As I write my first opinion piece of the new year, I have a sense of déjà vu.
At the time of writing, on the identical day to last year, I was once again clearing the first snow of winter from the lane and car parks where we have three pubs, in the village of Mobberley.
Last year, my opinion piece reflected on why I should have to clear the lane of snow instead of Cheshire East Council while questioning what we actually get, service-wise, for our ever-increasing business rates contributions?
I now sit here rather motivated that myself and my handyman Tom have once again cleared and salted a whole lane and two car parks before we opened at midday. I feel a sense of pride despite the fact I am freezing and covered in salt once again. It gave me great thinking time to reflect on why we actually bother, after all, today is generally the quietest day of the year.
The answer is if we don’t do it, no one else will and our customers will be impacted. This is what it’s all about – going the extra mile (the lane is probably a third of a mile but you know what I mean) to help your community, your customers and your teams all at the same time. That’s what pub owners (and their teams) do, they serve their communities in unique and caring ways, the community can count on us. Long may it continue. Take note Mr Starmer!
I am not going to talk too much about business rates other than to say that Ed Bedington’s recent article said it all. We simply need reform that will take pubs away from the completely ridiculous valuation method currently in use. It will take a few keen, individual, small business owners to do this but, rest assured, we will win the fight – this you can count on.
Desperate discounting deals
Today, I wanted to talk a little about the other thing featuring ‘count’ in the word… and that is ‘discounting’. As I open my letterbox, I see more and more desperate discounting deals at branded pubs in our surrounding area. I really do fear for the pub business as a whole if pubs go down the discounting route wholeheartedly because it is so hard to return from this course of action.
I visited a pub recently with my 101-year-old stepmother, just up the road from where she lives. The pub is part of a larger group but very convenient. It was a Tuesday but what we didn’t know was that it was ‘Scampi Tuesday’. It’s got a nice ring to it. Congratulations to the ‘marketing suite’ that came up with that catchy little title. Anyway, we didn’t know this and proceeded to order one main scampi and one small scampi as advertised on the main menu, only to be told they only did one size on Tuesdays.
I am trying not to laugh while writing this but there was no further explanation so despite being somewhat puzzled, we ordered two scampi dishes of the same size. Of course, one meal was too large for my elderly stepmother and the other was not large enough for a hungry, snow-clearing Yorkshireman like me. So by moving food items around from plate to plate we managed to get to where we needed to be in the first place! When I came to pay the bill, I saw we had paid a much lower price because it was ‘Scampi Tuesday’. Clearly, the mistake here is that our meal was discounted when it didn’t need to be. We hadn’t come in for the discount and therefore the pub lost sales through discounting when we weren’t discount hunters… lost revenue.
I am the first to understand times are tough but if you have invested in a pub – and the pub looks great and your team (other than a few communication issues) are excellent and the menu does a job and the drink does a job – then why discount at all?
The value is in the team’s service, the lovely surroundings, coupled with a fair price for quality food and drink… that’s what gets everyone talking about your pub NOT Scampi Tuesday!
Slippery slope
I find some pubs are discounting for the sake of discounting rather than working on ‘good value’ as the key to future success. In the end, the perception of the pub will change and one will replace the customers who aren’t there for a deal with those that only come for a deal and with this the spend drops and the slippery slope appears.
Before anyone points to JD Wetherspoon and says “they discount”, the fact is that despite Wetherspoon being loosely based on Walmart, it actually plays the ‘good value’ game wonderfully. It has well-trained teams, a menu that does a job, a drinks selection that does a job, clean and well-presented pubs, high operational standards and good price points so they don’t need to discount. Its current ‘January Sale’ actually isn’t perceived as discounting. It is cleverly disguised as a very short-term ‘shopping offer’ but from where I am standing they don’t need to discount or indeed do their January sale because they are perceived as good value anyway and will have the lion’s share of the business because of this.
So before thinking about reverting to ‘Fishy Friday’ or ‘Sirloin Saturday’ as your way out or indeed adopting Scampi Tuesday, ask yourself ‘do we make the best fish and chips out there?’ ‘Do we grill the best sirloin steak out there?’ ‘Is our pub looking good in and out?’ ‘Is our team on top form?’ ‘Is our cask ale amazing?’ ‘Do we have some decent wines?’ ‘Is our fire lit?’ ‘Have we created a great atmosphere?’ ‘Are our prices good value?’… if the answer is yes, you don’t need to discount ever.
To those who cannot say yes to all the above then take a big breath and try your best to do the things the customer sees as great value before entering the world of discounting because it is a short-term fix and cannot replace what really counts… great hospitality.
Quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten.
Here’s to a great year ahead.
