Originally Posted by
LaxtonLad
Yes seriouspie, cultures have changed. One of them being calling in the local on the way home from work for a pint or two without it costing serious money. I was an apprentice in the early '60s and on an apprentice's poor wage, but I could still easily afford to go out every night with my mates and have three or four pints and not end up skint.
As you say, there were not many supermarkets around then but successive governments kept adding on a penny or two per pint in each budget and slyly the breweries were adding their penny at the same time hoping no-one would notice. The emerging supermarkets spotted an opening and they were right in there. The beer offs were no competition as their bottled beer was more expensive than the pub's. Gradually the Chancellor stopped adding his penny but the breweries didn't. To increase profit they started closing the less busy pubs and hoped to concentrate the drinkers into fewer but larger pubs and guess what? It didn't work! Supermarkets! To make a profit now most pubs have opted to become "Gastropubs" or "Country Pub and Kitchen" what bloody awful names they are but that is where the profit is and like it or not that is what your local will soon become - or close.
Time will tell of the future of Micropubs, I don't know the prices, I've never been in one. They look like you're drinking in somebody's front room