Quote Originally Posted by splott parker View Post
I do feel very sorry for the employees and the owners of the small independent pubs etc but Brains making a bit of stand and shouting the odds is grating on me a bit. I’ve lost count of the number of local boozers that they’ve run down and eventually closed over the years, converted them into flats or just bulldozed them completely, no doubt holding on to the ownership of the ground’s footprint. They’ve been doing this over the last 15/20 years, taking away our locals, locals that were centres of the community for years, the working man pouring his hard earned into them helping turn Brains into the powerhouse of Welsh beer brewing. In Splott alone they purposely ran down the much loved Grosvenor & Cardiff Arms, let them rot until their plan of turning them into flats materialised. Nice little earner, collect the ground rent while leasing it out or whatever the legal terms are with no landlord, landlady, bar staff, cleaners etc to pay, even reducing the draymen’s workload. Brains shut more of their pubs than this pandemic ever will.
We've talked about how people's drinking habits have changed over the years, how people nowadays tend to buy cheaper booze from the supermarkets and drink at home.
So it's only natural that breweries are going to close pubs, it's been happening up and down the country for a number of years.
Brains are a private company they're in the business of trying to post profit, through which ever avenue they can.
Do they have a moral responsibility to keep pubs open for the sake of the community?
I very much doubt they'd close a profitable pub, their decisions are made on hard-nosed economics.
They are a PLC, their shareholders want them to be lean and profitable. If that requires closing pubs and selling off the land then that's the way it is.
When I first started going out drinking in the late 70's, pubs everywhere would be rammed, particularly Friday and Saturday nights - there were very few pubs shutting back then, indeed, they were building new pubs in the suburbs.
I used to love grabbing a pint in the Grosvenor after work (GKN/ASW), it was a real working-class pub. Alas, I dare say not enough punters stayed loyal enough to it.