The famed British Pub is more than a bar for which an occasional drink is had, rather is almost daily British routine, a part of British culture and a motif exported to the rest of the world as a nice amusement. In the coastal city of Hammamet, Tunisia; a famous night club/lounge is called “British Bar.”
But the bar may have seen better days, at least the mom-n-pop ones. Government regulation and the emergence of supermarket beers is denting the business of pubs.
First, taxes on drinks served in bars are too high rising 8p in 1980 to 38p today representing a tax increase that is seldom match in any other good in the same period.
And then there is the new smoking ban. For many smoking and drinking go hand-in-hand. But with the ban, many Brits are left asking why they should pay so much for a drink when they cannot even smoke at the same time all the while they could buy the same beer only cheaper at the supermarket and drink it at home while smoking. And so they do, especially during an economic recession.
As less and less Brits go to a pub, pubs are closing down at a rate of 50 a week. But not all pub owners are suffering the same fate. The pubs that are closing are mostly mom-n-pop pubs that tend to have higher costs of operation than chain pubs.
Chains pubs standardize operation to make overhead more efficient and also offer foods and coffee that has allowed them to not only stay in business but continue to grow at the rate of two new pubs a week.
So the British Pub may not be dead, but instead the unique charm of the local pub while increasingly be replaced by a Starbucks-esque variety that, alas, will not offer much variety at all.
