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The death of the British pub?
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by LotusFlower | August 30, 2008 at 04:28 am
433 views | 12 Recommendations | 5 comments
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Two dozen pubs are closing every week across Britain as more and more people buy booze from supermarkets and have more 'nights in'. The pub is a British instution and unless something is done soon it will be a thing of the past. While ever supermarkets are allowed to sell booze as a loss leader the pub will be in danger of extinction.
Supermarkets will take over from pubs and other licensed venues as the biggest sellers of beer within the year as record numbers of pubs close across the country.
According to industry leaders, Britain’s pub industry is in its worst crisis for 70 years as the pressures of the economic downturn, increased beer duty and aggressive marketing of alcohol by supermarkets drive away customers in rapidly growing numbers.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (5)
at 05:12 on August 30th, 2008
LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.
They'll just have to evolve and reinvent themselves in order to survive. Hopefully, it'll only be the crappy pubs that close down.
It was really noticeable, after the smoking ban came into effect, that pubs in the centre of London were closing fast - with no outside space for smokers, the customers were just going elsewhere.
With so many town-centre pubs closing, it has to be a boom-time for country pubs - all of which seem to be gastro-pubs, these days.
at 10:29 on August 30th, 2008
LotusFlower, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 11:03 on August 30th, 2008
I think it comes down to the whole 'pub experience', which is very far from the stereotype of a bunch of nice chaps have a chat. These days, the pub involves large amounts of violence, obnoxious people and a line-up of crap beers (the best are usually imported). Offer people a safe, clean environment and decent food, and they may actually come back. I am always shocked when I go to North America and actually get perky service from some nice university student, and then to come back here to the indifferent pub staff and the sharp elbows at the bar. Yuck!
at 11:07 on August 30th, 2008
While the Pub should never be allowed to die, the idea of "drinking in" instead of drinking....and traveling.... is not such a bad one...
at 14:06 on October 22nd, 2008
Nice photo of Japanese beer.