Wetherspoon repositioning themselves...

But the smoke-free thing is costing them custom apparently.

Putrid poetry, dismal doggerel, extrava-stanzas...

In message , Tiddy Ogg wrote

Have you considered that it may be other factors that is causing a change in trade? Many JDW pubs are 'on the circuit' and in some areas the 'in' place to go. But will it still be the place to go for these same customers by Christmas , or in a few years time? The generation of younger drinkers following on behind will select their own 'in places' and they are unlikely to be the same type of establishment. JDW may need to attract a different type of trade to remain profitable, or perhaps people are just getting fed up with drinking and eating in industrial barns.

JDW brought in lined glasses ahead of promised legislation and dropped them only when Labour ignored their election pledge. They gave the bogus excuse that customers were still asking for a top-up to the brim measure. A large proportion of JDW customers drinking pints order the 'smooth head' varieties of keg beer and don't complain. Those who did complain about short measures couldn't tell if a lined glass was being used or not. Instead of using glasses with an obvious white line they chose to use glasses with an almost invisible etched line, which disappeared when the glass was filled.

This time around JDW are introducing a smoking ban ahead of the rest. While they may drive off some customers or they may start attracting others. The majority of the population don't smoke and it appears that it is many of these people who no longer ever visit a pub. If a pub/chain cannot capture the market of an ageing population of non smokers, that is willing to spend on leisure pursuits, then perhaps it doesn't have a long term future.

Providing food plays a large pert in the profitability of many pubs. These will have to become non-smoking shortly and JDW will soon be operating again on a level playing field - but perhaps with a head start. I believe that in some areas JDW want to open their pubs early in the morning to make full utilisation of their premises and compete with the sit-down fast food outlets providing breakfasts and coffee etc. They will need to be non-smoking to do this. Getting two hundred customers in the morning spending on food may be more profitable than losing two hundred smoking customers in the evening.

Personally, I find the quality of beer in my local JDW and level of service from the McDonnalds reject staff to be poor. Introducing a smoking ban alone would not persuade me to visit their pub more often.

Perhaps in the next few years we will see a change in the finances in some of the licenced industry. IMO, too many publicans believe that the public owe them a living. These are the ones who currently cannot be bothered to provide any form of smoke extraction and are going to suffer from a smoking ban because they have already driven off non-smokers. Others will find that their pubs are a much more pleasant place to visit, and work in, and may seek different type of regular custom. Excluding the pubs that cater for 500 people at a time, most successful pubs attract trade and keep the same customers coming back week after week, year after year. For me a pub that is full of smoke, irrespective of the quality of the beer, is not one to return to in a hurry.