"Uncle Marvo" wrote in message
...
In reply to Amethyst Deceiver ) who wrote this in
, I, Marvo, say :
Anne Jackson wrote:
The number of bankruptcy cases filed by publicans is going to be
mind-blowing... so, somebody somewhere is going to pay.
Is it? Really? That's what they said in Ireland. I believe that over
there pubs have opened, rather than closed.
Yes, it is, really. The pubs that are doing OK are the big town ones, the
village ones are going to the wall, as they are over here.
Bizarrely, my local, which has chucked its customers outside because most
of them are smokers, have not had the interior filled up by non-smoking
drinkers, like the nsd's said they would do in the fictitious polls
commissioned by the powers-that-be in the run up to the only law I believe
that has ever been passed in this country based solely on an opinion poll.
And all that is fact.
I think most of the country based ones are going to the wall due to the
drink-drive laws. Gone are the days when people thought it socially
acceptable to drive to such pubs, have a few drinks then drive home. This
narrows the clientele down to those who get taxi's or have a none-drinking
member of their party.
The steep price of drinks doesn't help pub trade either, except for the
single 18 to 25 years olds with little or no financial responsibilities and
lots of spare cash.
Undoubtedly heavy smokers will be less likely to go to the pub if they have
to go outside into the elements to indulge their addiction. My guess is that
over time none-smokers will start to consider pubs as a potential night out
again. Smoke filled pubs have certainly cut our custom down over the years
as it has other members of our family. We found pubs ok early in the
evening, but as they start to fill up with smokers the smog becomes
unbearable, so we tended to leave early and head off to the Chinese.
As time passes I expect we and other none-smokers will start to drift back
to clean air pubs / restaurants as a possible night out, but this takes
time. More pubs will probably have gone to the wall by then.
David.