Supermarket Beer Sales Overtake Pubs For the First Time in Britain

Wanna go to the pub for a pint? I guess not.

Britain’s 145,000 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants sold less beer than supermarkets and off-licences last year – for the first time since industry records began

This is the count from 2015, though apparently venues other than supermarkets have been losing ground for years. Due to bulk pries and deals.

This weekend, Tesco was selling “slab” packs containing 18 cans of Stella Artois for £14, equivalent to about £1 a pint, while Asda was offering a similar multipack of 20 Carlsberg cans for £10, equivalent to 65p a pint. According to the BBPA, the average pub price of a pint of draught lager is in a range between £2.40 and £4.70 – 38% higher than a decade earlier. A pint of bitter has seen similar rises, up from £1.80-£2.56 in 2006 to £2.05-£3.90 this year.

The popularity of wine and ciders is growing. As well as 'alcopops'. I was thinking that might be an alcoholic popsicle, bit it is apparently a low alcohol % drink like a wine cooler or a Zima- if Zima still exists.

In Britain

Beer sales in pubs, hotels, clubs and restaurants have shrunk by 44% since 1980

It because of tax.

Our government keep taxing alcohol and as such its becoming prohibitly more expensive for most people to drink out.

a reply to: reldra

I used to run pubs but got out about 13 years ago seeing I saw the way the industry was going. You can't make money running a pub or you can If you want to work for less then the minimum wage (seeing I used to do 100 hour weeks every week) the companies charge you a ton for their Beer but see dirt cheap to supermarkets so I could see pubs going downhill.
It costs around here 3 quid a pint but I went out to Leeds a couple of weeks ago and for 3 pints I payed 22 quid....I went all Yorkshire on them shouting the Yorkshire warcry "HOW MUCH!!!".
So where when I was younger I may go out every Friday and Saturday I just go out twice a month now due to cost.

It costs nearly 4 quid for rubbish, mass produced lager in my local.
I can get a couple of bottles of really nice, American IPA for not much more AND have a smoke while I drink them at home.

a reply to: SprocketUK

I won CAMRA pub of the year twice in my local area 9 different hand pulled beers. Ever had a Lager hand pulled and not fizzy? basically lager hops and such brewed like an ale.
Thing is that pub I ran is 75 steps from me but when even Golden Pippen is 3.40 and the beers I like (over 5%) are 4 quid and over...I just don't go in anymore like you said I can get most of them bottled at Tesco.
But I do feel for the Publicans supermarkets can afford to sell at a loss but pubs are charged more for the barrels have bigger overheads and are worked to death (Is in the top ten for least satisfied people publicans are).
I hate to say it but once "The Local" was the hub of the community at one point those days are gone.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

You are dead right. It's got to the stage that the only pubs still in business seem to be chains with "managers" rather than landlords.



Last time I had a pub that was a local was nearly 20 years ago. Run by a Cornishman and his Mrs back in Hereford. fantastic vibe, great jukebox and regular lock ins. it was an awesome place to spend a Friday and Saturday night.


I live between Gloucester and Cheltenham now, between the two places there is only one pub I ever bother with and that's more a restaurant pub, but it does have Punk and Goose IPA on tap.

The times they are a changin ......old mate bob was onto it....

Pubs are also becoming demonized in the media, at least they are where i live...there is a whole lot of lock out laws, alcohol is being increasingly watered down...drinking and driving is a major obstacle ......it makes perfect sense people would save money and drink at home....one has to wonder how much of a spike domestic violence might increase but hey thats a win win for LE and the courts....

originally posted by: crazyewok
It because of tax.

Our government keep taxing alcohol and as such its becoming prohibitly more expensive for most people to drink out.

We have 8% sales tax on beer and ciders and wine coolers in NY. Really almost everything but food. Sometimes we have a tax holiday on clothes before the school year begins. The liquor lobby have kept tax on liquors and wines low and definitely no deposit on the bottles, glass or plastic.


When all other bottles have a 5 cent deposit, even water. Stores that sell the old fashioned milk in a bottle, the deposit is about 75 cents.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Punk Dog
I remember my first Landlord who taught me the ropes at 17. He had a .38 behind the bar loaded with blanks, drank 20 pints a day, 80 fags a 14 stone Rottweiler called Benson and a 4 pound chinchilla called Hedges....Dead at 47 but a right old fashioned landlord cracking bloke. Never left the place sober that place taught me how to fight and deal with drunks I loved it. Yeah managers can't break the law now do to fear of losing their job But John Farrah did .

originally posted by: crazyewok
It because of tax.

Our government keep taxing alcohol and as such its becoming prohibitly more expensive for most people to drink out.

I haven't noticed what I pay in tax when I drink out, as I usually pay cash. But I did notice a draft pint of normal beer in a dive bar was $3.50 US recently. $4 in another place. Up until last year that same pint would be $1.50 in a small bar.

originally posted by: TheKnightofDoom
a reply to: SprocketUK

Punk Dog

I remember my first Landlord who taught me the ropes at 17. He had a .38 behind the bar loaded with blanks, drank 20 pints a day, 80 fags a 14 stone Rottweiler called Benson and a 4 pound chinchilla called Hedges....Dead at 47 but a right old fashioned landlord cracking bloke. Never left the place sober that place taught me how to fight and deal with drunks I loved it. Yeah managers can't break the law now do to fear of losing their job But John Farrah did

.

Sort of reminds me of the place a couple blocks from my college apartment. Most nights would be normal. But when things went bad, they really went bad. I think the Tuesday and Thursday specials had something to do with it. Tuesday was 1/2 liter vodka and tea for a dollar, Thursday was almost a liter of beer for a dollar.

I would hide under a pool table. Or if I was the object of attention from a crazed inebriated guy, that would not go away or grabbed, I would gesture at my friend Carl, who was a bouncer. He removed a lot of guys for me. He and I are still friends.

He actually got into it with a guy the night I went out for my birthday in the beginnning of this month. This random guy was like rubbing up against me and tring to hug me. Now that is a friend. He is no longer a bouncer, but he signaled the bouncer somehow.

a reply to: reldra

It was great training for me being in care and mental health. We used to have a saying Diplomats before Bouncers (seeing I was bouncer/barman during the week) I can talk anyone down now a good skill to have.
You can tell a lot about folk by watching them drunk. I hate angry drunks and for years I hated selling Stella because it sent folk angry and all fighty (It was due to preservatives they used to put in now brewed without) tbh the worse thing was when the ladies had a fight, I have seen two mass brawls in pubs (everyone fighting) both started when two women started ripping lumps out of each other. Never get in between two ladies get their fellas to sort it out.
Glad I'm out tbh I was drinking 10 pints a day but I have never been addicted to the stuff I can drink or not but when running a pub it looks good when you are drinking your own stock.

Mind you in town near me Friday and Saturday it is full of young lads and lasses having a good time the pubs appear to be doing okay there.
Not like pubs and clubs in my day I was dragged out to a silent disco.....most stupid dumb thing ever...so self centered looking more into it.
Maybe I'm just old now lol

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

He sounds like a blast. And yeah, proper landlord!

Those are what really made pubs swing, the personality of the Landlord running it.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

Used to be a bar manager for a couple of years for fuller's. Whole sale price for racked bright ( London pride) was £98 ...for lease holders of a fuller's pub it was £145. The pint is no longer price elastic and free hold competitors have a huge advantage. You can't purchase outside the brewery without a hefty £10,000 fine.

Gastro pubs are the only way to stay afloat and the "local pub" as you have stated is extinct. People are unaware how great real ale is and camras efforts are starting to peiter out with the 10p increase on a pint every budget, which makes the brewery increase their prices....so every April you get a 20p increase.

And anyone fortunate enough to live in London ascot beer festival this Friday. Horse racing and ale, 2 of the 3 best things in life.

If you are in england and like real ale, try twickenham ales. The best by far in terms of flavour and consistency in the brew. Naked ladies or Sundancer recommended.

a reply to: TheKnightofDoom

Yes, I pay £4.50 for pint of beer in London and £3.20 in my local in Wiltshire. I get a bottle of four cans of the same for the price I pay in London.

Pubs have overheads and all that.

I think this is more to do with the changing British culture of sit at home watching telly, or texting your mates. We are just becoming less social.

a reply to: paraphi

I think this is more to do with the changing British culture of sit at home watching telly, or texting your mates. We are just becoming less social.

My sister lives in Trowbridge, if i lived there i would never go out either it is a #hole.....

Here in Ausieland the watering hole will never go out of fashion...

This is one of my locals, in saying that i rarely go there as it is full of frigging Europeans and English getting on it...heavily...

ETA...the price is relative you pay 7 bux or so for a schooner, 10 or 11 for a pint....

originally posted by: hopenotfeariswhatweneed
a reply to: paraphi

I think this is more to do with the changing British culture of sit at home watching telly, or texting your mates. We are just becoming less social.

My sister lives in Trowbridge, if i lived there i would never go out either it is a #hole.....

Here in Ausieland the watering hole will never go out of fashion...

This is one of my locals, in saying that i rarely go there as it is full of frigging Europeans and English getting on it...heavily...

Byron Bay! Well mate, only got yourself to blame if you hang around there.

a reply to: MongolianPaellaFish

Byron Bay! Well mate, only got yourself to blame if you hang around there.

Really ?...Do tell...was it from experience or what you read in the news ?