The call to back your local pub comes from Highlands and Islands MSP, Jamie McGrigor, after new research from Molson Coors reveals the value of pubs to local communities.
He says that the report shows that 42 pubs (the largest number in Scotland) have closed in Argyll & Bute in last 5 years.
It is not surprising that the research showed what most folk would guess – that after the local shop, pubs were the most frequently visited amenity, with a third of Scots visiting the local at least twice a month.
The independent report showed the lengths to which some publicans are going to keep their business afloat. Their tenacity and creativity is in fact changing the perception of the local pub, attracting new customers and injecting renewed vitality into the sector.
This has created a whole new market for local publicans, who now see more women visiting their premises, as well as a younger audience.
This commitment to sustain the industry has wider implications for the Scottish economy.
With over 50,000 Scots’ jobs and £1.5bn of our national GDP dependent on the twin industries of beer and pubs, pub closures put at risk jobs, many of which are people’s first jobs, and an important industry during a challenging time for the economy.
Commenting Jamie McGrigor, who met with representatives of Molson Coors last week, said: ‘Despite local pubs continuing to be popular among local residents, a combination of factors has made trading conditions difficult which has forced many to close. Across Argyll & Bute, 42 (or 32%) have ceased trading in the last five years alone while the % decline in Inverness & Nairn is 36%. Since 2007 in Scotland as a whole, over 700 pubs have shut.’
The climate pubs face today has been irrevocably changed by the very necessary crackdown on drinking and driving. Where people used to stop at a pub for a pie and a pint or a bistro lunch and a drink on a longer journey or a day out, these days they may still do it but 50% of a couple, the driver, won’t take a drink.
Many pubs now serve first class coffee – which is a pleasure. Only pit stop cafes or pubs these days can get away with anything less. Some pubs do fresh-baked scones, doubling up a cafe function in small places – an excellent idea.
Providing good food is hard on overheads through staffing costs where, in small communities, the service may be rarely used other than at weekends.
Then if you only serve food only at weekends, the aura of the pub for casuals during the week is unexciting. This is a hard cycle to break.
Heat is another issue. A cold pub is a contradiction in terms and a warm pub is a heavy hit on the account balance. Every person who comes in has to feel a warm welcome, even if the pub was empty before they came in. This costs.
Running a pub used to be a cash cow. No longer. It’s now a tough job to stay afloat, requiring constant invention and a focus on maintaining standards. A village that loses its pub becomes oddly unfocused. The pub is a community centre and its loss is hard felt.
Note:Here are the basic source documents t which Jamie McGrigor refers.
And there was me thinking that the Scots have a problem with alchohol. Perhaps there were too many pubs to start with? I understand that food and beverages do not make as large a profit.
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‘Legalised Drug Dealers Closing Down’ could be the alternative title for this piece.
However I’m somewhat sceptical if that many pubs have actually closed down in Argyll(none that I know of in my area). However, I do know of several restuarants that stopped selling alcohol (you can just bring your own now)as they did not wish to comply with the cost charges or the requirements of the latest licensing legislation. This begs the question – is a reduction in licences being equated with pubs closing down?
Any pubs closed down in your area?
That said most pubs/hotels in Argyll are unchanging cheerless places with part-time, grumpy staff who put no effort into their job. However if anybody wants to see what a good busy pub/hotel looks like then they should look no further than the George Hotel in Inveraray. Good food, roaring log fires, attentive staff. The best pub/hotel in Argyll by a country mile. Treat customers with respect, give good value and they will come. The George is rarely quiet – in contrast to most pubs nowadays
ps I thought primary schools rather than pubs were at the heart of the community?
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Gosh! I agree with Simon. The George beats the lot.
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I agree with Simon too! Is there something in the water?
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With the decline of the number of people voting, more for some parties, this article reminds me when votes where bought for drink. The 1% do have the wealth and there is a heavy drink culture here on the west coast.
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The fact is drinking has changed as people do not have the same disposible (did I spell that right?) income anymore.
For the price of 3 drinks in a pub, you can buy a box of beer or a bottle of spirits from most shops. Its just better value for money.
More people are just drinking at home now.
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Crazy “More people are just drinking at home now” – except the people who go to the George.
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‘Legalised Drug Dealers Closing Down’
Thats right Simon, I posted a comment on this very subject on another local website highlighting this. ‘Junkie scum’ was the language used to refer to addicts of the illegal stuff. Lets not forget that alcohol is exactly what the illegal drugs are, mind/mood altering substance not to mention the cause of an alarmingly high percentage of the contents of our Sheriff court column each week. I am not overly concerned about legal drug dens closing as we have perfectly good, well maintained community halls to congregate and socialise as long as the events are well organised and attended with the regularity and enthusiasm of those willing to spend their pay packets each week in pubs. Regarding the George in Inverary, the food is good as is the service and general atmosphere but I do not think the drink they serve there is the answer to their success. The price of a drink in pubs must surely be prohibitive as one of the other posts suggested and would put the closure of the pubs down to the fact that drinking at home is byy far the cheaper option.
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Mr. Tick,
You sound like a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. The pub is a social experience, not an opium den. Home drinkers of cheap supermarket booze are the ones crippling our health service. Pub staff are all obliged to encourage responsible drinking; checkout staff at Tescos are not.
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SR: well said; by Simon’s measure we should be on a campaign to close down all sources of cheap booze – that’s all supermarkets. Perhaps the Swedes have got it right, with (as I understand) sales outside bars restricted to government outlets that can control prices and prevent the abuse of ‘stacking it high and flogging it cheap’.
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SR, the pub may be a ‘social experience’ to you and many others like you, something I would hope all pubs exist to provide. I, before heading to the big smoke in Glasgow to study, worked behind a bar in a rural location and saw at first hand exactly what our bar was there for and unfortunately those who wanted a couple of pints or glasses of wine and a blether were few and far between, well and truelly outnumbered by those intent on escapism or whatever other reason they chose to overindulge, more so at weekends I should mention. This was of course around 20 years ago when there wasn’t the cost gap between drinks bought in pubs and alcohol purchased in supermarkets compared to todays prices. The pub is an opium den for many Mr Renewables, only difference is this particular drug is legal but in many cases just as if not more destructive. I take the odd drink myself and possibly like yourself, have learned when a sociable drink no longer becommes so, pity this cannot be said of many many others in our local pubs in towns and villages. The drain on our health service is as a result of alcohol consumption be it pubs or home as it is extremely speculative to assume that alcohol is consumed in moderation in pubs and not so in the home, we have no way of knowing this. Finally, regarding your first comment about values, how little you know to make such an assumption but pointless trying to defend myself against such presumptious statements simply because of an observation.
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Closing? What about the pending big new Wetherspoon’s for Oban? (On the Railway pier, in the old Glassworks – presently yet another an outdoor clothing shop) Now they know what they are doing. Great – a range of decent beers and good value food at last.
Fed up of drinking dens, poor pubs, cr*p, clueless staff in Oban just serving fizzy or ‘designer’ lagers at city prices – and doing nothing for their customers. They’ve had their chance ….
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Wetherspoons will increase competition which is good for the ordinary folk whether local or visiting. Would imagine it will be a busy place.
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Over the last few years, Helensburgh has lost pubs and nightclubs, ie BJ’s (The Millig Pub), Teak & Ash (Teak), Coopers (Rogarts)and of course Mariners. Shops are closing down only to be replaced with Charity shops, Hairdressers/Barbers and coffee shops. Last Sunday, I counted on my one hand the shops that were open in Helensburgh and therefore why should any one visit? There’s nothing to do when you get here. No Cinema, No Macdonalds, No Multi leisure centre, No Heritage centre, No sandy beach to sit on ,No putting green, No Music in the streets, No Pony rides ,No trampolines, No Kids entertainment, No bowling alleys, No Festivals, No street markets, No all weather entertainment complex, no boat rides on the clyde, no wonder there’s no ferry any more. It’s going to be all right though, Waitrose are opening out of town, that’ll get everyone visiting. Sorry, forgot to mention that a new Wetherspoons has opened; I’m sure no more pubs will close down now!!!
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“No sandy beach to sit on,”
I just read a document about Clydeport dredging, it included a proposal to use dredge spoil to top-up and/or create sandy beaches at Helensburgh, Ayr, Troon, etc; the spoil is something like 80% sand, the other 20% is organic matter that washes out when the spoil is deposited in the intertidal zone(geekspeak for a beach).
Nothing came of the proposal as the topping-up costs more than simply dumping the spoil south of Garroch Head, and no Clydeside councils were willing to spend the modest sum required to make it happen.
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“a new Wetherspoons has opened; I’m sure no more pubs will close down now!!!” might not be a bad thing. I kinda agree with LD “Fed up of drinking dens, poor pubs, cr*p, clueless staff”.
The standard of pub/hotels in Argyll is very, very poor.
Wetherspoons might force them to compete.
My local charges £3.20 fro a pint of Carlsberg – Wetherspoons in Berwick charged £1.89 and offered fresh cooked food, pleasant staff and quick service. I know that Wetherspoons can achieve economies in their purchasing – but I’ll bet the locals will desert the rip-off pubs in Oban/Helensburgh and the tourists will flock to Wethersppons.
Interestinjgly OAP’s make up a large percentage fo Wetherspoon’s daytime customers – half pint and a decent meal.
Still not as good as the George though…
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i
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Interesting dilema for the buisness group in Oban with a potential Wetherspoons on the horizon.Locally obviously the licenced trade will be against but where does that leave the council and the BIDS group who are pushing for new business and the regenaration of the town.
If we let the framework for development become to personal we will stagnate even further so let the competition raise the bar.
Hopefully that will spill into other areas and we will start to see massive improvements that only quality opposition brings.
Maybe Newsroom will get a response from from the Oban Bids group.
cheers Neil.
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Would imagine first stage will be to receive planning permission. It lies between Olive Garden, Sloans and Waterfront, with other licensed pemises nearby. That will need to be balanced against the fact that many Oban pubs have disappeared over the years; Westbay, Crown, Argyll, Oban (currently empty and run down) Kings Arms (even further back, not that i was in it), Mantrap, Park, Soroba House, and Corsons mart had a bar before Tesco days.
Permission will be granted I feel as there is no valid reason to refuse, unless the current influencial local bar/resturant trade have succesful lobbying of elected members in trying to keep them out. Councillors will have a dilema in this regard but will come down to planning staff recomendations and ‘do the public want it’? That will be the key question.
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It seems to me that the biggest problem with alcohol consumption is not the people who drink at home but rather the youngsters who go out on a weekend evening and consume bucket loads of the stuff before spilling out of clubs in the early hours of the morning causing mayhem in towns and cities. Years ago if you were found drunk and incapable you would be thrown into the back of a Black Maria, probably along with other D & Is and appear in the District Court. Now being drunk and incapable seems to have become socially acceptable.
Maybe it is time to cut licencing hours back to 10 p.m. as they used to be?
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From a Kintyre perspective , Jamie McGrigor MSP has highlighted a SYMPTOM of the economic and social decline of the area another one being primary schools at less than half capacity .
Over his years in the Edinburgh parliament , Jamie McGrigor could have spoken out against the run down of agriculture particularly dairying in areas such as Kintyre . Not long ago there were well over 100 dairy farms , now there are around 30 left and the once great industry is in its death throes in Argyll .
I cannot remember a single occasion when Jamie McGrigor was willing to speak out on the situation , call a debate ,or hold ministers to account.
People left to fend for themselves having lost their livelihood and their homes often after generations of being in the same family , feel very let down by Jamie McGrigor .
Many of the young people have had to leave the area , other types of farming have suffered and diversification projects have been starved of resources as the Scottish administrations stumble from one failed policy decision to another all with the acquiescence of Jamie McGrigor .
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from alcohol to milk, well done Islay for ever, that solves the problem
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It doesn’t seem to me that all these politicians who lament the closing of local pubs (and shops for that matter) are particularly interested in considering the effect of business rates. The poundage seems to have gone up from 0.425 to 0.45 in the last year. When I’m sitting at home having a single bottle of beer I bought at the supermarket I don’t have to contribute quite so much to their waste.
I find that the main value of pubs in Argyll and Bute is to fill the gaps created by our not so joined up public transport provision.
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