Wetherspoons

[Spencer_White]

http://news.uk.msn.com/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=12386848

Cheaper than eating and drinking at home?!!

How do they do it? Shows other pubs it can be done. If your average pub contines to sell beer at £3 and over then should they accept that draught beer will soon be dead in this country and start selling bottled lagers at a reasonable price?

Obviously im a lager lout and lager is all I care about.

[Simon Pieman]

I'm quite surprised as their margins were already tight. Profits were down some 20% last financial year I think, mainly due to the smoking ban.

[LucienSanchez]

Greene King IPA for 99p? Superb...

[Simon Pieman]

That said, it's all good for us as the consumer

I've considered having a couple of drinks in town before matches instead of going to the Merlin quite often and only done it a couple of times. Factors like this may begin to persuade me more.

[Bogus Dave]

Wetherspoons get away with it because the know they can afford to. All their beers and lagers etc are bought For cheper than the local does because they go out of date within about 3 days.

[Arriba]

fair play to em.if they make a profit and can charge prices like that then great.the cost in some pubs for a pint is ridiculous compared to supermarket prices.

[Batch]

fair play to em.if they make a profit and can charge prices like that then great.the cost in some pubs for a pint is ridiculous compared to supermarket prices.

I agree but pubs are shutting at an increasing rate of knots so I doubt it is profiteering. Higher prices and fewer customers seems financially better for some pubs than lower prices and more customers.

[Ardiles]

Wetherspoons and other pubcos will have access to economies of scale that your local will not - so just like any area of business, the playing field is rarely level.  I'm quite torn, actually.  On the one hand, it's good to see a company that champions real ale succeeding, and taking on the supermarkets.  On the other, this could be the nail in the coffin for lots of other small local pubs.  Life is never black or white, I guess.

[STFC_Gazza]

I dont know Wetherspoons trading practices. The pub co I work for though, with our supplier scottish & Newcastle we looked at dropping beer prices etc but no way we could do it. Wetherspoons have a niche market and I think if we dropped beer prices in our pubs I dont think we would get people in there. We own the Glasshouse (old Bedroom) in Swindon. Its already incredibly dead and if we dropped prices to a quid a pint no one would still go in there so... A pint I believe is about 70p to buy for pubco's and prob about 50p for spoons if their beer is near a sell by date. It's all well and good Spoons doing this and I would drink there ofcourse but there has been other examples of pubs doing 99p pints and the police and government have kicked off about binge drinking so it won't be long before the price goes back up IMO.

Best website for pub news and whats happening in the industry is...http://www.thepublican.co.uk/

Like shops however pubs may start selling at a loss so and in the long run it may hurt them. Time will tell though.

[Mexicano Rojo]

wetherspoons are the tescos of the licensing game, fair play if you want to drink there but continue to do so and your local wont survive.

[adje]

Wetherspoons,like Zavvi,are soulless dives,a chav's paradise.I really would prefer to pay more to drink in a proper pub

[STFC_Gazza]

Wetherspoons and Supermarkets are killing the traditional British Pub along with the Goverment. Drink at your local otherwise it will be plastic rent a pubs only in 5 years time.

[Saxondale]

I dont know Wetherspoons trading practices. The pub co I work for though, with our supplier scottish & Newcastle we looked at dropping beer prices etc but no way we could do it. Wetherspoons have a niche market and I think if we dropped beer prices in our pubs I dont think we would get people in there. We own the Glasshouse (old Bedroom) in Swindon. Its already incredibly dead and if we dropped prices to a quid a pint no one would still go in there so... A pint I believe is about 70p to buy for pubco's and prob about 50p for spoons if their beer is near a sell by date. It's all well and good Spoons doing this and I would drink there ofcourse but there has been other examples of pubs doing 99p pints and the police and government have kicked off about binge drinking so it won't be long before the price goes back up IMO.

Best website for pub news and whats happening in the industry is...http://www.thepublican.co.uk/

Like shops however pubs may start selling at a loss so and in the long run it may hurt them. Time will tell though.

You're right about coppers kicking off about binge drinking etc.  Always been the way.  When I was running a student union about 8 years ago we used to do a 70's night called kinky afro, the hook being the 70p pints.  Which we could make money on as people generally got bored with fosters and moved on to red bull and vodka etc where the margins were much larger.

Then the council and police 'recommended' to all licensed premises that the minimum ad rink could be sold for was £1 and 2 for 1's must be £2 minimum.  Almost screwed the night up, but it survived and I think they still do it.

If I remember rightly the weatherspoons pub took everything to a quid.  Probably made them the most profitable pub in the chain for a while.

[Reg Smeeton]

Wetherspoons and Supermarkets are killing the traditional British Pub along with the Goverment. Drink at your local otherwise it will be plastic rent a pubs only in 5 years time.

 I blame the younger generation....by which I mean anyone <40, OK like any rule there are a few exceptions, but their lifestyle decisions don't fit into the traditional pub set up.

 Firstly there are too many lightweights, who prefer to drink wine and stuff while playing PS 2 and wii etc in their bedrooms whilst still living at home.

 This means traditional pub games like darts, crib, shovehalfpenny and quoits are hard to find.

 The shortage of serious drinkers means that there are a lack of replacements in locals, when the hardcore, go to meet the great brewer in the sky...which tends to happen with alarming regularity.

 Secondly, spending too much time watching soaps and reality TV shows means this generation receive their social life rather than living it...the pub always being the traditional hub of social intercourse..gor blimey Mrs Jones...how's your Bert's lumbago...mustn't grumble.

 Thirdly, the change in role of women in society means that this generation of men are more "under the thumb" gone are the days when the man after a hard days work goes down the pub for some manly banter about football and stuff. No, now it's ante-natal clinics, Nivea for Men and I might be allowed out for the Chelsea match at Wetherspoon's, if I buy her a new kitchen.

[RobertT]

Adje's and Gazza's points are intersting and relate to the example of Tesco's I gave on another thread.  If people don't use them, then they don't succeed.  If people prefer to spend less and visit a "soulless" establishment, then it suggests the original reason for attending the "local" wasn't because it was a local.  I don't visit my local because it's awful.  I visit a Spoons if I'm planning on being in Town for drinking and fancy some cheap stuff for a bit, I would not visit a Spoons just because it was cheap (i'd still have to pay for a taxi over a local).  If everything was about price, then high end restaurants would have collapsed under the weight if McDonalds, but instead they now flourish.