Chris Ghazarian, licensee of The Green Dragon in Flaunden, said the mock pump clip, which dispenses water rather than beer, has sparked widespread conversation among customers about pub pricing, taxation and the realities of running a community venue.
Sparking conversation
“People get the point straight away,” Ghazarian told The Morning Advertiser (The MA). “It’s sparked a lot of laughs, photos and conversations at the bar. Some customers didn’t know the full background at first and have been genuinely surprised once it’s explained.”
Ghazarian said he chose to make the protest visible on the bar rather than keep frustrations behind the scenes, describing it as a more honest way to communicate with customers.
“The bar is where the impact is felt most clearly. It felt more transparent to show the issue rather than quietly absorb the costs. Pubs have always been places where opinions and conversations are shared openly.”
He added that the pump clip has helped explain price increases in a tangible way.
“Customers are often shocked by how little of the pint price actually goes to the pub,” he said. “It helps explain why prices rise without it feeling arbitrary.”
‘Death by a thousand cuts’
Ghazarian said the single biggest day-to-day challenge facing his business is business rates, which he described as increasingly disconnected from the realities of running a rural pub.
“Business rates continue to increase and feel completely disconnected from the reality of running a community pub,” he said. “There’s very little flexibility or relief, even as costs elsewhere rise, so it becomes a fixed pressure that’s hard to offset.”
He also pointed to the lack of VAT relief for pubs, rising supplier costs and the cumulative impact of multiple cost increases.
“The lack of any VAT reduction means we’re absorbing costs that other sectors don’t have to swallow. Beer prices from suppliers keep going up, often with very little warning, and those increases stack up across drinks and food.”
Ghazarian said balancing affordability for customers with business viability has become increasingly difficult.
“We’re constantly trying to protect customers from price rises while keeping the business sustainable,” he said. “None of these issues exist in isolation. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”
Separately, Reform UK also used satirical pump clips during a Facebook Live press conference earlier this week to criticise the Labour government’s impact on pubs.
