Tesco etc will benefit most from alcohol pricing.

[Patrick]

No wonder Terry Leahy said he was in favour of it last year!

Large supermarket chains would benefit from a £700m windfall if minimum pricing for alcohol was introduced across the UK, new research indicated today.

Tesco, the UK's biggest supermarket, stands to reap the most rewards, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The thinktank researched the likely impact of a 45p minimum unit price for alcohol – the controversial measure which had been proposed by the Scottish government but was recently rejected by opposition parties.

The IFS said such a policy would benefit retailers rather than the public purse, echoing an argument that critics of minimum pricing have used against the measure.

The stores which sell the most alcohol – Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's – stand to gain the most from the measure.

Anyone got the latest figures on how many pubs we're losing per week?

[riotgrrl]

Patrick, I reject your attempt to link alcohol unit pricing to the closure of pubs.

Drinks in pubs are very unlikely to increase in cost because of unit pricing; they're already sold at more than 45p per unit (especially in Lambeth!!!).

[Patrick]

Thought that would tickle you.

Most of the (old) big breweries are into property these days - not into brewing beer - So this will be used as an excuse to bolster their own coffers, with the added bonus that when the pub has to close they can then sell it off (or the land) for a nice tidy profit. Landlords and/or industry pundits have been predicting this for years. It's just the final nail in the coffin.

The very fact that the article points to supermarkets benefiting from this the most is indicative that pubs will suffer.

[riotgrrl]

Sept 28, 2010 8:48:50 GMT Patrick said:

Thought that would tickle you.

Most of the (old) big breweries are into property these days - not into brewing beer - So this will be used as an excuse to bolster their own coffers, with the added bonus that when the pub has to close they can then sell it off (or the land) for a nice tidy profit. Landlords and/or industry pundits have been predicting this for years. It's just the final nail in the coffin.

The very fact that the article points to supermarkets benefiting from this the most is indicative that pubs will suffer.

Pubs will BENEFIT surely?

One of the reasons pubs are in decline is that people can buy booze so much cheaper at the supermarket that they drink at home rather than in the pub.

If the prices in the supermarket were more reasonable, the price differential would not be so great, and people might return to the pubs.

(That and the smoking ban.)

[Alpha Hooligan]

I keep hearing that "the poor downtrodden folken will be hit hardest" by this.

Complete and utter bollocks. What it really means is that they'll only be able to get 8 tins of Tenants Super instead of 12 tins...or only 6 liters of cheap tasteless piss instead of 8 liters of said tasteless piss...Hell, it might keep them out of trouble of a weekend.

The only people who buy ultra cheap or ultra strong booze are teenagers and alcos IMO - I mean who here actually likes the taste of "Carlsberg Special Brew", "Tenants Super" or their super strength equivalents? You only buy that stuff to get "rat-arsed-on-a-budget" when you are young.

(RG makes a fair point about how pubs may actually benefit from this as well).


AH

[Patrick]

A fair point - but they won't benefit. It'll be sucked up by the big boys in extra profit and the independent pubs will disappear even faster.

[Deleted]

out of interest, when did we all last go to a pub? for me, twas about 2 weeks ago. i dont go regular anymore.. i used to be in pubs all weekend long..

[Weyland]

Sept 28, 2010 13:12:08 GMT @costal said:

out of interest, when did we all last go to a pub? for me, twas about 2 weeks ago. i dont go regular anymore.. i used to be in pubs all weekend long..

I was in a pub in Germany last week, where I'd fled to after a nasty experience in Lambeth. I'd fallen in with a bad lot at the Three Stags, after my art dealer failed to turn up. I still have nightmares.

[Deleted]

i seee.... twell, i had issues arise, unfortunately..

pubs are bladdy expensive nowadays thou.. round here its on average about 3.50 a Pint.. ( unless you go to wetherspoons which is cheaper, but who honestly wants to spend time drinking in a wetherspoons? you really would be better orff at home with cheap supermarket booze.. i like to think the extra cost of pub drinks goes towards the amvbience and bonhomie they provide, which is in short supply in a wetherspoons chain pub.)
Owever, 3.50 a pint soon adds up if you're in the pub all night.. i'll be honest, even when i do i go to pubs i tend to ave a good few drinks at home before i go out, just to save a few pennies..

[Deleted]

i orwlways go to pubs with live music as well, i like to get as much entertainment as possible for my money you see. there is qwuite a good live music scene down here in hastings, and i know qwuite a lot of the folks who knock about in bands, so when i do go out, i tend to go and catch a few gigs whilst im out. All gooooood

[Weyland]

Sept 28, 2010 13:33:02 GMT @costal said:

i seee.... twell, i had issues arise, unfortunately..

Not you, me old ,mate, me old hearty. Bloke name of Charles Saatchi, of the Bermondsey Saatchis. Vair unreliable.

pubs are bladdy expensive nowadays thou.. round here its on average about 3.50 a Pint.. ( unless you go to wetherspoons which is cheaper, but who honestly wants to spend time drinking in a wetherspoons? you really would be better orff at home with cheap supermarket booze.. i like to think the extra cost of pub drinks goes towards the amvbience and bonhomie they provide, which is in short supply in a wetherspoons chain pub.)
Owever, 3.50 a pint soon adds up if you're in the pub all night.. i'll be honest, even when i do i go to pubs i tend to ave a good few drinks at home before i go out, just to save a few pennies..

About £2.80 around here. Over four quid in Lambeth.

The Wetherspoons in Shrewsbury isn't too bad, especially if you enjoy the craic of the Shropshire yokels locals. And the food isn't bad either, plus they have free WiFi. On the banks of the Severn beside the Welsh Bridge it is. But the one in Oswestry is like a big, brash, pretentious caff. Not nice at all.

[Deleted]

wetherspoons do tend to vary from place to place.. my main experiences are of the ones here in hastings ( dingy, dark, sticky carpets, full of alcoholic Pickwickesque Charles Dickens characters drowning their sorrows and talking bullshit from noon to night) and the one in watford ( full of tweenagers drinking smirnoff ice or whatever disgusting blue drinks are in fashion nowadays, can never get a seat cos EVERYONE goes there before they hit all the other bars in town.. watford is binge drinking central..) but yes, wetherspoons foood is passable and cheap, carnt complain at that, but i've never found a wetherspoon pub i wanted to drink in all night long.. usually its just a qwuick coupla pints and a bit of grub and then move on to somewhere with an atmosphere..

[riotgrrl]

I go to the pub most weekends in the late afternoon of a Saturday (if we've nothing else on) for a couple of pre-dinner bevvies.

I hate Wutherspoon pubs because they SMELL. They SMELL of deep-fat fryered food. Stale, lardy smells.

[Weyland]

Sept 28, 2010 14:21:34 GMT @costal said:

wetherspoons do tend to vary from place to place.. my main experiences are of the ones here in hastings ( dingy, dark, sticky carpets, full of alcoholic Pickwickesque Charles Dickens characters drowning their sorrows and talking bullshit from noon to night) and the one in watford ( full of tweenagers drinking smirnoff ice or whatever disgusting blue drinks are in fashion nowadays, can never get a seat cos EVERYONE goes there before they hit all the other bars in town.. watford is binge drinking central..) but yes, wetherspoons foood is passable and cheap, carnt complain at that, but i've never found a wetherspoon pub i wanted to drink in all night long.. usually its just a qwuick coupla pints and a bit of grub and then move on to somewhere with an atmosphere..

Know what you mean. The best pubs in Shrewsbury are The Salopian, on the waterfront, and The Three Fishes, on Fish Street. The Loggerheads isn't bad either.

There's a bloke gets in The Three Fishes, in fact he's a fixture on a barstool, who has a brush-over hairstyle. Nickname -- BarCode. Fell off my stool when he told me that.

[Weyland]

Sept 28, 2010 14:41:36 GMT @riotgrrl said:

I go to the pub most weekends in the late afternoon of a Saturday (if we've nothing else on) for a couple of pre-dinner bevvies.

I hate Wutherspoon pubs because they SMELL. They SMELL of deep-fat fryered food. Stale, lardy smells.

Bad management. The one in Shrewsbury isn't like that at all.

[Deleted]

they do, tis true.. the ones i've been in.

actually there was a 'nice' Wetherspoons in Northwood Hills, but is vair middle class. it didnt smell, but it was a bit terry n june and lacked atmosphere in a different kind of way, vair bland.

[Alpha Hooligan]

It's not a cosy local without sticky carpets or a few non-functional pool cues.


AH

[Deleted]

dont forget the jukebox.. hardly any pubs ave jukeboxes nowadays.. big shame.

[Weyland]

Sept 28, 2010 14:56:06 GMT Alpha Hooligan said:

It's not a cosy local without sticky carpets or a few non-functional pool cues.

AH

. . . <shimmer, shimmer, shimmer> . . . it is 1969 or thereabouts . . .

I prefer the traditional spit'n'sawdust ambience of, say, The Haymarket in Newcastle. It's located on the ..er.. Haymarket. For sticky carpets I particularly recommend the main bar of The Lowther, though you have to keep a sharp eye out for chairs hurtling through the air. Mind you, The Lowther is the only pub I knew of that has a ladies-only room.

[Having said that, it now seems to me that it might in fact have been Carter's Wine Lodge that had the LO room, within spitting distance of The Lowther. I blame Lambeth for the memory loss.]

Want a glass in the face? Then it has to be The Gosforth Hotel.

[/1969]

Alien games such as Pool in pubs were unheard of then, and quite right too.

[Deleted]

pool ? silly game... never got the hang of that whatsoeverrr//,.i am, officially , the worlds worst pool player. but it dont matter cos pool is a silly game.