why are there no J D Wetherspoon pubs in ROI?

Gaillimh1976

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The reason pubs charge so much is because of the two publicans associations which they claim aren't cartels.

Breweries charge pubs more than supermarkets
Wages are much much higher here than in UK
Insurance, Council Rates much higher than in UK

Not a fair comparison to just look at price of a pint vs price of a pint

SteM

tossy wrote: »

I wrote this on another thread in another section,but i think i captured the Wetherspoons vibe nicely ..

It's a bit of a turgid description in both threads to be honest, not half as smart as you think it is. If you don't want to drink in a Wetherspoons then don't, it's a very simple answer to your issue.

anncoates

tossy wrote: »

I wrote this on another thread in another section,but i think i captured the Wetherspoons vibe nicely ..

Just sounds a bit, well, tossy.

Cienciano

tossy wrote: »

I wrote this on another thread in another section,but i think i captured the Wetherspoons vibe nicely ..

People bring the atmosphere to a pub, not the table and chairs. If you go out with a group of friends to an empty park with some beers you can have a good laugh. Either you drink on your own, or have boring friends

Beefy78

tossy wrote: »

I wrote this on another thread in another section,but i think i captured the Wetherspoons vibe nicely ..

I don't think you've captured the Wetherspoons vibe at all, tbh. Maybe one in Rochdale at 2pm of a weekday but not a City Centre one of a decent time. The atmosphere at many of the busy ones (and one in Dublin charging a fair price for a pint will be busy) is great. Alive with conversation and much more natural than an atmosphere artificially created by pumping in crap music.

tossy

SteM wrote: »

It's a bit of a turgid description in both threads to be honest, not half as smart as you think it is. If you don't want to drink in a Wetherspoons then don't, it's a very simple answer to your issue.

Thanks for teaching me a new word I think you took it a bit more seriously than intended. Wetherspons are still dumps though.

meemeemee

Beefy78 wrote: »

I don't think you've captured the Wetherspoons vibe at all, tbh. Maybe one in Rochdale at 2pm of a weekday but not a City Centre one of a decent time. The atmosphere at many of the busy ones (and one in Dublin charging a fair price for a pint will be busy) is great. Alive with conversation and much more natural than an atmosphere artificially created by pumping in crap music.

You have a point.

In a grim Northern town, hit by recession, with high unemployment, or a grim part of London, Feltham, Peckham, Barking, some of the Spoons are indeed quite grim.

Then again, there are some in areas like Fulham or Windsor or Central London, such as in Whitehall or near the Tower Of London, where they are not actually bad, and in some cases exceptionally grand looking.

They also have this Lloyds Number 1 thing, sometimes doors away, like in Croydon or Romford, where they let the old folks have the Spoons and make the Lloyds the one for a younger crowd with music and stuff.

SteM

tossy wrote: »

Thanks for teaching me a new word I think you took it a bit more seriously than intended. Wetherspons are still dumps though.

No, you obviously thought it was some sort of witty observation because you decided to post it on 2 threads. I thought I'd let you know that it wasn't particularly funny the first time you posted it and certainly not good enough to transfer from one thread to another.

kelledy

the one near myself has a llyods beside it. DJ on a fri and sat. food / sport during the week and table quiz every thursday. . itll do me for a few warm up drinks on a budget.

SteM

Beefy78 wrote: »

I don't think you've captured the Wetherspoons vibe at all, tbh. Maybe one in Rochdale at 2pm of a weekday but not a City Centre one of a decent time. The atmosphere at many of the busy ones (and one in Dublin charging a fair price for a pint will be busy) is great. Alive with conversation and much more natural than an atmosphere artificially created by pumping in crap music.

I've only been in 3. One near the City of London, one in Greenwich and one in Manchester. The Manchester one was a bit scruffy but just full of people chatting and drinking before a game, had some office workers too. No trouble that I could see. The other 2 were quite nice. The one in Greenwich was full of students and tourists and had a great vibe. The City one was just full of office workers actually talking to each other instead of staring at a TV that has it's sound turned down like Dublin pubs seem to be full of.

I can't understand the snobbery against them in this thread - some of it may be the fact that they're English imho.

irish_goat

I just had a pint of Bengali Tiger in Wetherspoons, Derry. It's a 6.4% American IPA (they travelled over to the UK to brew it) and I paid the pricely sum of £1.40.

Scoring 99/100(by the Beeradvocate staff) it is probably the highest rated beer available in a pub Ireland at the minute. And it's the cheapest.

anncoates

SteM wrote: »

I can't understand the snobbery against them in this thread - some of it may be the fact that they're English imho.

More than some of it, I'd say.

Can't really see a JDW in somewhere like Blackrock Village being overrun with rough types.

Even if people don't want to go to a JDW, the benefit of price competition will hopefully be general.

jimgoose

anncoates wrote: »

More than some of it, I'd say.

Can't really see a JDW in somewhere like Blackrock Village being overrun with rough types.

Even if people don't want to go to a JDW, the benefit of price competition will hopefully be general.

Foxrock'd be the right place for one. I believe there's no pub there at the moment at all, at all?

harney

How long 'till this gets mentioned in a Ross O'Carroll-Kelly book? :P

harmful

jimgoose wrote: »

Foxrock'd be the right place for one. I believe there's no pub there at the moment at all, at all?

The Wetherspoon strategy at the moment is to find suburban pubs with car spaces. They don't seem to want to go into virgin territory.
I was in a Wetherspoons in Preston recently and I found it to be good value but not somewhere I would like to drink in. It was in fact a restaurant with a bar at the side. All of the seating I saw was standard restaurant four seat tables. There were no stools at the bar. The prices were reasonable and the toilets were clean. It would be the kind of place I might go for a bite after work if going somewhere else. I most certainly not go to one just for drink. I think the bigger losers if Wetherspoons come in will be the coffee shops and restaurants. The pubs with the draught Guiness drinkers will have nothing to fear.

meemeemee

Not sure about that.

To be honest, it is very rare for them to take over an existing pub. Pubs far too small for them.

What they do is take over a "space".

Most of their places are in numerous old banks, car showrooms, huge shops like old branches of Woolworths or a fabled department store, entire ground floors of office blocks, cinemas, even an opera house. I have been in a few where they have managed to get two ground floors either side of a block, which is essentially a pub at each end opening onto both streets, with a garden in between.

Very few have car parking.

Geuze

meemeemee wrote: »

In rural Ireland in a pretty average hotel I paid about 6 to 7 Euros a pint.

Yet in central London, you can go to a pub and get a pint UNDER 2 Pounds. The tourism business in Ireland has some questions to answer.

Please name the town, as typical hotel prices for Guinness should be no more than 4.50 euro in provincial Ireland.

I simply can't believe a hotel is charging 6-7 euro in rural Ireland.

Also, are you sure than sub- 2.00 stg pints are available in 2013 in London?

Geuze

irish_goat wrote: »

I just had a pint of Bengali Tiger in Wetherspoons, Derry. It's a 6.4% American IPA (they travelled over to the UK to brew it) and I paid the pricely sum of £1.40.

Unreal price. When you strip out 20% VAT you're back to 1.17, then you have to knock off excise duty of, it seems, 69.5p.

That leaves under 50p for brewing, distribution and gross margin.

How can they do it?


EDIT: the normal price is actually 1.90 stg, leaving about 90p after VAT and excise.

irish_goat

Geuze wrote: »

Unreal price. When you strip out 20% VAT you're back to 1.17, then you have to knock off excise duty of, it seems, 50p.

That leaves 67p for brewing, distribution and gross margin.

Well I use CAMRA vouchers which get me 50p off. Still ridiculously cheap though.

Muahahaha

I welcome Weatherspoons looking at buying Irish pubs right now. I wouldn't really be one of their customers as I've never been that keen on their pubs in the UK and agree with the general sentiment that they are souless. However I welcome them because they will bring a bit of price competition to the pubs around them. In the UK they do coffees for 79p so I am looking forward to things like 99c coffees which will put the cat amongst the pigeons as regards a lot of our over priced cafes, restaurants and bars. Weatherspoons presence will help keep their prices honest, which I don't think they are right now. Paying €3 for a Coke in Irish pubs is just a joke at this stage, beer is cheaper than minerals. Having a UK chain come in an undercut this kind of predatory pricing by irish publicans is no bad thing IMO.

meemeemee

Geuze wrote: »

Please name the town, as typical hotel prices for Guinness should be no more than 4.50 euro in provincial Ireland.

I simply can't believe a hotel is charging 6-7 euro in rural Ireland.

Also, are you sure than sub- 2.00 stg pints are available in 2013 in London?

Kilkenny.

As for the sub 2.00 pints, yes siree.

Most Wetherspoons offer 1 lager under than £2 and an nitro keg ale for about 1.69. In the hand pulled ales, there is often a guest ale at 1.89.

But as I said, if you look downmarket from Wetherspoons to the Goose, I reckon there were about 7 different taps that you could have a pint for 1.99 or less.

reprazant

What hotel was charging 6-7 quid for a pint?

I recently stayed in a 5* hotel in Kerry where the prices did not come close to that.

mariaalice

In the UK pubs often have soft drink that come form a keg and are very cheap even in London, I never understood why we don't have it here also you can get wine very cheap in the UK, in a trendy bar in Manchester I have got a bottle of wine for 9 pounds.

joeguevara

mariaalice wrote: »

In the UK pubs often have soft drink that come form a keg and are very cheap even in London, I never understood why we don't have it here also you can get wine very cheap in the UK, in a trendy bar in Manchester I have got a bottle of wine for 9 pounds.

No soft drink comes from a keg. It comes in a box of syrup that is mixed in with water and gas.

We do have that in Ireland, however, I am nearly sure that its pepsi products rather than Coke.

I tried to get the gun from coke when I had the bar but they refused to give it to me (this was in 2003-3004.) They stated that it was not a service that they offer to pubs. I asked about putting in a machine like they have in takeways but they refused to even consider it. They make too much selling bottles. They could not see the irony that the same company offered the same service in the UK.

Kettleson

joeguevara wrote: »

No soft drink comes from a keg. It comes in a box of syrup that is mixed in with water and gas.

We do have that in Ireland, however, I am nearly sure that its pepsi products rather than Coke.

I tried to get the gun from coke when I had the bar but they refused to give it to me (this was in 2003-3004.) They stated that it was not a service that they offer to pubs. I asked about putting in a machine like they have in takeways but they refused to even consider it. They make too much selling bottles. They could not see the irony that the same company offered the same service in the UK.

So were you tied by contract to sell "their" coke?

eg: Could you have brought large plastic bottles of Coke in and given a glass outta that? Are the pubs making much on bottles as well?

Mr Whirly

The Thomas House has that set up for soft drinks.

mariaalice

Well then pubs in Ireland need to strong arm the soft drinks distributors to get around having to have bottle. All pubs in the UK do white lemonade from a dispenser that could be a start.

joeguevara

Kettleson wrote: »

So were you tied by contract to sell "their" coke?

eg: Could you have brought large plastic bottles of Coke in and given a glass outta that? Are the pubs making much on bottles as well?

You can do what you want. Customers wouldn't stand for coke out of a bottle. Saying that some use the white lemonade.

Yes a lot of mark up on bottles, but would have been a similar mark up if we had the dispensing machine. If I was still in it, I would have just stated I was a chipper, got the dispensing machine and served the dashes that way.

Customers sometimes are cnuts demanding that bottled coke is better but then giving out about the cost. To me gun coke and bottled coke taste exactly the same. Each to their own, and until somebody does something about it, it will stay exactly the same. Viva la revolucion.

mariaalice

Plus I have seen wine come from a keg type set up in a pub in a wales and it was a lovely wine and very cheap. I looked at their wine list and they have a New Zealand wine which is expensive even in an off licences, be interesting to see what price they sell it at here.

2smiggy

all the pubs around me only serve bottled soft drink, with the exception of white and red lemonades which come from 2 litre bottles.

I'm in the country side and i know that it is an agreement between the pubs. Huge markup off the bottled drinks. They are actually fairly cheap to buy for the pub.