I may be in for some flack about this post.
So, the lobbyists called 'Fair Pint' have sent out a press release this week announcing that the actual figures surrounding pub closures in the UK is wholly underestimating the extent of the problem.
I expect everyone will have heard the fact that 1 pub per week closed down in 2010.I am not going to argue this point. Its sad, & has led to a lot of lost livelihoods. Terrible thing.
Fair Pint are saying the actual figure could be as high as 5 per day. This is due to the amount of self employed tenants going bust. Now, these tenants were probably under the employ of a large PubCo. These PubCo's are renowned for getting up to sneaky contract tie ins on where the tenant buys his beer from. Have a look around
Fair Pint to understand a little more.
5 pubs a day! But aren't lots of self employed businesses going to the wall? Other self employed people are going bust due to a myriad of issues; overseas competition, increased migrancy, the price of fuel etc.
My argument is that these people shouldn't have been pub landlords in the first place. Pubs are supposed to be centre of a community. Now then, I can tell you that retiring on the back of a few schooners of Harveys Bristol Cream is never gonna happen. Or is a few John Smiths shandys going to buy a yacht.
But this is what 70% of the pub landlords in this country think.
Sell to the old!!!
Communities have to be re-birthed. By definition they reflect new blood coming through. People over the age of 30 can't afford to go to pub as much as they would like. Hey with petrol being £1.30 a litre, it costs me more than the price of a pint to get to a nice country pub.
Money lies in the hands of the young, with their uber disposable incomes. But old people will always struggle to communicate with the young (I have tried shouting - doesn't work!).
So out with the old / in with the new.
Go on kids. Get a tenancy for a tenner.
Tell everyone using Facebuck. Or Twitter.
Get a tattoo with your web address across your arse.
And then feed the young community with brightly coloured test tubes full of sweet alcoholic nectar.
2011
1955
