The signs are the same. The Government declares the initiative a success while the licensed trade examines the remains of the day following Scotland’s going ‘No Smoking’ in the pubs and restaurants nearly a year ago.
You could really write this one yourselves.
Question: What type of pub has been hardest-hit by the smoking ban introduced last July in Scotland?
Answer: That’s right, the rural pub.
Question: Are publicans thinking of getting out of the trade there now that business has taken a drastic downturn?
Answer: Does Dolly Parton sleep on her back?
Reports of business being down 30 per cent have put it up to the Scottish licensed trade but it need only look across the pond to find out what the future holds.
Initially when the smoking ban was introduced here, sales decreased as publicans wavered in deciding how to deal with it. Same story in Scotland of late.
In the initial stages, customers prefer to stay for just the one and then move on with a smoking break separating the pub march.
Heard it before? Heard it here first.
Other customers come in later and leave earlier.
Used to be Ireland, now it’s Scotland.
Confusion with the local council regarding planning permissions for smoking shelters has added to the Scottish dirge.
Ah! Memories…..
Applications for the provision of suitable outdoor smoking areas are taking a long long time in some parts of the country while detailed advice on what constitutes a smoking area remains conspicuous by its absence.
Uncomfortably similar.
Some Scottish publicans are threatening to turn their pubs into apartments if they don’t find a way out of the present impasse.
It’s here! It’s here!
Wholesale pub shutdowns are putting a genuine fear into the trade in Scotland.
Snap!
Units without food offerings and/or outdoor provision have certainly been suffering. And as with the situation here, the ability of forecourt retailers in Scotland to supply alcohol is not helping stem the homeward tide of business.
But they should take (brave)heart. Ireland is slowly getting back to its licensed trade feet. Business has picked up again for those who took the smoking ban and ran with it.
Scotland can expect trade to pick up too for there are already those there who’re getting on with it, making it a success with the provision of a food offering.
And there are those enjoying a boom in trade who’d not only prepared for the ban but had anticipated it, making their premises No Smoking areas well in advance of the ban’s introduction.
Success in the licensed trade, it seems, can be replicated on either side of the Irish Sea if the good publican only prepares for it, accepts the inevitability of the Ban and moves on into that brave new non-smoking world out there.
