"If people don't use them they will just go out of existence," one of them said.
They were talking about village pubs and they were making a good point. Pubs are no longer watering holes. If they want to survive they have to be an integral part of communities.
This is a point I have made before and one I firmly believe in. It's no good for pubs to be just watering holes. People by and large don't use them for purely drinking. The ones that survive are much more as one of the gentlemen in the changing room pointed out.
He was talking about his local in Ipswich which holds all kind of entertainment from quizzes to themed nights, parties to many other things. "Use it or lose it" was what he said.
He also felt that drinks had to be at "not over the top prices." He mentioned having to pay £8.50 for a glass of wine. Now I know some of my readers will point out the overheads of running a pub but £8.50 does seem excessive for a glass of wine and my thinking on this was along the lines of the following.
Approx five glasses to a bottle will theoretically bring in £42.50 for a bottle of wine that has probably been bought through trade for a fiver. That's a considerable mark up and will certainly be responsible for less people going to the local to drink and staying at home where they can drink that bottle of wine for about £7. Now I know I'm making some rash generalisations here but I'm sure that's some of the thinking that makes people drink at home with booze purchased from a supermarket.
The gentleman pointed out that the pub charging £8.50 for a glass of wine recently closed. "The thing I love about our successful pub is it is attractive to everyone. The food is bog standard but well priced and wholesome and the drink isn't deliberately overpriced. As a consequence all types of people pop in and enjoy what's going on and that is what pubs should be about."
How I agree with that.
It was a miserably wet day in North Norfolk so, after a quick swim, I spent the morning continuing the editing of my autobiography and got really wrapped up in that.
Cant stay in all day though and so we made an afternoon visit to Holt where the other threequarters went in search of clothes and I went in search of, well I'm not sure what I went in search of. I just mooched around charity shops and then spent some time doing some genealogical research in the library - making use of my open library access because the library wasn't actually open to the public and was unstaffed.
Today it's a return to Holt for the switch on of Christmas lights and some fireworks.