Are CAMRA's Wetherspoons vouchers good for The Pub?

CAMRA like to champion the "Community Pub" I applaud that. When we ran The Woolpack Inn I was a little unsure about the term Community Pub, as ours served the Tourist Industry more than locals, but still, a minor point I feel. Even a pub that serves tourists is serving the tourist as a transitory local I guess.

Anyway, a problem I always had was the Wetherspoons voucher incentive is that the pub chain is as much, if not more of a problem for established pubs than supermarkets. If the reader thinks about it, there are only so many drinkers. Those drinkers only have so much money to spend on beer. Most Wetherspoons open in buildings that have never been pubs. One I know is a huge cavernous building that used to be part of a bus station garage. I reckon that every Wetherspoons that has opened has taken away the revenue from numerous smaller pubs.

Now, the commercial minded side of me says that competition is good. If the public want Wetherspoons over other forms of pub then that is fine. However, CAMRA on the one hand fights to keep pubs open but then instigates a commercial partnership that is contrary to that. If CAMRA want to support Wetherspoons then they just have to accept that other pubs will fall as casualties as a result.

Harry Berger bought The Woolpack off us. He and his wife are making a fine job of running it. They buy our beer and as far as I know have it on the bar most of the time. Harry phoned me up the other day, quite outraged really, because CAMRA had asked him to help recruit members, and display information¹ about the Wetherspoons vouchers.

He isn't pleased. It's not that he doesn't want to help increase CAMRAs membership, and would happily display the information if it didn't contain the reference to a competitor. But to ask a favour of publicans with this lack of sensitivity seems slightly ill thought out and so I agree with him. I feel this is one of the many issues that irritates a lot of publicans when it comes to CAMRA.

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¹The information is in the form of a tent card which is designed to be displayed on the tables in the pub. I expect it was a waste of money on CAMRA's part as Harry probably isn't going to display them, and to be honest I wouldn't either.

A night out in Whitehaven

I've had a busy time this last couple of days. Working hard and playing hard. Spring is well on it's way, the clocks have changed and the visitors are now arriving in numbers that make opening worth while. I've got at least two extra blog topics as well as unfinished thoughts on BitterSweet. It'll just have to wait.

Additionally, last week, I got an email from an old work colleague inviting me to a night out. Actually, he's not that old, being only about the same age as me, but I've known him a while. It seems Stuart was finally leaving the old place for pastures new after 26 years with the old company. There was me thinking he'd be there till he retired. How could I refuse? A chance to catch up with people I haven't seen for nearly 6 years.

The venue was Whitehaven. Meeting in The Bransty Arch, a Wetherspoons outlet. Oh dear. Well never mind. On for a curry after and then around town. It should give me a chance to try out some beers. Last time I went around Whitehaven on a night out I was, as yet, to be turned into a beer nerd. Then I drank Guinness and little else.

In the first pub, despite it being part of Tim Martins empire, would be fun as I'd get to meet up with old friends. Indeed, the banter would have made up for any shortfall in beer quality and Steve's business advice on beer strength added to the amusement. But actually, I was reasonably impressed with the beer in here. Not quite so impressed with the overall ambiance and feel, but then I'm a country bumpkin.

So on to the curry house. Generic bitter or lager on draft. I guess these beers might have a name, but they couldn't be bothered to print it on the menu. I decided to plump for Kingfisher as at least it was named. I'm sure I'd have been disappointed by the "bitter". Still, the owner coped well with the sudden group of around 30. We caused some headaches with ordering and table arrangements.

So, where to next? Oh no, back to Wetherspoons. Still, a couple of strong beers to try, that was nice. Late on on Friday I found the atmosphere getting a bit rough. Wetherspoons doesn't encourage inappropriate drinking eh? A drunk knocked over a glass and it was left for ages rolling around and threatening to drop on the floor. My licensees instinct saw it at least got sat back on it's base.

An intermediate stop in a cask free bar resulted in me saving my liver for a round. Why did I want to waste money and coherence on Extra Cold Guinness. Gee, how things have changed. Thank god, we're moving again. Where next? "The Candlestick" I suggested "At least it's got proper beer".

Alas, the Candlestick is a Robbies pub. Double Hop the only offering. Goodness me, no wonder The Bransty Arch sometimes makes the Good Beer Guide, it had the best beer all night. I noticed that the other 2 cask drinkers in our group avoided the Doublehop. Apparently, it's always crap in there. Is it the beer or the pub? Perhaps Robbinsons is appriciated better back in Stockport.

There are two good pubs in Whitehaven. The Vagabond and The Whittington Cat. Personally I prefer The Vagabond.

Something special

I haven't said much about the economic situation. I'm hoping the exchange rate is going to stop people going abroad, hopefully the summer, for the pubs that are still open, will be quite good. After all, everyone likes a drink with good company and even better on a hot lazy sunny day.

I don't say too much about Wetherspoons either. I do not like the places and will not ever pretend to. I do admire Tim Martin, however. Anybody who can make people part with money for such a low quality product is a wizard. That does mean I should admire McDollop and Bugger King as well. Perhaps, in a way, I do.

As a result of the Credit Crunch^TM our usual man who acquires our continental fizzy stuff has cash flow problems. He's owed a large amount of money by some corporate prats. He owes a lesser amount to James Clay, the company who imports the beers. James Clay is reluctantly putting his account on stop. In normal times the bank would extend my suppliers overdraft and everything would be OK. But despite the government giving money to the banks to stop this happening, they are tightening up on all businesses. Nobody is happy about this, not me, not my man and not James Clay. Perhaps the banks are happy, because they now have taxpayers money and seem to be able to keep hold of it.

Today we had to go to James Clay ourselves, browse through a large warehouse full of beer and choose what we wanted. I was like a kid in a candy store. We came back with rather more than we went for, I just hope we can sell it all. It was worth going though. We got given a much larger than usual quantity of point of sale freebies, you know, branded glasses, bar runners, chalk boards etc.

On the way back we called at a very good pub, chosen by Ann from the good beer guide. We needed lunch so a call at the Fox and Goose was in order. As soon as I walked in I knew it was a good ale pub. I also guessed, fairly quickly that food was not a driver behind this pubs success. 4 hand pulls all with something interesting. Nice beers, nice chap running it and worthy of a visit. But no food for us.

So we ended up stopping at a motorway service station for a crap baguette pizza thing and a coffee. Left on the table was a copy of the Daily Mirror. We wouldn't buy it normally, but it was worth every penny we paid for it. Reading through Ann found an article on Wetherspoons. There he goes again, I thought, the master of PR, Tim Martin. And it just goes to show the target audience he has, Mirror readers.

Eventually, I reluctantly read the article. Through the rather smug comments about how he's still going to do OK, because he's selling crap beer for 99p a pint, he is also pointing out that people want something different in a pub. This is how he is winning. Yes, OK, he's playing dirty by selling volume at knock down prices where other pubs can't, but there is something else there. There is something that has got the run of the mill pubs, well, running. Like no other chain pub they also provide variety. I think there is lots the rest of the pub trade could learn from Tim Martin. He does say "customers are willing to spend a bit extra for something special". It doesn't take that much to be special compared to Wetherspoons.

So now I'm sitting drinking something special, and it's all Tandleman's fault. His blog alerted me to the NWBF, where I tried Budvar Dark. Now I've gone and bought a keg of the stuff. I think it's quite nice and when trade is slow I can still have a dark beer on without the problems of a cask not selling. And I can hold my head high because I'm selling something special.

The Wetherspoons love affair

I have long worried about the effect Wetherspoons has on the small, local, independent, community pub. I worry that Wetherspoons is to the small pub as Tesco's is to the corner shop.

I've just called in this afternoon to The Prince of Wales, a pub that should make the owners money, but doesn't because they think they have to compete with Tim Martin's prices. I don't think they have to as their beer is great.

I was going to write some more about this pub owing to it being one of the pubs I love best, but then I saw a piece on Wetherspoons and their relationship with CAMRA, it got me thinking a few things.

Initially I thought that I agreed with many of it's points. I certainly question Wetherspoons friendship with CAMRA. It is certain that many pubs just cannot compete with Wetherspoons prices. There is a finite beer market out there and Tim Martin's empire has very successfully captured a proportion of that at the expense of other pubs. This is a truth that will cause some pubs to close.

I found myself at odds with the piece when it started to question what it calls "petty rules". I am a big fan of licensees being permitted, in fact being encouraged, to define their style of business. A dress code for instance is a sure way of defining the ambiance in a subtle way. Although banning tracksuit bottoms might eliminate some desirable customers, if a premises makes the link between a certain style of dress and a certain style of behaviour then it is a useful way of defining the customer base.

Tim Martin gained points with me by his rules on children. Family orientated pubs are fine. Some pubs though do not need to be so accommodating to families, indeed I believe we still need some child free zones if we are to avoid posh restaurants taking over from the pub. I was so pleased when he made his rules about children not staying in the pub under certain situations. I believe if the pub industry is to regain some credibility in the responsibility stakes then we all need a little of this.

Criticisms of CCTV and the EU are also things that question the author's understanding. CCTV can be a realistic necessity to ensure compliance with licensing conditions suggested by local authorities, especially where cut price alcohol is involved. The EU is no friend of small business be assured of that, and the small pubs that Wetherpoons threaten are all small businesses.

At my local CAMRA branch meeting there were mixed thoughts about Wetherspoons. Spurning free handouts of discount vouchers conflicted with the fact that the branch passed an important membership milestone as a direct result of Wetherspoons involvement in recruitment.

I have met Mike Benner, the chief executive of CAMRA. There could be a suspicion that he is getting too cosy with Tim Martin. It is very difficult not to think that CAMRA and Mike are being bought out by Wetherspoons. But Mike does not strike me as that type of guy. He believes in CAMRA, he is trying to make it work, he convinces me that the Campaign is more important than just numbers, be it people or pounds sterling.

It is not unusual in history for there to be an unpleasant, but necessary alliance between the friend and foe to fight an even bigger foe. I find myself questioning my whole hatred of Wetherspoons. I doubt I will ever like the concept, but might learn to live with it as perhaps it is a necessary evil.

Perhaps Wetherspoons, CAMRA, Mike Benner and Tim Martin, the closing pub that is not viable and the opening of disused bus depots as pubs are all part of a moving vibrant industry that brings us Real Ale.