I was shocked to learn today that a rather nice little cafe in Steyning where we have been buying brew day breakfasts for the last 18 months has quietly shut it’s doors.
This is on top of today’s news that the torrent of pub closures continues, currently running at 39 a week. This is a very slight dip in the figures but the period covers the busy summer months and it’s likely to show a greater rate of decline in the period covering January. I suspect that’s what did for our own cafe.
Even worse is that it’s the free houses that are bearing the brunt of the carnage.
Each closure of this nature is a human tragedy, and it wrecks lives. Please support your local pub.
01273 467527
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This was one of the topics of conversation last night in our local free house (yes we all definitely exceeded our daily allowance of units). The larger chains (pubcos?) are able to make efficiency savings that will allow them to ride out the recession for longer than the independents. The self-employed are looking at their work/life balance and thinking “what’s the point?”
It’s not the beer, it’s not the landlords, it’s not even the recession that’s caused this catastrophic decline in pubs though is it? With Andy Burnham’s pre-empting of the planned review of the smoking ban things aren’t going to get easier for publicans.
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