Man who undercut an entire industry, complains he's being undercut
this post was submitted on 22 Jan 2025
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For me, the price difference between chain pub food and nice resturant food is now too small as a percentage.
If I'm going out, and the choice is £20 a head in a half decent local restaurant, or £17.50 for something mediocre in a pub full of sports fans, it's not a hard decision.
Same as happened with a lot of the fast food places: When you're approaching "proper food" money, people will spend a couple of quid extra for something nicer.
My local does decent cheap food, and does well because of it. (And in this comparison, it's the £12.50 option)
On the whole the pub chains, or breweries as they were once known, have themselves to blame. The pursuit of bigger profits through increased rents & leases and drinks prices have led to them being a luxury item. This started back in the mid nineties at the latest.
I remember small pubs being bought out, closed for a million pound refurbishment, reopened with a fanfare and new prices to match putting off customers. The supermarkets saw this and took advantage.
I mean, the root cause here, if you look at the bigger picture, is that EVERYTHING is getting more expensive and EVERYONE is getting poorer.
Nobody would expect supermarket prices in a pub, it's obviously going to be more, and that's expected. It's not that people don't want to go out, it's that they can't afford to go out the amount they'd like, because the working class is broke.
I do agree that swapping the VAT around would be fair, because booze is only a component of a supermarket's business while it's a mainstay of a pub's business, but that's not the main reason people aren't going out anymore. People are drinking less and less even at home, too, especially younger generations.
but that’s not the main reason people aren’t going out anymore. People are drinking less and less even at home, too, especially younger generations.
I think this is understated, I think our attitutes towards alcohol are changing. People aren't going out every night after work anymore or having a couple of pints on their lunch break. The younger generations are a lot more health consious.
Yeah I think you're right, it's both aspects. Less affordability, but a significant shift in generational priorities too.
Oh, Worzel Brexit is complaining again is he?
Tim Martin can fuck off, and he can fuck off while he's doing it.
the different tax treatment of alcohol bought in shops, which does not attract VAT, and drinks ordered in pubs, which does.
I had no idea alcohol didn't have VAT. I hate to agree with him but it absolutely should.
The landlord of my local will buy spirits from the supermarket when they are on offer as it is cheaper than getting it wholesale.
Yeah. I wonder why it's like that? If anything you'd think it would be the other way round.
Certain foods and drinks considered essentials don't attract vat. Hence Jaffa cakes arguing they were not in fact a cake. Any prepared food is considered a luxury item, which would include drinks that are served.
I think alcohol should attract vat in supermarkets, not reduce vat in a pub.
FYI it's the other way round: cakes are not luxury items but chocolate biscuits are. Apparently they baked a cake-sized jaffa cake as part of their legal case!
While that is all true. Post the jaffa cake thing we had a change in VAT laws. Some time in the 1980s. Where food and drink becomes vat applicable is served or prepared to eat on premises.
Part of the whole idea is eating out is a luxury where as preparing your own food at home is seen as essential.
As alcohol is not actually seen as a luxury product but simply food. It meets the same rules VAT wise. Although it has its own additional taxation like tabbaco.
It’s ‘fewer’, Tim, ‘fewer’.