Cost of living rise? Pubs and restaurants packed.

[MakeMineALarge1]

Ok. I'll be honest, this post is only a reflection of this weekend.
Peter Kay tickets flying out at over £50 a ticket and pubs in Manchester absolutely packed to the rafter's, with standing room only

Watching a football match in a pub can be very cheap. Cheaper than having a subscription.

Those who are most impacted by the cost of living crisis were likely already pretty skint as it was. Ergo, I doubt they were ever going to be frequenting bars/restaurants or buying up Peter Kaye tickets. It's just that now they're extra fucked.

Do we need to have multiple threads a day to explain that not everyone has the same financial circumstances? There's already one on here whinging about the poor all flocking to Peter Kay...

Some of them might even buy Christmas presents for their children. The horror.

As someone with a young relative living off a minimum wage hospitality job, I really hope enough people can still afford to eat out etc otherwise the whole sector will collapse.

Why are you so shocked! You were there you could obviously afford to go. Someone might have paid for them to go as a gift. Early Christmas gift etc. Or they have saved to go. Whatever the reason it's really nobody else's buisness.

Don't feel bad.

We spent £20k on a family holiday to Mallorca for 1 week after some inheritance money. We also donated £5k to an animal charity.

Its a one-off expense essentially.

As long as you had a good time and you have positive memories as a family...that is all that really matters. You cannot fix all of the problems in this world.

I think it's great that so many places are busy and hopefully tipping.

antelopevalley, well yes, that's why they went too see it in a pub as it is cheaper than Sky andd there is way my DH would buy annoyed subscription especially as it gives him an excuse to go to the pub but the food that we couldn't get a table for so had to leave the pub is about £80 for 4 people. Like I said we rang two other pubs we like for food and fully booked..

To not too

I have less money than I had to years ago in real terms, inflation cannot be denied it it’s happening and it is having an impact. I like many people though it’s been cushioned by inflation busting payrises and realistically having 10% less disposable income is a really small amount of money I might have two glasses of wine instead of three now.

I was out this weekend at the German markets in Birmingham, the whole city centre was packed. There were much bigger queues than I remember from last year, I definitely think you’re right OP. I even said to my DH as I was looking at all the people “what cost of living crisis?!” Also so many women with fake lips and eyelashes, clearly not struggling for funds 😂

This is like an 'academia' way of thinking about it...People, regardless of how poor they are, and I was poorer before COVID-19 & before all of this, will still go to pubs and restaurants.

I did anyway; we just used to have to scrimp on other things, but we still had good times regardless. I am sure that's what it is like for others too.

Go to any local gastopub on a Tuesday lunchtime... it's all 70-80 yr olds protected .

Surely you don’t think it’s that simplistic? The cost of living crisis doesn’t mean everyone is sitting in dark at home surviving on just tap water and bread (although some people are not far off). But it does mean a lot of people have less money than they did, as their money isn’t going as far. So you might have gone out for a pub lunch every Sunday beforehand, and maybe now you do it once every 4-6 weeks. Or maybe before you’d have a big evening out with cocktails and a 3 courses meal but now you pop out for a glass of wine or two. It doesn’t mean every pub and restaurant will be a ghost town, but I would wager that many of them aren’t making as much money as they were.

I hate this idea that poor people aren't really poor unless they're living some hand to mouth existence that doesn't even allow for a pint. That if you can have a drink out now and again, you're fine and complaining about nothing.

It's not wrong to want to enjoy your life a little bit.

"More than three-quarters of operators, 77%, reported a decrease in diners and drinkers,"

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/31/uk-hospitality-firms-pubs-restaurants-hotels-energy-food-inflation

Some are struggling. Some are not. HTH.

Oh god no! Those dirty poor people are being allowed to go out to restaurants! 🙄

Them and you, clearly, if you’ve seen them out there.

It’s only just started. Many people will still be in fixed terms with their mortgage and energy providers. It’s not been cold enough to have heating on constantly yet. Many will have only seen an increase in food and depending on size of household, it may not be a massive increase in weekly food budget. And of course - some can mitigate it or have plenty of surplus cash. I don’t think it will be noticeable in the run up to Christmas - parties and weekend breaks will have been already paid for.

I reckon it will start to bite Jan/Feb. Lots of people get into debt at Christmas and those months are the coldest. More fixed terms will be ending and household budgets for the year ahead will start looking bleaker.

sounds like it’s set to get worse too, with tax increases and the withdrawal of government help that’s about to be announced.

it won’t show until next year.

Yep, it feels a lifetime ago but this Christmas won’t have the threat of the virus hanging over plans, people will hopefully enjoy it all

I know I feel way better

I never understand how people seem to be disappointed when their doom and gloom predictions don’t come true. It’s almost like catastrophe porn. You saw it during the pandemic and you’re seeing it now.

Jesus, just be happy that it isn’t as bad as others will have you believe.

It’s the old Mumsnet thing of you only see what people spend - not what they don’t spend.

for example - I was out at a very nice country pub on Friday night, and dh had a night out in London on Thursday. Looks like we are spending lots - but we’ve cancelled our planned kitchen extension and we had planned loosely to go away over Christmas this year, but have decided not to book anything.

as others have said it’s not hit us too hard yet - our mortgage is fixed for another couple of years and we can swallow the increased food bills and our energy costs doubling. But that means we have less disposable income for big spends like holidays and home improvements.

Well I’m with you OP. We are told, and there certainly will be, a sodding big recession about to smack us in the face. The fact that restaurants and pubs are rammed - and they definitely were in that town I was in today - isn’t being the indicator that this is about to hit us as it should be.

People are throwing caution to the wind and I don’t understand why.

I guess they have the money right now.

it’ll be interesting if these threads still pop up in the new year.

I'm feeling the cost of living rise in so far as my weekly shop is more expensive and my energy bills have doubled. I'm having to save less as a result. I'm still able to pay my mortgage and go on holiday.

One would hope so because it will mean some will still have jobs....