Why does Greystones have so few pubs?

Blandpebbles

Same prices, same decor, same helpful staff.. Where's the competition.

patwicklow

its not just Greystones that is lacking in pubs just go to any town or village in the country. Athlone town 16 pubs closed there,waterford,wexford,even my village avoca four closed the vale view hotel,the valley hotel,nagles bar,and a great little pub&shop called Browns after over 140years of trading also gone,
There is shebeens popping up all over the place,and many more will i think as the goose that laid the golden egg is well and truely gone for pubs as they priced them selfs out of the market.

d'Oracle

patwicklow wrote: »

its not just Greystones that is lacking in pubs just go to any town or village in the country. Athlone town 16 pubs closed there,waterford,wexford,even my village avoca four closed the vale view hotel,the valley hotel,nagles bar,and a great little pub&shop called Browns after over 140years of trading also gone,
There is shebeens popping up all over the place,and many more will i think as the goose that laid the golden egg is well and truely gone for pubs as they priced them selfs out of the market.

Again, Greystones has always been "the town with no pubs"
The whole Drink-driving, recession etc has no relevance here.

pixbyjohn

O great were the weekend nights in the Beach house, Marshie Mc Laughlin , Jimmy Hogan, Eamonn Brosnan and many many more singing with super accompaniment. The La Touche for a quiet drink. Skipped the Burnaby;), Then the Woodlands Hotel lounge with a big open fire blazing as the pianist played good music to his hearts content, then on to the Rugby Club disco on a Saturday night to bop to Skid Row or the Horslips etc. Aww sure we had a great time and this was without cars or taxis.

The Guide

Horslips Ah the Memories!

Blandpebbles

I don't remember there being a pub on Memory Lane.

Annasopra

Blandpebbles wrote: »

I don't remember there being a pub on Memory Lane.

that imaginary one, the one that only opens one day a year

d'Oracle

I hear the byrnes own it too.

Fiachra2

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Why do you need more than one pub.

To give people a choice. I like Danns, my wife doesnt because its not very comfortable. I also like the middle bar but I know lots of people who have never been even in it.
I even know people who like the burnaby and think its much better now than it used to be!

If there were more choice then more people would drink in pubs. The secret in a new pub in Greystones is that it should be small and owner managed. not run by an absentee landlord trying to make a fortune. Those days are gone.

Blandpebbles

How is that secret to success?

The economic truth is that Greystones does not need more than 2 pubs. 2 pubs have remained for years. The inclusion of more has only lead to closures, but not the original two.

d'Oracle

That's not necessarily true.
What pubs have opened over the years?

I can think of one.

Bennigans doesn't count.

Blandpebbles

Scripts
Woodlands Lodge
Greystones Inn
Theatre Bar
Bennigans
Latreks
whatever it was called before that
the woodlands hotel
the rugby club disco bar
and Bennigans

Charlie-Bravo

whatever about 12 licenses locally, whatever about Script and the follow-on renamings, whatever about Bennigans (more attributed to the La Touche closing its doors); there is only one pub on the main street. There should be a choice, and not a wine bar or delicatessen, but another pub.

Unfortunately, and I will say it first, any new main street pub in Greystones will attract a younger crowd, and it will get itself a name - The management need to be cute and think wisely about decor (not like the original script which was shocking), layout, convenience, comfort, and so on.

Blandpebbles

All different owners all failed businesses. There is simply not enough demand for another pub.
Young people go to bray and bars remain open. It's about location, facilities, demand and scale.

The lamenting of a few boarders does not a demand make.

Annasopra

Blandpebbles wrote: »

All different owners all failed businesses. There is simply not enough demand for another pub.
Young people go to bray and bars remain open. It's about location, facilities, demand and scale.

The lamenting of a few boarders does not a demand make.

That makes no sense whatsoever

There is enough demand for people to go to Bray

Jimjay

There seems to be only one person writing that they dont want a new pub!
Why do pubs close down? Because they are crap.
I dont go to the current 2 pubs. I tried greystones inn a couple of times, it was not good, didnt go again.
If a new pub opens i will try a couple of times, if its crap i will stop going if it is good i will go regular.

A good pub will stay open and have customers.
Two not so good pubs will stay open and have customers as there is nowhere else to go.

Fiachra2

I think its probably not so much an issue of "ggod pub" "bad pub" as one of variety and standard of service.
It is not correct to assume that there is a certain level of demand and that increasing the supply of pubs will simply spread that demand more thinly. Any marketing person knows that you can stimulate demand by providing the right product.
I sugested a small pub simply because it is cheap to run and much easier to create an atmosphere. I sugested an owner managed business becuse it might overcome an issue which probably effects the success of pubs in Greystones which is the poor service. Staff in both pubs are badly trained, slow, not customer focussed and in some cases quite rude. They wouldn't survive a night in many other pubs.
There are plenty of rural communities with populations a fraction of the size of Greystones which support a significantly greater number of pubs. Those premises are not packed -even at the weekends-but they are ticking over and as the owners are running them and simply trying to make a decent living they work reasonably well as a business.

Blandpebbles

The number of people going to Pubs in Bray is enough to achieve reasonable equilibrium for the number of pubs vs punters in Bray, however it is not enough people to provide the required demand to open a new pub in Greystones.

In terms of marketing a pub, both pubs in Greystones remain open despite alleged bad service, without marketing of any large scale, because there is enough demand for them to be there.


The Greystones Inn closed because there was not enough demand for the services it provided, nor could it draw customers from other pubs.

In this case, the Greystones Inn was deemed as an inferior subsitute for the other two pubs in Greystones.

When planning to provide any new service or product it is vital to understand the elasticity or otherwise of your competitors product or service.

Finally a small pub does not guarantee success, as they will not be able to purchase product for resale at a competitive price vs a well established larger pub, combined with the limit capacity, they will be required to charge more for drinks thus alienating their potential clients.

Dr. Blandpebbles, Bachelor in Business, Psychology, Economics and Management

jobless

the greystones in was in a bad location i think that was its major downfall... had it been on the main street then i think it would be still open. Living in the area i dont go to the existing pubs because they have zero atmosphere (except when beach house has a band on). I would definately go somewhere else if there was a choice but until then most of my nights out will be outside greystones...

loyatemu

La Touche\Bennigans\Lautrex closed due to property speculation
Script\Woodlands Lodge\Greystones Inn closed because its a terribly designed building in a bad location

I'm not sure a small pub can really be viable these days though, unless the owner also owns the premises. Being on the main street would definitely be an improvement though.

Don't forget too that Greystones and Delgany are effectively the same town these days, and theres another 3 pubs (was 4) at that end of the town (which do draw a lot of their clientele from Greystones).

d'Oracle

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Scripts
Woodlands Lodge
Greystones Inn
Theatre Bar
Bennigans
Latreks
whatever it was called before that
the woodlands hotel
the rugby club disco bar
and Bennigans

Thats 1 pub and 2 hotels.

The Theatre and the Rugby club were never pubs.
The rugby club never even closed.

Where were the other PUBS?

Blandpebbles

They all had licences to serve alcohol. And the hotels had bars.

Merrilady

The discussion is about Pubs, not Hotel bars, discos, or sports clubs... just Pubs plain and simple.

Personally I would like to see another pub in the village, agreed some people dont see the point, but it does seem the majority of posters on this thread DO see the point and would welcome another pub.

Blandpebbles

Well pardon me all over the place

Still 7 people wanting a new pub in Greystones isn't gonna make any difference.

Just look at the debacle of the Greystones Inn(are Inns allowed in this topic?) when they started canvassing people on here about menu and events.. Management by anonymous commitee.

Jimjay

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Well pardon me all over the place

Still 7 people wanting a new pub in Greystones isn't gonna make any difference.

Just look at the debacle of the Greystones Inn(are Inns allowed in this topic?) when they started canvassing people on here about menu and events.. Management by anonymous commitee.

7 people wanting a pub is better than 1 person not wanting one

Blandpebbles

Perhaps however the 7 people seem to want different things -

a small pub, a main street pub, a big pub, a cheap pub, a pub with atmosphere, a pub where youngsters behave...

I refer you to the Greystones Inn debacle to see how this ends..

Despite all the requests made by patrons and met by GI, the business failed, because in the end no one went there.

Requests for a new pub go unheard because no one in their right mind would open a pub in Greystones given the history.

We do have an off licence in Greystones and there is no more comfortable place than your own couch with friends around.

cuddlycavies

Cant disagree with much of that Bland. It did fail for those reasons and also because of your latter point. The drinking culture has changed. When I was growing up , daily home drinking was quite hard core and unusual. Now it is quite normal. It is not good for you and a go to the pub for a drink culture would be better for people and their drinking discipline. I feel so sorry for the lads at GI as they tried very hard to offer service and personality just to get a share of the market. The other players offer none of these things yet get it all.

Annasopra

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Dr. Blandpebbles, Bachelor in Business, Psychology, Economics and Management

what's the doctorate in? does it make you a pub expert? Or is that just the BAs that give you this expertise?

d'Oracle

Blandpebbles wrote: »

Perhaps however the 7 people seem to want different things -

a small pub, a main street pub, a big pub, a cheap pub, a pub with atmosphere, a pub where youngsters behave...

I refer you to the Greystones Inn debacle to see how this ends..

Despite all the requests made by patrons and met by GI, the business failed, because in the end no one went there.

Requests for a new pub go unheard because no one in their right mind would open a pub in Greystones given the history.

We do have an off licence in Greystones and there is no more comfortable place than your own couch with friends around.

I think its safe to assume you don't understand whats going on here, yet as you are still talking:


One pub which suffered the same problems as its predecessors on the same site and ultimately succumbed to these problems. It does not indicate a trend for the whole town.

Crap location coupled with high rent.

I'm going to say this again, Greystones does not have a history of pubs closing, because there were never more than 2 pubs to begin with.
Bar Bennigans, which closed with the hotel, because of a development opportunity which went bad

Plastik

I'm new to the area (living) for the past two months, but have been a regular visitor for nearly three years. I'd absolutely agree that the single biggest thing that never brought me to the Greystones Inn was its location - plain and simple. I think a second pub in a central location (as is proposed here) could easily do well, and I for one absolutely welcome it.