Jump to content

Recommended Posts

A report today that pubs in the UK pulled just 1.4 million pints of beer a day which is 1.6 million fewer than at the height of the market in 1979.

 

Blame?

- closures after smoking ban

- rising costs

- competition from supermarkets (?)

 

And to think they can now open much more than they used to be able to as well.

 

Do pubs and bars in Japan have strict opening hours?

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 69
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

The smoking ban would have had a big effect for those who like to have a beer and smoke with thier mates down the pub - the drinking/smoking and socialising would just move to someones home with supermarket beer wouldn't it? And probably cheaper!!

 

I must admit I found it FOUL (as an ex-smoker) that we had people lighting up at the table next to ours in resturants in the UK. We had left the kiddies at home in Perth with the folks and done a couples trip, but we had my cousins' babies at the table with us and it really got on my nerves that there was nowhere that one could go where a child was not exposed to someone elses second hand smoke. I have less of an issue with smoking in pubs - but smoking in resturants - YUK!

 

We banned smoking in pubs/clubs/resturants in Perth a few years back now ... I am not sure what effect it has had on them. It would be hard to separate the cause and effect factors though wouldn't it? I know it is damn hard to get a resturant booking in Perth, and pubs and clubs are packed to capacity on the weekends with queues of people waiting to get in. But I think that has a lot to do with our local population boom and the economic propserity due to the mining boom. Things are slowing now, and I would imagine that with an economic downturn leisure activities like drinking/eating out etc will be cut back and therefore decline.

 

I am sure that the smoking ban has had an initial effect on the UK pub scene - but how much of it is the failing economy and how much is it that Joe Bloggs can't go without his fag?

Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote:
I must admit I found it FOUL (as an ex-smoker) that we had people lighting up at the table next to ours in resturants in the UK.


Question to ex-smokers - do you not feel in any way hypocritical about this situation?
Link to post
Share on other sites

But it's OK having an open fire. All that burning vegetable matter, as opposed to burning vegetable matter.

 

I see someone in the UK was arrested for smoking in his car. He was carrying tools and therefore that made it a "place of work".

 

Nuts, and nuts to the anti-smoking wowsers too.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have no problem with people smoking - I just have a problem with people who are smoking imposing thier choice on people who have chosen not to smoke by lighting up in the vicinity. The vast majority of the time I smoked (for 17years) I was a considerate smoker - only smoked in my car when I was alone, if I was outside in a group I would ask if anyone minded if I smoked. Never smoked indoors. Never smoked around people who were eating. Never smoked around my kids.

 

I don't think it is hypocritical to be annoyed that you can not get a non-smoking table in a resturant. However, as I said - pubs and clubs don't really bother me. Maybe because kids can't go there anyway - so everyone going in is making that choice as an informed adult. We all know the dangers of smoking, and of secondhand smoke - so I think it is reasonable for diners to want to eat with thier children in an environment where they do not have to breathe 2nd hand smoke.

 

I knew smoking was doing me harm for the majority of the time I smoked. I started smoking on my 13th birthday - a gift from a friend doh And I kept smoking until I got married at 20 because my Mum hated it and it was one thing she could not control! naughty Then I was hooked and dependent. When I gave up I stacked on the weight. So I kept going back to it. I have been smoke free for 9 years now, and I am finally getting my weight under control too... so it is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy - but I still respect the rights of other to smoke if they wish.

Link to post
Share on other sites

It's simple. If you don't want smoke then bugger off.

 

If you don't want the smell of beer, don't go to the Pub.

 

If you don't want beer and fags then bugger off. It's your choice. Fark you :finger:

Link to post
Share on other sites

I hate being around people smoking. Nasty as shit that is. I always feel like spitting on their faces when the exhale smoke in my face...facking nasty. More than anywhere I hate it in restaurants and coffee shops, which is the one and only reason why I go to Starbucks, its smoke free.

 

Bars are a diff matter...not that I like going to smoky bars, but at least thats my choice for going there to drink beers. I dont wanna be breathing in smoke when Im trying to eat a dinner.

 

I just wish smokers would smoke 2,3, and 4 packs a day = natural selection at its best! stir

Link to post
Share on other sites

soubs, I always thought you were very considerate smoker...never have a problem with that man. I go to a pub, and I know its going to be gross, dont like it, but thats the way it is, but I hate it at restaurants, or when you walk by somebody (and theyre smoking where they cant/shouldnt anyways) and get it in your face. No diff that spitting in somebodys face IMO.

 

There are places where its cool for people to smoke, and there are places where it isnt - I just wish those that arent would be more understood by smokers and they didnt do it there.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I am a very considerate smoker. I really respect eaters in restaurants and other enclosed spaces enjoying their food.

 

Pubs are for drinkers and smokers. Bugger off.

 

I see, Big Will, that pubs are dying. That's a shame. A pint, a pie and a fag used to be enough. 1/10d for a pint of bitter

 

Piss-off to your drug-free pub. No alcohol club will be fun

Link to post
Share on other sites

I am with CB on this one.

 

I had to do the baggage laden stroll from one end of Melbourne Airport to the other on the path in front of the buildings to get to the bus depot from where we disembarked from the plane last week. It meant me juggling 2 suitcase, a back pack and a laptop, Papa dragging 2 snowboard bags, and the youngester pulling a suitcase - baby bear was responsible for his own back pack and not getting lost.

 

It was hard work.

 

On the footpath outside the entry and exit doors there are big massive red painted lines and NO SMOKING words - they cover the entire footpath. It is intended to get the smokers away from the doors so that people are not forced to walk through a smoke screen to get inside or outside.

 

Well...I think every smoker in Melbourne had gathered there that day - along the entire route! We had no choice but to walk through a smokey haze for a good 10 minutes, kids and all. But even worse, was the fact that they had gathered into these groups with thier bags etc, and were blocking the path! I had enough trouble leading the way with the suitcases - I felt for Papa who was manouvering the snowboard bags!!! All the time, my precious and precocious 8 yr old was saying "Mum, it says no smoking on that sign on the ground, why are all those people smoking?" Gotta love kids!

 

You can have your pub Soubs - personally I have no problem with it as I said - but the ban will eventually come because working in a smoke filled environment presents an occ health and safety risk of considerable proportions to the workers. Even if they only hired smokers to work in smoking venues the employers, and therefore the insurance companies, would likely be at the mercy of claims from workers that it was not thier own smoking that got them - but the 2nd hand stuff they luxuriated in for 38hrs a week. It is too high risk for employers, insurers and the government.

 

And I do understand....I am not being a wowser...I know the enjoyment that a ciggie can give. As with an alcoholic who has given up the booze...I am a smoker, who has been 9 years without a smoke.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mission successful. No smoking in the pub. No drinkers in the pub. The Captain Stirling was a good pub, walking distance from home. The wowsers farked that

 

Yes, I prefer (now) to go to the supermarket for a beer.

Link to post
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...