About the top and bottom of it...what also pi**es me off is that they've had tens of £thousands in grants.
Maybe that's because the most unprofitable ones had already closed, so the rate of closure would inevitably slow? This isn't a pro-Tory post by the way, I usually vote Labour. But their National Insurance increase has been catastrophic for small businesses. My small independent local in Lincoln recently locked its doors for good, despite being absolutely packed every weekend and doing a brisk midweek trade as well. The reason? NI increase and business rates going up had made it no longer viable.
We're only just seeing the effects of reeves budget from April. I imagine they will start closing at a faster rate than ever. See the initial post.
I'm sure he wouldn't, but from what I've glean from speaking to (an admittedly small sample of) small business owners, the current government's policies have been catastrophic for small businesses in the hospitality industry, an already very tough sector. I'm at an age now where I'm definitely in the "quality over quantity" phase when I go out. So I'd rather spend £15 on four halves of different poncey craft ales than the same amount on four pints of pish. This means that Marston's and Greene King chain pubs just don't cut it for me. But it's soon all that's going to be left. That and Wetherspoons, where you can actually get some excellent beers for a fair price. But the majority of their pubs smell, your feet stick to the floor, and the owner is a bit of a bellend with shiit hair.
I didn't know that. However, their beers are, by and large, absolutely superb. And they were responsible for at the forefront of bringing craft brews to the masses right at the start of the craft revolution. Jaipur was one of the first genuine quality beers that was available in the trendy Sheffield bars on a regular basis - where previously it was just Stella and other similar gunk.
I have very mixed feelings about Spoons. Tim Martin's Brexit views (and his silly hair) make him difficult to like. He clearly drives a very hard bargain with the breweries, but on the other hand there's always a selection of local ales in every pub at an affordable price, so it could be argued that he's helping to get some of the microbreweries mass exposure that they may not otherwise have got. Something else that was pointed out to be quite recently, by a friend who also posts on here regularly, is the number of beautiful and often architecturally important buildings, many of which would otherwise have been left derelict, that Wetherspoons takes on. A lot of these are clearly very expensive to maintain, so while repurposing as a pub may not be everyone's wish, it's a bloody sight better than them standing empty and decaying for years. This is something I'd genuinely never thought about before, but now I pay attention, it's clearly true. The Glossop Road and Hillsborough baths in Sheffield are both amazing buildings, and I can't imagine there was a queue of people waiting to take on the Old Market Hall in Mexborough. For anyone familiar with Lincoln, the old Ritz cinema is a huge art deco listed building which was empty before Spoons came along. And that's just off the top of my head.
Agree 100% about the buildings, the old Winter Gardens in Harrogate and the former Bank building opposite the Assembly Rooms in Derby are another 2 fine examples. You just have to avoid the stickiest bits of carpet
Horsforth is fairly trendy now bar wise, a good night out and I reckon on average a pint and a g&t would be about £12 for the pair. Pubs seem to be doing OK at those prices, very busy on a weekend and the usual quiz nights etc keep them ticking over during the week. The Bridge where my lad works over the holidays is about £4.40 a pint but a bit rough and ready so has to cheaper to get people in. Having said that most people you see in the pubs are over 30. When he is at uni in Newcastle it's all "pre's" at someone's flat and then 1 or 2 in the clubs. As said earlier it's that sort of thing that's killing the trade. Youth don't have cash to be out all night.
It's quite a while since I was a drinker on the Sheffield scene, but I did drop into the Thornbridge pub on Sheffield Station a few years ago and was shocked at the pricing...it was the most expensive beer I'd ever encountered outside London, knowing what it actually costs to produce, I just walked away....although to be fair, the overheads there must be extremely high....and the Brewdog place on Division St? wasn't far behind. As for the 'millionaires' tag....Google Jim Harrison and his wife Emma, it makes interesting reading.
I preferred the days where people could just walk into a pub and not care about who the owners were or what their political standpoint was.
