Drinkers in Spoons

[TheDaringOliveNewt]

I'm away and at spoons having breakfast.

Every single table apart from mine has pints going, at 8.30.

Aibu thinking it's weird?

Only if you live a 9-5 life where you work or have important things to do during the day.

Many people don’t live that kind of lifestyle - they work shifts, they’re retired, they work part-time, they work nights, they’re lucky enough to live lives of leisure etc.

You’re wasting your time attempting to explain logic to that poster. More than one person explained that to her yesterday but she’s still perpetuating the same prejudice and no doubt will be till people stop responding.

if you drink at 8am you are more restricted what you can do for the rest of the day. Whereas if you leave drinking until the evening you can do everything that isn’t impacted by alcohol impact before that,

Not if you are going back to work for an night shift!
Day time job. ( especially Friday or Saturday)
Go to work
Finish work
Meet friend
Have a meet up and a drink.
go home
Go to bed.

Night time workers
Go to work
Finish work
Meet friend
Have a Meet up and a drink
Go home
Go to bed

Ahahaha what do you expect in a spoons? Ffs there’s a whole Facebook group dedicated to people sending free booze to your table if you post it in the group.

try a nice cafe next time 😊

Really? That's brilliant!

I love the snobbery about Spoons. Makes me lol. Some people are being ridiculous, other people are sensible.

I mean, I did go there a lot in my younger days, can’t beat a good pitcher of vodka and red bull lol

When I worked in pubs those people were generally ones who worked nights (except for the table of alcoholics of course). So for you it’s 8.30am but for them it’s 8.30pm.

For some it’s obviously just problem drinking but they’d just drink at home if they couldn’t at the pub.

The one in the next little town to me, has a respectable, middle aged, woman who is in as soon as the doors open, then keeps ordering bottles of wine and just sits there slowly drinking them. I think it's an odd culture to drink so early on a morning. I don't even do it on holiday!

When we've gone mid morning yeah lots of people drinking. Too early, even me lol 😆

It was the same when I was at uni 20 years ago. I would go and grab one at opening some mornings, and they would be queuing up ready to drink if I got there a little too early or they unlocked the doors late.

Maybe coming of night shift

He’s probably just came of night shift. Poor bloke.

How different is this to all those jetting off wherever who have a few pints before catching the 10 am flight? Or while on holiday at an all inclusive happily have buck fizz with their breakfast? I don't because I'd have a cracking headache by noon.

Very weird and unnecessary - unsavoury - in my view but I am not a drinker.

It is Wetherspoons so.....one must expect the unexpected.

I love drinking. I am having a glass of wine whilst typing this.

However, I don’t love day time drinking, or people who do it. I hate people drinking on the train - it seems some people can’t catch a train without having to get pissed at 9 am. It’s really unpleasant to be stuck in a train carriage with drunk wankers. I don’t like bottomless brunches for ‘mummies’ or sad old men throwing back pints at 8.30 am in Wetherspoons. Drink alters behaviour significantly and in a way that affects others in the vicinity - I agree with the normal societal rules that drinking early, drinking in enclosed public spaces (like trains), drinking excessively and in a way that could lead to behaviour that upsets or frightens others is not a good thing. And what interests me very much about this thread is that on MN, if someone comes on here and says they drink a bottle of wine a night in their own home, there is near universal condemnation…but if it’s old men chugging pints in Wetherspoons it’s ok and none of anyone’s business. It’s very interesting.

My healthcare colleagues who work 12 hour nights often go for a drink on the way home from work around 8.30am.

This was me today! I’ve been awake since 2am so having a drink with my “lunch” (at 9:30am) didn’t feel wrong to me.

Totally insane. One of the few positive changes I have lived through is the decline in drinking among the young. As a teen in the ‘90s, people were obsessed with alcohol. They would come into work on a Monday and boast about how drunk they’d got. I remember going into my local town with some American and German friends and being so embarrassed and ashamed. Public drunkennnes in the late ‘90s was awful. There were idiots walking in the road and holding up the traffic, girls fighting and urinating in shop doorways, etc. The Americans I was with couldn’t believe it. Hideous. I remember feeling genuinely ashamed of my country

Yep, I certainly wouldn’t want alcohol at that time in the morning, but you gotta love Spoons, as at my local branch you can get a large Sauvignon Blanc for £2.90

My daughter works in Spoons. She says they can start serving at 9 and usually she sells the first pint at 9.01. She thinks 90% of these drinkers are alcohol dependant. Rest are shift workers or special event, going on holiday etc.

Not unusual at all, friend was a prison officer, liked a pint when he finished work. Night shifts exist.

It's certainly not weird for Spoons. I can't speak for other pubs as when we go out for breakfast, it's either cheap and cheerful Spoons or a farm cafe.

A friend of mine who works shifts did point out however that those who work regular night shifts may well have a pint when they have finished their shift as we day workers might consider an evening drink after work (& before bed time)

I briefly did nightshifts about 20 years ago... we'd all go to Spoons for a beer when we finished at 10am. It was that or a horrible 24hr pool/snooker place.

Last year I went to a 9:30am showing of a movie. Got there a bit early and decided to pop into the Spoons next door and grab a coffee. Changed my mind and asked for a beer on the spur of the moment, only for the young lad behind the bar to sheepishly inform me that he couldn't serve me booze until 9am. Got a dirty look off an old couple ordering breakfast like I was some kind of desperate drunk 😭

@EleanorReally I worked in Smithfield Market famous for its meat, the pubs would open specifically for the men who had worked a night shift in the early hours of the morning, to give them a respite when unable to have a normal life ( admittedly catered for men) but hard graft, they were civilised and were a great bunch of men working to put that meat on our tables, they worked hard and did not have a lot of chances to play hard, they were putting food on the table at home and looking after their families, that was their respite, well deserved, just explaining that people do work through the night to give us our comforts and I for one am very grateful. A lot more behind the scenes that we don't credit with a thought, hope you are good and can understand that sometimes we have to think how we get our food and comforts in life xx

Who eats breakfast at Spoons! Is that all you could find