The Case Against The Mimimum Pricing Campaign - by Adrian Patrick

This post relates to the misguided arguement, supported by a large section of the pub trade, that supermarkets are putting our pubs out of business. The Minimum Pricing campaign currently championed within the sector, while espousing moral and socialogical reasons to force a change in the law, is motivated solely by a flawed reasoning.

Of course, it seems completely logical on the surface. If place A sells alcohol cheaper than place B, then people will buy at place A right?

It is a natural instinct to make ourselves feel better by pointing to outside factors as being the cause of our woes. It's easy to say it's not our fault. Yet we should know by now that the first step to recovery is always to confront the truth that we ourselves are the source of our own problems. It doesn’t help the industry to perpetuate any myth. The widely held belief within the trade, that supermarkets are running pubs out of business, is like a mantra gaining an almost religious ferver in some quarters. But in my experience a billion people can share a belief system and still be wrong.

If the price of off-sales was even say, doubled - accross the board - in what way would this impact on our trade? It will always be cheaper to drink at home than the local. Always has been. But then we aren't in competition and never have been. Okay, maybe there are some youngsters who see socialising as a euphemism for the race to become inebriated, but that's pretty much where the crossover ends.

Pubs and supermarkets are distinct sectors.

I shop on a budget. At Tesco I look for the discounts when purchasing my beer and wine. I do like my drink (a little too much). I do stay in most nights. And while I’m home, yeah, I’ll have a drink or two. But at no point is my decision to stay at home led by the fact that my bought-in booze was cheaper than what’s served at my local when I’m out at the weekend. When I go to the pub it's because I want to go to the pub, for what it can offer in terms of the social aspect and yes, maybe even the lovely fresh pint.

But so many within the trade seem to imagine that we are a nation of alcohol addicts looking for the cheapest fix!

Where are these people that are forced to ‘stay in’ only because its cheaper to feed their addiction at home. And do they know there are helplines? If these people exist they need our help, not our beer! I frequent the pub more than most. But even I simply don’t go to the pub more than a couple of times a week because there are limits to its appeal. Has anyone yet stood outside Asda and surveyed it’s shoppers - ‘If the price of the wine you just bought had not been on a special offer, would you now be going out to the pub tonight?’

Times have changed as we all know. People are less sociable in geographical terms. Most people no longer really know their neighbours. Communities are becoming increasingly 'virtual-based'. We’ve found distractions (a lot of them) that weren‘t really part of our routine a decade or two ago. The Gym, Nintendo Wii, A wider, more specialised choice on TV available to download on demand. 24 - Lost - X-Factor… pirated movies to download from torrent sites. And is it possibly true that some people spend too much time on Facebook? Facebook and Twitter certainly has made it easier for family and friends to keep up to date with what each other are getting up to - leaving less reason to get together for a 'catch-up session'.

Are we really right to think that by lobbying for supermarkets to be made to raise the price of 20 cans of Bud - that it will force this nation of thirsty alcohol enthusiasts to remember where their nearest pub might be? People who choose to stay at home will still stay at home. Though they just might drink a little less. Probably a good thing.

And now the major pubcos are even buying into it. How many chain pubs now have huge red and white correxes or banners shouting out SALE or ALL OUR PRICES SLASHED! I saw one recently that said 'CARLING - WAS £2.90 - NOW ONLY £2.45!' Give me a break….

We are all buying into this ‘competition’ idea to the extent that we attempt to emulate those retail giants. And do we really want the public to begin to see it in those terms? One pub I work with is situated right next door to a Tesco Express. Tesco has its own giant posters obviously. Had he put up the ones Punch had instructed, then yes the manager certainly would have been drawing a comparison in customers’ minds. Fortunately he’s old-school so knows better. By going down that road people might well start seeing it in exactly thosee terms which we are best trying to avoid!

This whole campaign serves only to distract the on-trade from both the reality of the modern era, what we can do to move with the times and maybe even change people’s habits.

We can do it. We are just a little too jaded by government politics to readily embrace terms like ‘modernisation‘... and no, I don't mean in a 'pubco' kind of way. Modernisation in terms of how we cater for our customers.

Where will we be in a year’s time if the trade (for the first time) gets its way, and supermarket booze is no longer as cheap. What will we do when it has no impact for the on-trade? We will then begin to do that which we should have already been doing - Selling the attraction of a night in at your local on its own merits. Finally we will begin our soul-searching. We’ll just be a few years late and thousands of pubs down. And, regretfully, most of those will be independents.

We’ve waged war on 'anti-smoking’ and fought the chancellor with ‘Axe the tax’. We fight the councils, we fight neighbours’ with their noise complaints, we fight the supermarkets… The trouble with fighting on so many fronts is that we spread our energies too thinly. The trick is to choose the most worthy fight and make every blow count. Take out the biggest bully in the playground and you'll find you are never bullied by anyone again! Instead, we are shadow boxing, waging wars that aren't real while still managing to lose every fight. Is it any wonder we are no longer taken seriously as an industry. And so the tax on beer goes up; Complaints go up; Judgements go against us even more frequently and even the banks don't want our business; Because we are seen as a doomed sector - weak and submissive. We have become an easy target. But there are more productive ways we can focus our energies.

A more fruitful campaign would begin with improving the value of what we have to offer, and, I’m afraid to have to say it… finding new ways to incorporate a more financially lucrative demographic into our venues while hopefully being able to cater for the old time regular. Thanks to the larger Managed Pubcos, people are associating the pub experience as being somewhere to get a cheap bargain meal for the family before being herded out to make their table available for the next lot! That was never meant to be what our trade was about. I embrace the need to cater for families, diners, the need for value, but as a means to enhance our trade, not transform it into something it was never designed to be. I’m not trying to highlight deficiencies while offering no solutions, but rather saying that by focusing on outside factors we might be battling the wrong deficiencies.

Some will say I’m of a minority opinion. Within the trade yes, you are right. But outside of our trade - do you think so? We are now so insular we've become out of touch with the ever-changing world around us. Beyond the doors of our pub-centric lives, are the general public. They used to be our customers and can be again; And while most of the populous don‘t really think about it, those that actually do generally don’t share the view espoused by so many within our trade. And if we want them to be our customers once more we ought to listen to their opinion.

Supermarkets stay ahead of the game by ‘giving shoppers what they want'. We used to do that with pub go-ers once and we can again. But bringing them into pubs doesn’t begin by keeping them out of shops. They stay in, not because they want to drink, but because they simply want to stay in. Its our job to find reasons for them to ‘want’ to be in the pub once more.

I genuinely want our trade to succeed. A lot of livelihoods depend on it, and …well, we love our pubs.

Adrian Patrick - Independent Pub Trade Creative Consultant http://www.barsales.co.uk