Is this the end for our locals?

Local TV

With Wetherspoons confirming closures of dozens more pubs by the end of the year, following a trend across the industry, we ask our expert if this is the end of the local pub as we know it, or are there measures that can be taken to save them?

Transcript

00:00Sort of Wetherspoons have been the real success story in hospitality. I mean, obviously there are

00:05pubs, but of course lots of people go to Wetherspoons for sort of the cheap beer and the

00:08cheap food. If Wetherspoons are sort of feeling the pinch, which is clearly sort of part of the

00:13problem, and indeed they're having to sort of look at the costs, then it doesn't bode well for the

00:19rest of the sector. How big a role is employment costs, things like national insurance, the living

00:24wage going up? How much of a part do these play in the problems that the pubs are seeing at the

00:29moment? Well, I mean, the thing about sort of a pub is that sort of that there are firstly the fixed

00:35costs, because of course you have the premises and you either sort of own them, which of course is

00:40sort of an opportunity cost, you know, because we could use that money elsewhere, invest it in the

00:44stock exchange or sort of put it in the bank and get a guaranteed rate of return, such as it may be.

00:50So there's that. But of course, the sort of the thing that's a really hit sort of all sort of

00:55businesses like ourselves is energy costs. They've gone up tremendously because of course,

00:59Ukraine. And then all the other sort of subsidiary costs, you have to sort of the repair and

01:05maintain these places and so on and so forth. But of course, the other sort of big element is

01:09staff cost. You know, they have to pass it on to the customer, which makes that sort of

01:12pint of beer or the sort of the cup of coffee or the sort of the meal that you buy all the more

01:17expensive. There is a fact, I also sort of add, because we all know that we go to the supermarket and

01:23the sort of the bottle of beer that you buy, that might be three, four, five quid in the sort of the pub,

01:28you can buy sort of a box of these things, sort of, you know, they work out as sort of a fraction

01:34of the price. So I think people sort of, their patterns of behaviour are changing, driven by the

01:40sort of the fact that, you know, and of course, good weather is a sort of good opportunity to have

01:43beers in the garden.

01:45Are we seeing a shift in consumer behaviour in general? Like younger generations seem to be going

01:49out drinking less?

01:50There is no sort of doubt that nightclubs are sort of closing a sort of great rate of knots,

01:57if you sort of forgive the expression, because, yeah, they're finding a deal where people don't

02:02go to sort of venues in the same way that they once did. So, you know, the idea of sort of opening

02:06a pub and sort of, you know, people will flock there, it doesn't always happen. And I've been

02:10in some places and you do look around and when you're seeing more sort of bar staff than customers,

02:16there is a sort of problem. So, yeah, I think there is a sort of definite sort of shift.

02:21The difficulty is also the long-term sort of consequences that if pubs disappear, they

02:28will probably not return.

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