Monday 28 July 2008

There's Always One

Well done Luminar Leisure; you've just opened the door for the pub & nightclub trade to be fully regulated by the Government - bravo!

Offering drinks for 80p each is not only the height of irresponsibility it is just the most short-sighted, idiotic move I've seen since Gerald Ratner's statement about his products being 'crap'.

I can only imagine the chimps tea party masquerading as a meeting that managed to come up with this strategy; it's beyond ridiculous and I can't see how it stacks up financially.

I presume the staff are going to be extremely careful to not serve anyone who's inebriated? Because I estimate that you can't realistically drink any more than five drinks of an evening without becoming drunk so, if the entry fee is also 80p, £4.80 is what they SHOULD be earning off each person.

If you work this back it means that they have to, if you take off the VAT, buy in each unit at about 68p - and whilst I can see that happening with some very low-quality spirits I can't see it working with every product and just not by enough to make it in the least bit profitable.

And whilst I understand that bodies in clubs is what it takes; as Steve Thomas from Luminar points out: "No one likes an empty nightclub"; but perhaps it would be better to question why your club is half-empty than entice people in with ridiculously cheap offers.

Because all this boils down to is that Luminar, and any of you out there running pubs & clubs and think discounting is the way forward, are not thinking about the long-term future of the whole sector.

Quite simply if you don't stop this kind of discounting then you are going to cause the on trade to become so legislatively evolved that knuckle-dragger mentalities like this will be left far behind.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Government regulation as a response to alcohol price promotion is precisely what's happened in the USA. Happy hours, progressive drink specials, and fixed-price all-you-can-drink promotions have been outlawed in several states. Fortunately, there's been little sign of state governments using this as an excuse to further strangle the hospitality industry.

Anonymous said...

Ha! When I was a kid growing up in sunny Blackpool 'Bunters' nightclub would, on the first wednesday of every month, do a 'Penny-a-pint' night (shorts, 5 pence). It was a fiver to get in. The beer was awful, but it was awful at the best of times.

And before you ask, no, this wasn't the 1880's but the 1980's.

Anonymous said...

Where is this land of cheap booze? I've been to clubs in London where I've payed £6 for a bottle and the only choice was stella or carlsberg. I agree with the post but London prices are rediculous sometimes and could do with some regulation in the opposite direction, there should be a maximum markup you can charge for one bottle of beer, £20 out of pocket to not even feel tipsy is depressing