILLIGAFF]

I am sitting in my local with a glass of diet cola (from the gun) and wondering why they charged me £3.20, and its not even a pint.


Last night I was in a Weatherspoons which was packed. Drinking a very pleasant bitter, HOBGOBLIN, at just £2.19/pint  :thumbup

[Chillum]

I stopped going to the pub when they removed the pinball machines, arcade machines, pool tables and dart boards.

I used to love going to the pub and playing a few games with my mates and listening to the juke box.

[Simon.Pieman]

I stopped going to the pub when they removed the pinball machines, arcade machines, pool tables and dart boards.

I used to love going to the pub and playing a few games with my mates and listening to the juke box.

20 years ago I used to live in Stratford East London and I was a very competitive when it came to pinball. I used to go round all the pubs playing the machines and making sure my initials 'SIP' were displayed on the high score screen. I can proudly boast that for a stretch of two whole weeks I held the high score on EVERY machine in the Stratford area.
One day we did the usual pub crawl and found the initials 'RAY' has displaced mine on several machines and I spent a few bob knocking the blighter off the top spot. He did the same to me over the next few weeks until we met at last and had a brilliant shoot out and I took £50 off him and a bit more in bets with our spectators.
On reflection, a sad way to waste time and money but quite exciting. Our fave machine was 'The Adams Family' it's the fastest game and definately the noisiest, the average score people got on this machine was about 6 million points or so, I won the shoot out with 135 billion!

[locksmith]

With regards to the smoking ban, I started using pubs again when it came in!!

[Oldgit]

my local pub is still going well, it has a great bunch of locals who still like a good pint after work, and they cater for birthday bashes and any other sort of celebration, the owner is a local lass and she has done the place up to good modern standards--no nutters  or zoomers get in, just decent ordinary people and she keeps it that way. :pc

[Doddsie]

On the pub front, Wetherspoons can do cheap because of there buying power when it comes to stock.

How can weatherspoons have a better buying power of beer than the breweries do???  Weatherspoons make less profit per pint than any brewery owned pub does, but they make big overall profits because they sell more of it... reason being, they sell it cheaper. As for the food, ok, it may not be cordon bleu, but ham egg and chips with a pint for under a fiver is still good value. Cant be many people on here that hasnt payed nearly that for a burger and a mug of tea at the side of the road!!
 

[Dead Eye]

I can see where people are coming from when they talk about being able to prepare better food themselves. But sometimes, it's nice to have someone else do all the legwork. At the end of the day you are going to pay for what you get most of the time - Weatherspoons is cheap and therefore the food isn't going to be the best. I have quite happily had lunch meals and the occasional meal out with friends. But for a proper dining experience, it's not somewhere I would choose

[MEM62]

Unfortunately, I can't drink enough beer to keep them all in business :-(  :rollin

[Simon.Pieman]

How can weatherspoons have a better buying power of beer than the breweries do???  Weatherspoons make less profit per pint than any brewery owned pub does, but they make big overall profits because they sell more of it... reason being, they sell it cheaper. 

I thought they bought surplus production stock nearing its 'best by' date on the cheap. A lot of people have told me that, but they don't seem know how they know, so it might be an urban myth. Can anyone enlighten?

[simonm]

[quote author=Looney tune link=topic=7815.msg76235#msg76235 date=1368599178]


On the pub front, Wetherspoons can do cheap because of there buying power when it comes to stock.

How can weatherspoons have a better buying power of beer than the breweries do???  Weatherspoons make less profit per pint than any brewery owned pub does, but they make big overall profits because they sell more of it... reason being, they sell it cheaper. As for the food, ok, it may not be cordon bleu, but ham egg and chips with a pint for under a fiver is still good value. Cant be many people on here that hasnt payed nearly that for a burger and a mug of tea at the side of the road!!

[/quote]
I heard that wetherspoons got their ale cheap as it was nearing end of life and had to be shifted quickly but I don't know if it's true or not.

[Doddsie]

Even if its true, they do shift it quick so its kind of irellevent. The point im trying to make is, Manns, Marstons, Green King, Whitbreads etc all had their own breweries and their own pubs, but still had to close loads of them down as they got greedy, where as Weatherspoons ( who have to buy their beer in)  is booming because they make less profit but on a large scale... better to sell 10 pints at 1.99 than 4 pints at £3.80!!! 

[locksmith]

I would think most pubs are tenanted. That is a private individual buys the lease and is then fixed in to buy the beer off the brewery at any price they choose.
So the landlord of a local pub selling say 10 barrels a week gets one price while a company like Weatherspoons go to the brewery and say we'll take 500 a week, whats your best price?

[Grahamm]

With regards to the smoking ban, I started using pubs again when it came in!!

I liked the fact that I didn't come out with my clothes reeking of fag smoke even when we were sitting in the supposed "non-smoking" section...

[Doddsie]

I would think most pubs are tenanted. That is a private individual buys the lease and is then fixed in to buy the beer off the brewery at any price they choose.
So the landlord of a local pub selling say 10 barrels a week gets one price while a company like Weatherspoons go to the brewery and say we'll take 500 a week, whats your best price?

Nearly all tenanted pubs are leased from the breweries, ie, they are selling their own beer to their own tenants for a set price. If they werent so greedy they could sell it to them for the same price they sell it to anyone else.


I had a MANNS pub for 17 years yet my brother who has a Free house could buy MANNS beer cheaper than I could. I had to pay MANNS the lease for the pub,could only sell their beer (or beer brought through them Fosters, Bulmers etc)  and pay extra for the privilege of selling it for them!!


A lot of pubs are now managed, (the landlord gets a set wage instead of the profits), hence a lot of pubs are now shit, the landlord gets a fixed wage no matter if he is busy or not, has a contract for 5 years or so then leaves for the next bloke to try his luck.
Why waste time and money making your pub nice and working hard if youre only gonna get the same money???