I have many friends in the brewing industry and they dont tell me that the smoking ban is the cause of pubs going out of business.
They all say that the cause is Supermarkets. In my local pub I have to pay an average of £1.89 for a pint of Budweiser or £1.50 for a bottle, If I go to a "Weatherspoon" type discount pub I get the same for £1.50 / £1.25.
In my local Tesco I can get a 15 pack of 500ml cans of budweiser for £9.99, thats around 70p a pint.
The brewing industry is selling more beer and alcopops than ever before the difference is that more and more people are choosing by cost rather than visiting their local. This trend will only accelerate now that we are heading into a climate of economic instability and tightening budgets.
Its strange that I have not yet read anything on here about the large amount of non smokers that for years avoided going into a pub because they didn't want to go into a smoke filled atmosphere but are now customers of many pubs.
Only people that are so narrow minded to be unwilling to see the bigger overall picture of the decline that has been affecting pubs in general for years before the smoking ban came into force would blame not being able to smoke for the closure of pubs. Strangely enough the breweries that are selling more beer and alcopops than ever before dont seem to be complaining just issuing statements that they continue to support pubs in any way they can.
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