The recent media swarm and consumer backlash around the publican/drink driving issue has created a situation where public opinion strongly opposes any comment made by rural publicans in respect of assistance for their business. Indeed, we are becoming almost immune to sound bytes from the Vintners Federation et al.
In our haste to pronounce that “The Publican has had it good for long enough…..” and such similar comments, we are failing to recognise the two real issues:
1. No Publican wants to be responsible for, associated with, known for causing or accomplice to death on the roads. On a purely economic level, the publican does not need to lose an already dwindling rural customer base but in such a community where everyone knows everyone, such a death would affect the entire community.
2. Random Breath testing and Drink Driving Laws are a hurdle, not a brick wall. Everyone in society, whether willing to admit it publicly or otherwise, agrees that a family with all siblings around the table for dinner instead of in a mortuary is favourable and that random breath testing and drink driving laws are actually contributing to maintaining the status quo of many families.
Yes, laws have changed, enforcement has increased and mindsets are shifting, however, economic factors and legislative changes have impacted business since time immemorial. Publicans themselves have contended with and adapted to business changes such as the smoking ban and every business sector has had it’s own cross to bear at some point in it’s history. Cigarette Manufacturers have lost (rightly so, many will agree) the right to advertise or be associated with certain sporting events. The smoking ban also had a large impact on cigarette machine suppliers in Ireland.
The astonishing and cringeworthy comments eminating from some quarters paint a (incorrect) picture of a rural community that cannot leave their houses without a few drinks inside them and are afraid to have anything other than a heap of pints in their rural pub for fear of not enjoying themselves. Comments like “Rural people are afraid to leave thir houses for fear of being breathalysed” and “Its wrong to be breathalysed the morning after” do nothing for our impression of what is most important to these communities. It would appear from liberal use of sound bytes that it would be more favourable to sit at home alone than venture to the pub to see friends for a dreaded “soft drink” or cup of tea.
It is now widely accepted that the current enforcement and legislation will not change back to the “auld days” but will instead get tougher for the sake of reducing road deaths. So, armed with that knowledge, I throw the gauntlet down to Publicans across the country: For the sake of your own livelihoods, the social lives of those in your area who have funded your business through the years and to prevent your industry being tarnished unfairy with the “whinging” brush to Change, Change and Change again until you drive your business to the levels you want to get to.
Here are my solutions for the various complaints I have heard over the past few weeks:
- Follow the lead of the church and send a basket round the bar to make a collection for paying for a designated driver, minibus, taxi, light aircraft or any other means of transport that allows customers get to and from the pub.
- Drop the price of soft drinks year round and even consider running the designated driver campaign year round where the designated driver can avail of up to three free soft drinks.
- Buy a coffee machine, make tea and show that alcohol need not be the only reason to come into a pub.
- For Pubs without a kitchen, consider serving a hearty bowl of soup or stew to encourage customers during the day.
- Lobby your local politician for funding for rural transport. The Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Eamon O’Cuiv has admitted that a small fund is available for such a proposal which he is “considering”.
- Consider evaluating how your business operates. The Pub you opened twenty years ago and haven’t changed since, is a different destination in the eyes of your customers than it once was. Stand still at your peril.
- If your own customers are old, it won’t be long before they’re dead. Harsh but true. Start to think about where your customer base is going to come from moving forward and start to adapt your business to the needs of your new customers.
It will be more beneficial to adapt your business to the needs of your customers than trying to win over a large number of potential customers who are not interested in what you have to offer. So, analyse where the customers you want are going to come from, work out what it is they are going to want, provide it, start again, continuously analysing, optimising and monitoring your business.
January 10, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Good stuff. Also important that publicans always attend any meetings held about the issue – community groups or police meetings etc. ‘We’re part of the solution’. Most underage drinking is not a result of kids buying alcohol themselves but adults supplying it to them.
January 11, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Delighted to hear positive information. Strength in Unity.
January 11, 2007 at 7:04 pm
That was a really good story with a great take on it. Drunk driving, unfortunately, is not something we will ever be able to fully stop.
January 16, 2007 at 9:45 am
Morning sickness
As an industry we have to wonder just how much needless damage reports of the ‘morning after’ random breath testing procedure are doing. How many random morning after tests have actually taken place and how significant is the ‘catch’? Those with a factual answer take one step forward — “Where are you going tabloids??”
I use the phrase “needless damage” above because I understand from a few off-licensees that the ‘morning after’ hullaballoo in the media is putting people off drinking at home too, afraid that more than a bottle of wine between two might still show up the next day like a bad penny on the breathalyser.
This is getting sillly. Can we have some facts please? I understand that the Gardai would prefer you to put 12 hours ‘twixt ‘bottle’ and ‘throttle’ but if one’s body can remove one unit of alcohol per hour, just how much of a bender do you have to be on in a normal evening for it to show up the next day after seven or eight hours’ sleep and how many of us partake of that type of bender in the average week? If the answer is ‘quite a few’, then we’ve a binge drinking problem across all sectors of society, not just our youth.
August 10, 2007 at 4:39 am
Anxiety Attacks
PANIC AWAY
December 7, 2007 at 8:16 pm
Obviously something relatively drastic has to be done to address Ireland’s mass drinking problem. Do alcohol advertisements influence the drinking behavior of people, especially the youth? Consider the following:
56% of U.S. students in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink.
The U.S. alcohol industry spends $2 billion per year on all media advertising.
According to U.S. alcohol abuse research, television advertising changes attitudes about drinking. Young people report more positive feelings about drinking and their own likelihood to drink after viewing alcohol ads.
Perhaps governmental agencies in Ireland can use these alcohol statistics as part of their rationale to limit invasive liquor ads.
October 28, 2008 at 7:29 pm
Heh. Nice. Sometimes I can’t help but give free reign to my rain visitor A joke for you peoples! What did one worm say to another worm? I know a restaurant where we can eat dirt cheap!!