The third place - vanishing?

Not forgetting "outside" isn't a viable proposition for most parts of the country - given our weather - speaking from rainy/colder Wales.....

Hospitality is vital, a lifeline for many people who live alone.

It employs approximately 1.8 million (third largest private sector workforce) and accounts for 10% of U.K. workforce.

This sector gets a lot of flack but puns nowadays are more than a load of blokes getting hammered on pay day!

Disclaimer, my parents and stepfather were all publicans and/or restauranteurs.

It is getting so expensive to eat out now that any more price increases will sound a death knell for pubs and restaurants.
Last evening my GD ,her BF and I decided on a date for a night out together for Christmas, we are already booked for Christmas Day dinner out .
We looked at some menus to decide on a venue and some of the prices shocked us and we are talking local, not city centre or “down south”
The most astonishing was sausage and mash £17, come on now!!
We shall still go but it will be rarer now and feeling sad for the hospitality industry.

I was listening to a guy on Times Radio a couple of days ago, he, a partner in a chain of hotels around Derbyshire I think? What they have been hit with is staggering, not sustainable. Quite likely that some of the establishments in that chain will have to go the hike in their overheads is massive. He did say that some of his employees are young people so that vital introduction to the work place and the invaluable learning curve of interacting with the public will be lost along with those jobs. I think in smaller far flung communities, pubs can often be a hub and that social aspect will be lost for the people who use them. All in all very worrying for hard hit hospitality, for some of these places, the final nail in the coffin.

What Ms Reeves doesn't seem to understand is that all these sneaky stealth taxes mean short-term gain, long-term pain for so many people.

More people will be forced on to benefits when they lose their jobs.

Await the brickbats.

But how many of us have actually been into a pub lately? I certainly haven’t.

Yesterday for my NWR Christmas lunch, today for our book club meeting. Last week meal out at pub in Cotswolds with friends. Admittedly more than usual for us. I don't want to see any more go to the wall. Very sad when they do.

Important not to be influenced by the usual anti-Government knee jerk hysteria from the Daily Mail and to look at the detail of Budget changes for the RHL:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2025-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-factsheet/budget-2025-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-factsheet

And:

www.thecaterer.com/news/what-does-budget-2025-mean-for-hospitality

Cafes and restaurants are going to be hit too. It ain't just pubs.

Still a pretty frequent visitor to both of those. Pubs have clearly taken quite a whack where I am now - even before I moved here. I'd never heard of the concept of a part-time pub or part-time meal serving in them until I moved to where I am now. I've always expected "pubs are always open and meals are always served when applicable". So places in the sort of area I'm in now are going to get hit even harder. The only plus side I can see to that is the drunk-driving here should reduce hopefully.

In places like I'm from (small city in southern England) and I go back for a short stay once or twice a year usually and I've seen the difference anyway to what I was used to having. For instance - a favourite cafe of mine that I know I used to be able to go in for a cup of coffee mid-morning or mid-afternoon and have a meal both lunchtime and dinnertime and it's still open - but noticeably reduced hours as it is. They are far from the only one to have reduced hours and I'd never had to take that into account previously - I'd just decide to go to them and do so...but now I have to check in advance if they're still open for all the opening hours I require. It's a pretty active sort of city - not a poor one and it's both a genuine University city and a business city - and yet there's problems already with the opening hours being reduced.

Maybe I live on a different planet but there haven't been noticeable closures round here.

here's a local pub part of a national chain with prices for Christmas lunch specifically and "Christmas Fayre" (I've given another city from the one I live in

Seems reasonable enough to me.

stagsheadlincoln.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Stags-Head-Xmas-Menus-1.pdf

Lots of moaning above, if you ask me. As per usual the DM. Read Paynes post before you moan anymore.

Prices of many things are rising and so as per "blame the government".

Look at the actual reasons for example for the raise in food prices

"Food prices are increasing in the UK due to a combination of factors,

including extreme weather impacting both domestic and foreign harvests, rising energy and labour costs,

global supply chain disruptions (like the war in Ukraine), and post-Brexit trade barriers that have increased import costs for certain goods

These domestic and international pressures mean that businesses can no longer absorb all the rising costs and are passing them on to consumers."

midgey

But how many of us have actually been into a pub lately? I certainly haven’t.

Quite often for lunch, coffee mornings with groups too.

Pubs are not just for drinking alcohol now.

midgey

But how many of us have actually been into a pub lately? I certainly haven’t.

On average 3-4 times a month.

Meet friends for a catch-up sometimes just a drink, often for lunch. DH and I go for Sunday lunch at a local pub once a month.

Incidentally, why are they called Third Places?

Perhaps I've missed something.

The three pubs in our village are all different in nature, one is a very old coaching in and offers food ( we have book club there ), one has a pool table, shows sport and is run by a couple of big hearted women, so lots of charity events. The third is more a family pub, with a small event space to hire. Nice to go to with the ‘girls’ for a quiet evening.
There are also 3 cafes, again all different, well supported by different groups and thriving.

Allira a pub near us, has coffee mornings, knit and natter, quizzes along with charity events.

A group of us meet every couple of months in the same restaurant. It's a nice place and the menu suits us all. Last week we were shocked at the rise in prices and also the smaller size of the dishes. It had recently been taken over. I suppose they'd been struggling and had to sell. It was sad though. Not sure where we'll meet up next time.

As soon as I saw that the link in this thread was taken from the Daily Mail, I
did wonder how long it would take before someone posted the usual silly disparaging remark about the newspaper

It didn’t take long, did it?

This additional tax burden on the hospitality industry is so shortsighted of the government.
This is on top of the proposed daily ‘bedroom tax’ which we will all have to pay apparently for hotel or Air b and b stays.

Is there any sector of society this useless government isn’t clobbering?

As soo as I posted that the DM had been sourced and pointed out that all was not quite as they had painted, with example, I knew that someone would come along to disparage me. And here we go 🤣🙄

I went for a lunch recently to a very fancy place. Mediocre service and food, cost us around £40 each, 3 courses and a drink. For my dessert I got what could be described as a sliver of cake. I think we are all being ripped off, putting aside restaurant overheads, staff wages etc. I rarely eat out though and less so now.

Allira

Incidentally, why are they called Third Places?

Perhaps I've missed something.

I think it's an American concept: the idea is that your home is your first place, your workplace the second place. A third place is somewhere you go to relax informally and socialise so - parks, pubs, restaurants, leisure centres and village halls etc.

Third place?

Never heard of it.

The cafe has taken over from the pub, in my local town at least. I think we have had seven additional ones in the last five years, and they all seem to thrive.

Here you can buy alcohol at many cafes and/ or you can take your own wine to drink. The pubs tend to be quite big and they all have restaurants with them. We eat out a couple of times a week and it is quite expensive now but not quite as bad as over there. I think you need a new government - you can have ours if you like , especially our local state ones. Shockers.

PaynesGray

Important not to be influenced by the usual anti-Government knee jerk hysteria from the Daily Mail and to look at the detail of Budget changes for the RHL:

www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2025-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-factsheet/budget-2025-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-factsheet

And:

www.thecaterer.com/news/what-does-budget-2025-mean-for-hospitality

Having read those links it doesn’t sound any better than the DM version, just has better information.
Tax rises and the cost of hiring staff will mean even more hospitality struggles and closures.
Rachel Reeves need to go, we won’t get any growth with her at the helm.