More than 1,500 of London’s music venues risk closure. How do we protect cultural third spaces?
Have they tried charging a reasonable amount for drinks? Spoons can charge under £2 a drink, what expenses do you have that they don’t to justify charging several times more?
Weather Spoons has the lobbying and buying power to buy thousands of barrels from suppliers, in advance, at a huge discount, and spread them across their many venues. They in turn can afford to make a loss on certain drinks and meals, as it’s subsidised by other, more expensive drinks and meals.
Small independent venues buy a small number of barrels each week for one venue, and pay a huge amount more for them. Most are barely breaking even on drink costs.
If it was a just bit more I could believe that a lot more. Also we have a local independent Chinese restaurant that sells drinks for vastly less than any other pub except spoons. They absolutely don’t have bulk supplier options. Honestly wouldn’t even surprise me if they are just buying it from Tesco.
It’s also entirely possible the venues near you are an absolute rip-off, to be fair :)
Yeah, it seems like they are. Its a shame though, spoons needs competition. I don’t know the price per pint for a pub supplier but supermarkets provide a wide variety for under £1/pint. So even if you don’t get the same bulk deals as spoons, surely being within £1 or so shouldn’t be too difficult? I mean that is +50% still but that is more reasonable than +300%
