Why are pubs and restaurants so important?

I suppose if your unfortunate enough not to have experienced the wonderful camaraderie, friendship, help that a good local pub can give you, you wouldn't understand.

Some of our friends..now on their own since losing their wives...some of their children living overseas..the pub is their lifeline for a laugh ,a chat, company..pubs are a British institution and well loved and needed..

Yes Kate When it is safe to do so I'm sure it will be a lifeline to many.

Pubs and restaurants are so important because they probably employ more people than big retail and that pubs and restaurants have been far more affected by COVID shutdowns than many shops that were able to trade through all the lockdowns.

biker How sad. I'm sorry about your mum. Hopefully it won't be long before your dad can get out for his pint and a chat soon. We really miss going to our local. It's a quite a little community down there.

He is so poor he has had to sell his house - the one in the US, and his wife is trying to sell her house in Belgravia, while he has given up his permanent suite in the Dorchester and sold, for development the garages in London where he keeps all his cars, gone too, are his security pack.

The tears are pouring down my face, poor man, he is finally discovering that if you kick anyone and everyone who might be a problem on the way up, they all manage to enjoy kicking you on your way down.

Now only worth £950 million? I am sobbing into my hamkerchief. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

Katy1949

Your words struck a chord.

My dad is 85 he has Parkinson's but its managed quite well.

He used to pop to the local pub for a pint on Sunday and meet up with likewise. Sit down and put the world to right.

Then off home, where mum would have been cooking tea.

But now mum has been gone 3 months, his life long pal for almost 70 yrs..

He started going to the pub a few more days of the week. Just for company a bit of chit chat but then back home to the empty flat.

So yes the local pubs are not merely drinking getting drunk places, they can be the hub for a community.

He now sits in the flat, we visit as often as we can, luckily we only live 4 miles away.

But all he wants is a pint at the pub with his friends.(other than wanting mum back of course)

I think the difference in attitude/ reporting is simply down to the fact that Debenhams is owned by faceless people and Arcadia is owned by a a nasty man with form ( allegedly!)
It is no reflection on the staff who are not only losing their jobs but are likely to have a much more difficult retirement because of the mismanagement of their pension funds.

So many pubs and restaurants are run by owners who also work in their business and can’t pay their overheads so the sympathy goes out to them as well as their staff. When/if they go to the wall they won’t have a yacht to laze on.

Thanks for the info on the petition Dinahmo I will search it out and sign.

GG13 We all make mistakes.

I've just signed a 38 Degrees petition about the Arcadia pension fund shortfall - £350 million.

Tony Blair knighted Philip Green!

I do most of my shopping online, so perhaps I am the cause of the decline of the High Street, but as I said previously, I have never likes shopping as a leisure activity. The High Street as we know it has been failing for a long time, pre-Brexit, pre-Covid. I do not use Amazon for everything either; most shops which are on the ball offer an online service, John Lewis, Next, M&S etc., plus many small retailers which is my usual choice. I prefer to try on clothing at home, instead of a smelly changing room, and then either keep or return the items. I do click and collect if the postage will be too much, and my local independent book shop offers this service. Frankly, lock down or not, I prefer to do my shopping on my laptop in the comfort of my own home. Debenhams has long been failing; neither cheap enough to compete with the pile it high stores, or expensive and luxury enough to be a treat to visit. Phillip Green and Mike Ashley are to me symbols of the vulgar, greedy philosophy started by Thatcher and are not people to be admired or applauded and certainly not given knighthoods. I shall not miss their contribution to retail, but feel heart sore for those who have lost their jobs in this time of approaching exceedingly high unemployment.

growstuff

Do Wetherspoons pubs sell Scotch eggs?

Perhaps scotch eggs are the cure all. After all, if you just have a beer you'll probably catch the virus. But if you have a scotch egg with it, your ok.

I think it’s best that I do not post my opinions on Philip Green as I feel I would be on the ^naughty step^

No worries MaizieD

Callistemon yes I think it was originally owned by Hepworths who also bought out Kendall’s.

MaizieD

Apologies to everyone for committing the unpardonable sin of putting Next into the Arcadia group. I would have grovelled earlier but I've been busy.

Apology accepted

I think it belongs to Hepworths which I always thought was a gents' tailor.

How does Four Yachts Green get away with it?
His wife must be no better.
Lady Muck.

Dinahmo

"there is always somewhere else to get the goods if we need them"

Yes - there's always Amazon - one of the major causes of the
closure of the high street.

Well yes, but there are plenty of non-Amazon alternatives for those who care to seek them out.

FWIW, I don't think that the 'closure' of the High Street is necessarily a bad thing - times change, and it's how we adapt to that that matters. I feel that the space that is currently occupied by High Streets (usually in the centre of town, close to transport links) could be repurposed as community hubs when Covid is over, and provide semi-social areas for people to meet and mingle. There could be restaurants and pubs, but also learning environments of various types, sport and leisure facilities, cafes, cinemas, Arts venues and meeting places for people of all ages.

All of these would provide jobs for people who may have lost them as a result of retail moving online.

Gove even trying to pursuade people that a Scotch egg constitutes a meal

Of course it is and full of protein too. Could you eat a full one? Haha!
?

Do Wetherspoons pubs sell Scotch eggs?

Pantglas2 By the way I'm not pitching any groups of workers against other groups. I feel sorry for them all. I'm merely asking why the staff of pubs and restaurants are singled out for sympathy not only by the media but also by GNers it seems.

They seem to be the only businesses that the govt has on its mind. Gove even trying to pursuade people that a Scotch egg constitutes a meal.

Pantglas" you afe the only one wittering on about Brexit, nobody else is. It has been said by his peers many times that Phillip Green is nothing but an asset stripper, he failed to modernise his stores, bled them dry and now it has all come home to roost. I feel terribly sorry for the employees, as I do for those hundreds and thousands in the hospitality sector and the speciality sector such as Paddyanne was referring to. We have two lovely pubs here in the village and they are certainly not focused on selling booze; they provide rooms for clubs to meet, lunches,coffees and during the lockdown have been providing take aways. I am not sure that anyone feels more sympathy for any sector other than another, it is all dreadful.

Pantglas2

I don’t have any problem with a Brexit Bitchfest per se Growstuff.

However I don’t like it slipped in under the radar as sympathy for one lot of not very well paid workers against another, which in my opinion is what the OP is doing when I read the last line of her second post.

What's Amazon got to do with Brexit?

I don’t have any problem with a Brexit Bitchfest per se Growstuff.

However I don’t like it slipped in under the radar as sympathy for one lot of not very well paid workers against another, which in my opinion is what the OP is doing when I read the last line of her second post.

Apologies to everyone for committing the unpardonable sin of putting Next into the Arcadia group. I would have grovelled earlier but I've been busy.

"there is always somewhere else to get the goods if we need them"

Yes - there's always Amazon - one of the major causes of the
closure of the high street.