The death of the chain pub? Is it nigh

[Goring Gull]

Anyone else reckon the reign of the chain pub may be gradually coming to an end.

Now maybe it's just because i'm getting on a bit (28) and i'm moving away from the bright lights, ear drum peircing beats and silver bar stools. It seems to me as though taht any new refurb, trendy bar only tends to last a year or two before another shed load of cash has to be thrown at it to get the crowds back, where as any remaining traditional boozers keep going albeit in an un trendy plod along way.

Maybe brewery will realise that if they stop throwing loads of money at these super pubs they will make a steady but not astronomical amount of cash but keep customer sand loose the "trouble" element.

Or is it just wishful thinking.

 

[berkshire seagull]

Its a vicious circle that will alaways continue,new millionaires created before a name change starts all over again.Its nice to go in trendy bars bar the prices of course,thats why i see them as a pub crawl type

 

[bhaexpress]

Bloody hell, it's Berks, when did you come back ? Should liven things up

 

[Cian]

No such thing here, thankfully. Worst we have is one bloke owning 5 or 6 pubs throughout the country. No brewery system, licensor owns the pub, etc.

 

[Bluejuice]

To be honest there's nobody has the purchasing power of Wetherspoons and with a 'spoons in pretty much every town you can think of these days it means the competition are all f***ed from the start as Wetherspoons prices are pretty much unbeatable. Not great places to drink, but so cheap it doesn't matter. Other places can't compete on price so they go for atmosphere, decor and "ambience" but ultimately these are all down to personal taste whereas price is something that everyone can appreciate.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Extract from a recent article in the Guardian about the growth of the Pubco monopolies:-


Things began going wrong after the second world war. By the 1980s the six largest national brewers owned more than half of the country's pubs and produced 75% of its beer. Brewers lost interest in traditional ale, focusing instead on new nitro-keg beers (pasteurised versions that were cheaper to brew, travelled better and lasted longer) and lagers. Small brewers began to disappear, swallowed up by the "majors". But they pushed things too far, and Margaret Thatcher swooped. The 1989 Beer Orders decreed that no brewer could own more than 2,000 pubs. Furthermore, they'd have to give landlords the option of selling at least one "guest" beer produced by a rival. The idea was simple: the smashing of the monopoly would see a flowering of smaller brewers, more varied pubs and more choice for drinkers.

Roger Protz, beer writer and leading light in the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), grins sheepishly when I ask what happened next. "Basically, we were naive," he says. "The Beer Orders said the big brewers couldn't own more than 2,000 pubs, and we thought, 'They'll be happy with that.' But they weren't happy, because they weren't prepared to open up their pubs to other brewers' beers." Instead of selling some pubs and keeping the rest, the big brewers created something new - pub companies - to which they sold all their pubs. And because they didn't brew beer themselves, these companies, known as PubCos, were exempt from the legislation.

"There were a lot of sweetheart deals," says Protz. "The brewers would say to some of their management team, 'Here's a golden handshake, go off and start a pub company. Buy a tranche of pubs, and in return take only our beers.' And that was what happened." Today it is the PubCos that call the shots. In 1989, the six biggest brewers owned around 30,000 pubs. Now, the 10 biggest PubCos own around the same number. Meanwhile, the six biggest brewers own no pubs at all, but produce a higher proportion of beer than they did in the 1980s: eight out of every 10 pints drunk.


Another thing to thank Thatcher for.

 

[Rangdo]

Anyone else reckon the reign of the chain pub may be gradually coming to an end.

Nah. There will always be chavy idiots who like bland, identical pubs with no atmosphere. And then there will always be the normal people.

 

[Northstander]

punch Retail? Scot/Newcastle? All run chain pubs....

They are getting bigger imo!

 

[West Hoathly Seagull]

GG, you've got the marvellous Slubbers Arms in Huddersfield, with Timothy Taylor's Landlord Why would you need to drink in a Wetherspoons? It's true they can be useful in an expensive city like London. The one in Leicester Square (the Moon Under Water?) is the cheapest pub for miles around.

 

[Gwylan]

What Lord B points out is depressingly true but this month's copy of What's Brewing also points out there's been a rise in sales of beers from microbreweries, some of whom are increasing their capacity. Seems like more people have had enough of bland, tasteless beers drunk in bland, identikit bars where loud music is used to conceal the lack of atmosphere.

 

[silky1]

No such thing here, thankfully. Worst we have is one bloke owning 5 or 6 pubs throughout the country. No brewery system, licensor owns the pub, etc.

Instead the Irish have exported the concept of the Chain pub, thanks very much!

 

[Gully]

Weatherspoons hit on a recipe for success, based on the cram them in and flog it cheap principle. I used to go to their bar in Edinburgh occasionally, they sold pretty much the cheapest pint in the city and there was always a really decent guest beer sold on promotion, usually from England and often at a quid a pint.

It seemed to me that they wanted to get as many people into the space available as they could, there were few seats so you had to stand up whilst drinking, hence people would usually sink a couple before moving on elsewhere. This guarantees a constant turn over of custom as few people would sit "nursing" a pint for an hour as they would in a traditional pub, it also appeals to a younger crowd, this possibly accounts for the higher levels of public disorder in areas where there are chain pubs.

I guess the old adage of "you pays your money and makes your choice" applies, if you want to go out and get lorded cheaply then spend a night in Weatherspoons, if you want to sit down and spend an evening chatting over a few quiet scoops then go elsewhere.

 

[Grendel]

Whilst I don't particularly like Wetherspoons, the one thing I'll say in their defence is this: if you're in a town/city that you're not familiar with and you fancy a pint, Wetherspoons is always a safe bet. They always have a decent range of beers and (in my experience) you don't often get a duff pint, plus the staff generally seem to know where the nearest proper boozer that's worth a visit is.

 

[Gully]

That is very true, plus the one in Edinburgh opened onto both Rose Street and George street, the former has lots of traditional boozers and the latter the more swanky places so it was a great starter pub regardless of what you had planned for the night ahead.