Bitter blow for pubs as more opt to call last orders

It is a bitter blow for the licensed trade but 1.2 million fewer pints of beer are being drunk every day in Britain this year compared to last and over twenty pubs a week are calling last orders for the final time.

The British Beer & Pub Association blames mounting costs - including pub rents, wages and higher wholesale prices for beers and other drinks - together with sinking sales due to falling consumer confidence, higher beer prices and impact of the smoking ban which came into force in July 2007. But the biggest villains of the peace according to the pubs are the major supermarkets whose cheap beer has created a significant price wedge between the cost of drinking at home or having a few jars down the loca.

The latest data for April through to the end of June shows beer sales in pubs, bars and restaurants are down 9.6 per cent, while sales in supermarkets and off-licences are up 7.4 per cent. The BBPA estimate that around one million jobs are reliant directly or indirectly on the licensed trade.

This BBC news video looks at the issue of pub clousres and how pubs and clubs in Newcastle upon Tyne are hitting back - by ignoring self-regulation guidelines on price discounts and bringing in deep discounting of pitchers of beer and wines sold in their premises. Is there a case for having a differential excise duty on beer - one for pubs and one for the supermarkets? Or would that simply distort the market mechanism?

How much responsibility should pubs themselves take for the declining sales? It is certainly a fascinating story of how changing relative prices affect the incentives facing beer drinkers - and also how the industry itself must face up to the challenge of a shift in consumer preferences.

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Evaluation on Supply-Side Policies [21 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of Cocoa Prices [12 May 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Economics of a Minimum Wage [12 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Collapsing Price of Carbon [3 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Subsidies [2 Apr 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Revision on Producer Cartels [31 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Tax on Beer [16 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 3 Micro: Low Pay in Supermarkets [24 Feb 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Winning the War on Deforestation [5 Feb 2012]
Unit1 Micro: Processed Meat and Cancer Risk - Information Failure? [17 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Videos on Productivity [17 Jan 2012]
Economics at the Movies - Freakonomics [9 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Externalities from Metal Theft [2 Jan 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Biomass Subsidies and Timber Prices [30 Dec 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Sub Normal Profits - BP Leaves the Solar Industry [21 Dec 2011]
Economics of Deforestation [20 Dec 2011]
Prezi on Information Failures [20 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Long Term Unemployment - A Human Story [15 Dec 2011]
Don’t you just love it when Panorama does your lesson for you!- Part 2 [6 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Will a Youth Jobs Subsidy Work? [30 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Tacit Collusion in the Supermarket [27 Nov 2011]
LSE lecture: Darwin economy [13 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Unilever hit by rising costs [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: UK Executive Pay - All in it Together? [29 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Is the Sun Dipping on Solar Subsidies? [27 Oct 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Copper prices and a copper crime wave [10 Oct 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: The Supply and Demand Rap! [28 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Drink Driving and Government Intervention [26 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Exercise on Market Supply [26 Sep 2011]
50% tax rates - Chuck it George [7 Sep 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Cotton Prices and the Retail Price of Clothing [13 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Oligopsony - Dairy Losses Drive Farmers from the Fields [10 Jul 2011]
Where there’s muck there’s brass [6 Jul 2011]
Glastonbury, rain, mud, abandoned tents and negative externalities. [4 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: Are carbon taxes ineffective? [20 Jun 2011]
Poor Economics - Esther Duflo at the LSE [3 Jun 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Supply-Side Policies [25 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Monopsony Power in Markets [19 May 2011]
Super-cooperators and Game Theory [19 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Perfect Competition [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation Efficiency and Welfare [18 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Ownership and Control in Modern Businesses [18 May 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Diseconomies of Scale [18 May 2011]
Dominos Pizza turns to Behavioural Economics [5 May 2011]
Macroeconomics revision - measuring Consumer Confidence [4 May 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Public and Private Goods [21 Apr 2011]
Key AS Micro Terms: Prices [15 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Frictional Unemployment [11 Apr 2011]
RES Essay Competition - Obesity and a Fat Tax [7 Apr 2011]
AS Micro Revision: Banana Prices [1 Apr 2011]
The Power of Incentives [31 Mar 2011]
Economics Q&A: Should the CAP be scrapped? [14 Feb 2011]
EU Economics: Hopes for a low carbon future in Europe [3 Feb 2011]
Youth Unemployment in the UK [24 Jan 2011]
Winner of the Fun Theory Competition [23 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: Can economics provide answers to the crisis of collapsing stocks in global fishing? [19 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: How might rising food prices affect food retailers and manufacturers in the UK? [16 Jan 2011]
Economics Q&A: What are some of the benefits and drawbacks of a period of rising world food prices [4 Jan 2011]
Trees as private and public goods [3 Jan 2011]
Behavioural Economics - Public Policy and Behavioural Change [30 Dec 2010]
Supermarkets - Aunt Sallys or useful case study on economic agents’ behaviour? [22 Dec 2010]
Promising news on deforestation [2 Dec 2010]
Cashing in on pricing errors? [27 Nov 2010]
Boris’s Bikes - Gearing up for Success? [30 Oct 2010]
Demand for Chilean Wine [17 Oct 2010]
Jerome Kerviel and the Principal Agent Problem [5 Oct 2010]
Growing the Warburtons Brand - Focusing on Core Values [3 Oct 2010]
Animating the Ultimatum Game [6 Sep 2010]
Inequality and the risk of financial crisis [25 Aug 2010]
Groceries adjucator checks in [3 Aug 2010]
The Upside of Irrationality [22 Jul 2010]
Questions in Behavioural Economics - Combatting obesity [30 Jun 2010]
Recycling waste - goodbye stick, hello carrot [7 Jun 2010]
Innovation to get the British economy growing again [7 Jun 2010]
Unit 2 Macro: How can supply-side policies help in a recession? [6 Jun 2010]
Housing and the British Economy [5 Jun 2010]
Specific Supply Side policies [5 Jun 2010]
A selection of revision notes on supply side policies [1 Jun 2010]
Unit 3 Micro: Efficiency and Price Intervention in Markets [21 May 2010]
A2 Economics Revision - Direct and Indirect Taxation [9 May 2010]
Issues and Prospects for the UK Economy in 2010 [25 Apr 2010]
Build a Tower - Build a Team [22 Apr 2010]
Recession hits sales of organic food [12 Apr 2010]
Excess supply in a market - rents fall in Doha’s property market [5 Apr 2010]
RES Essay Competition - Inequality Title [1 Apr 2010]
Behavioural economics - lessons from an ad man [9 Mar 2010]
Supermarkets accused of price gouging [13 Feb 2010]
Climate Crunch - Making the Economics Fit [4 Feb 2010]
Focus on the National Minimum Wage [24 Jan 2010]
Jimmy’s Global Harvest [8 Jan 2010]

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