If you imagine the size of Tesco, their buying power is phenomenal...they ( and the other big chains) were often using it as a loss leader, which led to a Govt investigation resulting in a voluntary code of conduct which prohibited selling alcohol at a loss....but not at a miniscule profit that would be unsustainable for any pub.
Why go to pubs when you can have a far better choice of drinks at a far more reasonable price at home? Spoons make an effort to offer a wide choice of drinks at reasonable prices. Few others do.
Well run pubs are still doing good business. I’m lucky enough to be in walking distance of the Waggon and Horses and Travellers Inn in Oxspring and the Penistone Tap and Brewhouse. The Waggon thrives on good food, there’s always something going on at the Travellers, and you’d be hard pushed to find a better beer offering than the Tap. You generally need to book to guarantee a table in the 2 former and you’re hard pushed to get a seat in the latter at weekends. The cherry on the icing on the cake is that the very homely Smithy Arms has just reopened until the guy who owns the adjoining property sells up.
I'm in Manvers and there's maybe 5 or 6 choices for pubs and all seem to be doing pretty well. In the middle of Wath there's a Micro Pub, German style Beerkeller (sp?), Wine Bar, Indian Restaurant, Tapas Bar as well as the grubby Wetherspoons. Plus, the Rugby and Cricket clubs which are also decent places to go if it's the weekend. Its the bigger towns that struggle. I used to do Rotherham Town Centre most weekends and that's now basically dead. 6 quid a pint to listen to some bang bang music then get offered out by the local drug abuser. As ever, if something is priced competitively and offers something that the customer wants then they'll do well.
Personally hate the taste of canned beer and try not yo drink in the house find it abit depressing if I'm honest. Everyone is different though.
Plenty of reasons to leave the house, but going to pubs isn't one of them, so far as I can see. A drink at home doesn't expose you to irritating folk foisting their opinions on you.
I don't drink much beer these days, but the John Smiths at the Waggon is unlike JS at any other pub I've ever visited. I know some will think this is sacrilege, and that to be taken seriously you must prefer a pint of Thrumpton's Old Knackerwobbler, but the Johns at the Waggon is a terrific drink. I've wished that like you, we lived close by!
Unfortunately all my locals are charging around that. It’s mental and pretty easy to see why the young uns don’t bother and save up a few weeks to fly off somewhere. I’d do the same in their shoes.
Depends how pleasant your house is, I suppose. I don't drink canned beer. In fact I drink very little beer at all these days, unless we're in Scarborough, or lunching at the Waggon and Horses (see above).
Never been Rotherham Town center drinking, I only ever really go barnsley on match days but never paid anywhere near 6 quid a pint in a barnsley or a northern town. Maybe in drinking in the wrong places.
I have a nice house thanks, just finishing work and sitting infront of tele watching sport with drinks from the supermarket doesn't do much for me tbh.
