Why I’m not visiting Wetherspoons
The latest financial figures from Wetherspoons indicate a significant increase of sales of cocktails and significant downturn in sales of cask ale
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-59231222
Tim Martin puts this down to the reluctance of older customers to visit the pub in what remain COVID times, because they apparently drink real ale.
I note chat on CAMRA discussion sites (the official ones) about the impact this might have on the production of cask- given the size of the Spoons pub estate and claims that young people prefer craft beer to real ale. I’m afraid that CAMRA’s long overdue discovery that much craft beer (in keykeg) is real ale continues to pass by a certain layer of members (I joined CAMRA in 1975 and remain a member).
I’m 65 (I appreciate some reading this may think Ive been 65 for years- it’s the beard) and I did in fact visit a Wetherspoons pub last week and drank real ale. However that was related to the 2022 Good Beer Guide and is embargoed until later in the weel.
In general though I drank in Spoons pubs regularly 30 years ago. There was often nowhere else to get even vaguely decent beer. Clearly the world has changed since and I hardly ever visit now.
There is the specific issue of the beer. Even pre-pandemic the choice of cask beer and the quality of it when served in Spoons was at best variable. Like CAMRA itself Spoons has been slow to take up craft beer, although you can get a cheap pint of punk IPA which will usually taste better than if you venture into Brewdog. Selling it for £3+ a pint as opposed to £5+ does create a turnover.
However the main reason I swerve Spoons (but certainly not pubs, provided they are safe environments in times likes these- since Xmas is approaching the voices of temperance fans who think pubs are always inherently dangerous places are back btw-) is because it doesn’t recognise trade unions and doesn’t therefore have properly agreed terms and conditions for workers.
Of course that’s true for many pubs. The point is that given the size of Spoons it should be perfectly possible to have a trade union which would of course benefit employees but actually also Mr Martin as it would help to stabilise employment and reduce turnover.
Leave a Reply