The biggest threat to pubs? Nobody has any money.
Upholding an entire economic sector is difficult when you're skint.
Pubs are where you put the world to rights. I’ve decided to keep track of the bright ideas I have at the pub and occasionally share them on here, for better or worse.
There’s something truly joyless about the way our country views the hospitality industry. Unlike other job and service providing sectors, it seems that hospitality is viewed as a lesser economic contributor, simply because it exists to ensure people enjoy their leisure time. I have a problem with this.
As the price of food, energy and petrol rises, we have to scale back our other expenditures. When we’re financially squeezed, be it through banking collapses, pandemics, recessions, or inflation, of which we’ve all lived through in just over a 15 year period, the first thing to go from our budgets are leisurely activities. There are lots of resources out there to help guide you through creating new, more restrictive budgets—as though we don’t understand how spending versus debt works. In my banking app, it tells me what I could afford to spend less on in future, and this is always a list of pubs I’ve bought pints in. It’s never told me to cut down my spending on bills, by far my largest outgoings. Quite frankly this is bullshit.
I’m not advocating that we spend less on food or heating. I’m saying we don’t have enough money, and that is the thing that needs to change. Everyone needs to be given some money to spend on enjoying themselves, now more than ever.
I don’t know where that money will come from, I’m not an economist. Figure it out yourself. All I know is that pubs are still shutting down because people can’t afford to leave their homes to enjoy a little bit of leisure and all-important social time, and the official reaction is, “oh well.” Where else is the consumer expected to be the sole supporter of an entire industry?
We can tell the government we want all kinds of financial support for pubs and bars, but I think we need more than that. What’s the point of saving a pub if it stays empty on a Friday night? Everyone needs a weekly stipend to spend in their locals, on whatever they want. I’m only half joking. Imagine Eat Out To Help Out, but better, because it’s not half-arsed and people would get to spend their money (or… credits? Tokens? A ration book? People love that “we'll meet again” WWII crap, don’t they? Would a school dinner swipe card-type system work? I don’t care) everywhere, and the venues don’t have to jump through hoops to claim their money back.
It might be a stupid idea, but have you got a better one?
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Other Stuff
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A lovely sort-of travelogue-style piece by Hannah Che about the mung bean cakes she’s obsessed with in her new home city of Dali, Yunnan Province
Cask beer in Denver, by Gabe Toth for Pellicle
“The Science of Smoke” from Pit Mag
Joshua Redman’s Tiny Desk concert
My Stuff
I’m a finalist for two British Guild of Beer Writers awards: Best Commissioned Beer Writing and Best Short-Form Beer Writing. I find out how I actually do on the 27th November at the annual Guild dinner.
From last week: “If Nobody Cares About Craft”
also congratulations Katie!
I'm forever writing about why pubs are essential, and I think your idea is a great one. How do we get it implemented.