According to a report from the licensed victuallers last year, income from drink was down 9.8% year on year . Smoking ban or people just cutting back ?
If more pubs would INVEST in their business rather than just expect punters to turn up for shoddy service and grotty pubs then they would do better.
Perhaps the loss of some pubs is natural wastage of deadwood, My local is busier than ever since new lanlords came in, tarted the place up and put entertainment on at the weekends. The last waste of space landlord spent more time outside with the smokers complaining about how bad things were !
If you cant be arsed with your business, why should you expect paying punters to be.