The pub is dead! long live the pub!

SoupyNorman

Stekelly wrote: »

The taxi regulator sets a MAX fare. It's up to the drivers if they want to charge the full whack that they are allowed. If you want to moan about someone moan about the drivers not reducign their fares.

I dont have a clue what you're on about, the regulator sets the fares, there is a 'max' fare depending on time and day. Every taxi trip is metered so how in gods name can a taxi driver reduce his fares.

Forgive me if I'm missing a trick here

gizmo

Stekelly wrote: »

Are you honestly tryign to say the pubs are selling the alcohol as cheap as they possibly can and its only the government increases that are keeping prices where they are?

Seriously?

This was my point, sure we have a high level of excise duty on alcohol but it's the publicans who have been pulling the piss for the last few years as far as I'm concerned. Everything from the price of spirits to the hilarious price of mixers indicates that they are just trying to get as much money as they can from their customers. Unfortunately for them people now have a less money to be throwing around on entertainment and they're feeling the pinch so instead of lowering their prices they just jump on the blame the government for everything bandwagon.

Guy:Incognito

SoupyNorman wrote: »

I dont have a clue what you're on about, the regulator sets the fares, there is a 'max' fare depending on time and day. Every taxi trip is metered so how in gods name can a taxi driver reduce his fares.

Forgive me if I'm missing a trick here

The tax regulator sets the maximum fare a taxi is allowed to charge. They dont have to charge that much, but the vast majority do (theres a dublin taxi co doing 10% off or somesuch as a promotion atm). The taxi driver could charge you 10c for a 1 hour, 50 mile trip if he wants.

Ya-Boy-Ya

I can tell you now.... Pubs in this country are ****ed and its not due to publicans being greedy

Union rates for barmen/women are not on par anymore with turnover.
Sky/setanta tv rates for commercial contracts is a joke also no longer viable

In the good days the government put up the price of drink at every budget so it only stands to reason they should take it down in the economic downturn or "the Local" in this country is finished.

As usual itll take a few years for our slow government to realise this and sadly by then the decent locals will be gone and most places will look like shanty towns!

Rebelheart

zudo wrote: »

I was in the pub tonight. The place was half empty, no craic, no smoking, silly prices and a barmaid who refused to serve us at 12:40. Now, this is a country pub and it's fcuking immoral.

I'm a bit too young to remember the recession of the 80's. But surely you could go to the pub for some solace, meet friends, game of cards etc.?

I know people have fcuk all money to spend, but even the days of calling for 'one' is long gone. What the **** like?

Now it seems there's nowhere to run.. Did fianna fail leave anything at all?

The demise of these so-called "traditional Irish pubs" can not come fast enough. It is virtually impossible to find a pub without a telly in this country. Usually, you have more than one telly with various programmes on it - and a radio as well - as publicans try to be all things to all men and sacrifice any tradition or distinctiveness about their watering hole in the process. Noise, noise, and more noise all from a tube which distinguishes itself in particular by its incessant transmission of English soccer night after night.

I miss my local. I miss the quietness of my local, I really, really miss it. I miss the quiet chats over a couple of pints, and I miss surprises like musicians just walking in with their instruments and playing unobtrusively in the corner without microphones or other deafening contraptions: if I want to hear them, I can move closer to them. Nothing is imposed upon me in that case. Technology, in contrast, bellows upon my night at every turn.

One of the many painful things about this recent development in the Irish pub business is that the publicans actually think they are smart, intelligent people by turning up the volume because then we drink more. They have shot themselves in the foot. The "traditional Irish pub" is a miserably noisy, intrusive and an especially unwelcoming place for people like me who love nothing better than to talk with friends over a few pints in the quiet corner of a pub. That should be a simple pleasure without other peoples personal choices - such as watching soccer at a blaring noise level - being imposed upon me. Individuality? Freedom? Where is it now in Irish pubs?


Never mind their prices; on the above grounds alone failure couldn't happen to a more worthy sector of Irish society than the publicans responsible for the abysmal decline in the quality and character of Irish pubs. I now rejoice at their suicidal business models, I really really do.

The Pontiac

gizmo wrote: »

This was my point, sure we have a high level of excise duty on alcohol but it's the publicans who have been pulling the piss for the last few years as far as I'm concerned. Everything from the price of spirits to the hilarious price of mixers indicates that they are just trying to get as much money as they can from their customers. Unfortunately for them people now have a less money to be throwing around on entertainment and they're feeling the pinch so instead of lowering their prices they just jump on the blame the government for everything bandwagon.

I've never once got charged for a mixer in my local. There's always a bottle of red or white on the counter to help yourself.

People in the cities quite willingly paid these stupid prices during the celtic tiger years. I'm always amazed at the difference in prices between my local and Cork city. But ironically, it's mostly the country pubs that are closing down.

If I was a publican in the City during the good times, I'd have done exactly the same thing. Why weren't people so focal about the inflated prices in the good times?

For or against the smoking ban, it really doesn't matter, but it had detrimental effect on the country pub trade.

The government killed the pub.

gizmo

Red and white is one thing, coke is a another. The fact that they charged up to, and sometimes above, €3 for a bottle of whatever is where the problem was. Even with the introduction of the mixer taps lots of places still charged between 80c and €1.20 for a mixer, still a complete and utter rip off. The government had nothing to do with this.

And as a point of comparison, I'm over in Scotland at the moment. The smoking ban is in place, the closing hours are just as restricted if not even more so than at home and the pub trade is still fine. Sure it's somewhat diminished due to the current crunch but it's nowhere near as bad as back home. And do you want to know why? It's because you can walk into a pub and get a pint for under £3, you can get a spirit for less than that and you can double up for an extra £1 in most places. If pubs at home were to attempt prices like that then we'd see how detrimental the smoking ban really is to their business.