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Original poster

Why are so many pubs closing down?

176 replies

Spangles1963 · 10/04/2018 17:14

I was listening to a radio phone-in programme last night about the number of pubs in Britain closing down. Apparently it's an average of 20 per week! Now,I'm not a regular pub visitor nowadays,although I was in my twenties and early thirties (in my mid 50s now).I probably go to a Wetherspoons about once every couple of months these days. But I was shocked to hear this figure quoted. At this rate,there'll be none left within a few years. Just out of interest,I did a tally of how many pubs I could think of in the area I live that have closed down in the last few years. It was 8! Various factors have been blamed for the demise of pubs,from the smoking ban,to the availability of cheap alcohol in supermarkets. What do MNers think is the reason,and has anyone else noticed so many pubs closing down near where they live?

OP posts:
Lovemusic33 · 10/04/2018 19:23

This makes me sad. I have worked in quite a few pubs before and after the smoking ban, I have always wanted my own pub but I have seen so many landlords/laddies struggle over the past ten years. The smoking ban didn’t help but also the price of alcohol, the fact you can not drink hardly anything and your over the limit, the price it costs for a taxi home and the fact people just aren’t as sociable anymore.

I still go to pubs but it’s hard to find a friendly pub where people just go to drink and chat. Most pubs are now all about food because that’s the only way they can make money. If you can’t produce a good menu then you don’t stand a chance.

Most of the pubs here have closed or changed hands many times over the past few years.

Jux · 10/04/2018 19:24

Smoking ban started it. We've lost 10 pubs just in our High Street area since. There were more closing and I think the rate of closures is slowing so maybe there will be some left. No traditional ones though, they'll all be replaced by Wetherspoons and its ilk.

Tbh, I went into a Wetherspoons once. No atmosphere and cold. Shit food.

RaininSummer · 10/04/2018 19:26

Cost is the only reason we don't go to pubs much. Love the smoking ban as couldnt go before as it made my eyes stream and gave me coughing fits as well as stinking hair and clothes

ReanimatedSGB · 10/04/2018 19:35

I find the loss of pubs sad, too. I have never liked 'wine bars' or 'female friendly' places very much - they are generally more expensive and the music's shit.

There are a few decent ones near me, mercifully, and I try to go to them when I can (short of money and time) - now that DS is 13.5 I can mostly just take him with me without having to check a pub is 'kid friendly'.

Another thing I love about pubs is: when you've been on a nice long walk and you reach the end point and go ooh, where's the nearest nice pub, and you have a pint and relaaaaxxxx...

DullAndOld · 10/04/2018 19:37

Smoking ban
Expensive drinks
Wetherspoons
No money in selling pints and peanuts to pissheads.

DullAndOld · 10/04/2018 19:38

Also, a bit of a conspiracty theory, the government is keen to shut down public spaces where people can meet and talk.
same as with the libraries.

DullAndOld · 10/04/2018 19:38

*conspiracy

KittTheCar · 10/04/2018 19:43

As others have said

Smoking ban
Cheap supermarket booze

Plus (only read half thread so maybe been said)

Enforcement of drinking age. Round out way you started going to pub at 14/15/16, they were all rammed and ok maybe we weren't spending huge but a lot of teens X 3 or 4 pints, 3 or 4 nights a week will add up I'm sure.

KittTheCar · 10/04/2018 19:44

Young people in general don't seem interested in pubs. My neck of the woods most people are my age ie 40s.

KittTheCar · 10/04/2018 19:45

40s and up I should say.

I'm not sure what young people do these days tbh they aren't out on the high street much in the evenings

Aquamarine1029 · 10/04/2018 19:47

It's a combination of factors. For me, I have a lovely home that my husband and I have worked very hard for, we love to be home, and we also decided many years ago that we would never drink if we had to drive within several hours. We have kept that promise and take it very seriously. Therefore, we drink in the comfort and safety of our home.

RainOnATinRoof · 10/04/2018 19:47

I can think of about 8 within a mile of my house which have gone. Dreadful places, many of them, the kind of pub where a female face would elect stares

Think this is key. The pub as an institution used to be a male domain, while women were keeping house and minding the kids. Now men are more involved in family life, and women go to pubs too. Venues that haven't caught onto this shift will be suffering.

I question whether the smoking ban is the culprit, as Australia has had a pub smoking ban since 2007 or so, and it didn't have a noticeable effect.

Orangeteddy · 10/04/2018 19:55

DH runs a bar. Biggest impact is changing behaviour of young people:

  • Many don’t drink and if they come in just drink tap water
  • No longer the culture for young people to regularly go to pubs to meet for a night out
  • Social media & gaming has taken the place of socialising in RL

Customers who spend the most money tend to be 40+ due to their drinking habits

PumpkinPie2016 · 10/04/2018 20:01

Agree with many others that people don't use pins as much because alcohol can be bought cheaply in supermarkets. Brewery owned pubs have to buy their stock from certain places, often at much higher prices than elsewhere which means that have to charge more for drinks.

Possibly taxi fares as well as people can't afford it so stay at home with friends instead.

I used to work in a pub which eventually closed down. I only worked there a short time before I moved on to a graduate job but I could see it was going down. The drinks were expensive and the food wasn't great so people didn't return. In addition, the landlord wasn't that bothered about making improvements.

The pins near me that do well have good cask ales and good food. The one in our village does excellent, reasonably priced food and has a decent range of ales - it is absolutely thriving! You have to book to have your tea in there even in the week!

I once thought about getting a pub of my own but it's a long, hard slog for often very little reward.

RainbowGlitterFairy · 10/04/2018 20:04

Smoking ban, rising drinks prices, enforcement of drinking age and not serving very drunk people, young people just don't seem to spend as much time drinking in pubs and the next age bracket up are at the age where they are settling down and don't have the time/money to go out all the time. Clubs are starting to be more competitive with their prices.

I started working in my local pub 12 years ago, on a Friday night most of the customers were 18/19 a few might have been 17 Everyone would come in for a few cheap drinks before heading to the local night club. Now the local night club charge less and have lots of drinks deals, discounts if you get there before 11 etc and according to my much younger siblings people don't do the pre-drinking anymore because doorstaff actually expect you to be able to stand up and talk normally to get into the clubs and they do not understand the joys of a hastily shared bottle of Sainsburys manky cider, as many cheap shots from the local as you could drink and then only buying one bottle of wkd in the club coz you were already wasted.

CoffeeOrSleep · 10/04/2018 20:13

I don't think it can be just cost, because if I think about how much I spend on socialising - meals, drinks as a family or as a couple or with friends, coffee meet ups, etc, I probably spend a lot more than my parents did. (Obviously allowing for inflation!).

But it's been years since DH and I went out for drinks as a couple - meals, yes, but just drinks? Not something we do. I do meet friends for a couple of drinks, but more likely to go for a meal as for the last decade there's always been someone pregnant or breastfeeding or meet in the day time for a coffee. We regularly meet friends for breakfast, I don't think my dad has ever had breakfast out except in a hotel on holiday... trips to restaurants (rather than McDonalds) when I was a child was something that happened only a couple of times a year, my dcs eat in a restaurant most weeks - even if it is just pizza express. (And I'll usually have a glass of wine).

Our whole socialising culture has changed. I like that I have lots of places I can decent meals and a nice glass of wine, I'm not all that fussed that they don't do a good range of bitter by the pint.

isseywithcats · 10/04/2018 20:17

Where i live there is a sizeable Muslim population and as Muslims don't drink the customer base has dissapeared over the years for pubs in my area, and also, the smoking ban, and cheap beer in supermarkets, here is very much working class low wages area so people cant afford to go to pubs now, even the town centre on a Saturday night is dead compared to a few years ago

DianaT1969 · 10/04/2018 20:30

The pub next door to my work charges £6-9 for house wine. It makes a round expensive and a 'quick drink after work' very expensive. Not like the old days..

Wateroffaduck · 10/04/2018 20:45

I never go to the pub which is a 2 minute walk from my house. It is very unfriendly, a proper drinkers pub, you get stared out when you walk in, the barflys sat round the bar don’t move so you can order, the staff grunt at you and everybody ignores you.

I won’t be sad if it goes. I prefer the pub which is a 15 minute walk away and is more expensive, nice friendly staff.

chipsandpeas · 10/04/2018 20:51

not all pubs are owned by pub co's/breweries tho, there are some that are still free of tie that pay a reasonable amount for their beer/cider
the pubs who didnt survive generally didnt change anything mainly after the smoking ban as the tide turned then
more people are fussy about what they spend their money on - im not fussed about wetherspoons i find the food ok for what you pay however if i splash out and go to a fancier place them i want better food, drinks and atmosphere
the old mans pub has pretty much gone

Laiste · 11/04/2018 07:51

I've found this very interesting. Same as pp personally i'm sceptical about about how big the role the smoking ban is in this. I think it's quite a small part. I mean we're not seeing coffee shops die out ...

About the 'sad' issue ... I'm genuinely curious to know how many posters who have said they find it sad that pubs are in decline regularly frequent their local? Or did so before it closed? Is it the idea of the local pub of the past which they are feeling nostalgia for? Or the pub of their youth?

If the way the traditional pub was used is now out of touch socially and out or reach financially for the majority ... well, what is being mourned exactly?

Blankscreen · 11/04/2018 08:14

I think like lots of 'high street's businesses the costs of overheads is killing them. If its a pub on a lease from a brewery then it is even harder to make a living at the brewery are taking a huge slice of the profits.

My 21 year old sister doesn't drink in pubs. They have pre drinks at home and go out at about 11 straight to a night club.

People late 30's early 40's who used to go into pubs now have high living costs and often expensive children so don't have the spare cash.

You can catch up on social media so no need to pop to the pub.

AmIAWeed · 11/04/2018 08:15

Laiste For me the loss is linked to the loss of the social aspect. We moved to a village with what we thought had 2 pubs. One turned out to be a restaurant with a bar - you really are not made welcome unless you are eating there as well.
The second was a pub, we had one drink in there the week we moved in, and it closed the next week!!
So now we live in a village with nothing, there are no shops, no pub, it's a rural village and there isn't even a park so meeting people is really difficult. We've been here 3 years now and finally starting to make friends, ironically it was getting a dog that turned the tide!! Each time someone moves to the village I make a point of saying hello, at Christmas we hosted a party and invited people we barely knew simply because its the only way to get to know people now. THAT is what I miss, a central place for people to meet, that's informal and doesn't involve me cleaning up massively before and after a few drinks!

Flaskfan · 11/04/2018 08:25

Culture change. 20 years ago when I was a bar maid, it was the norm for blokes to come in after work and hide from their wives have a few pints after work. Oh how we'd laugh when one of them.would phone looking for Dave or Alan et all. Often, they would go and have tea, then come back. My dad never spent a night in.

I don't think men can get away with that anymore and I don't actually think they want to. Not only t h st, but most of us are constantly working and have very little free time. I think I go to the pub about once every 2 months or so. I'm more likely to go out out to the nearest city.

CoffeeOrSleep · 11/04/2018 08:28

IAmAWeed - before you moved, did you have a pub you went to for a few drinks 2-3 times a week, knew the other regulars/landlord?

Pubs aren't community spaces anymore, because most people don't go out straight from work several nights a week. Being in a rural location wouldn't make any difference.

I really don't buy the cost of living/income aspect, because the sheer amount people will spend in coffee shops and restaurants. It's just people don't want to socialise that way any more.