[SimonS1]

Bad news at Wetherspoons….

https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/12027959/wetherspoons-pubs-hike-drink-prices-lockdown/amp/

[ontherunhome]

I always head for a Spoons when working away for a meal and a pint. It is what it is, not Haute Cuisine, but does the job at a budget when working away, and you know what you will get. Always good value, so a small extra increase, i’d accept, all things considered. However I am sure Covid will be an excuse to raise prices in many sectors.Let us hope that price rises are not profiteering, but to cover increased costs.

[esselle]

I’m not sure I understand these concerns about pricing. If they’ve got half a commercial brain, all the pubco’s will be looking at pricing and margins. They have to get it right or they will loose volume, but they can’t just go back to the old pricing regime given the reductions in traffic.

Hotels and airlines have been doing it for donkey’s years; it’s just a pub version of yield management.

If they get it right, they will make a lot of money. If they get it wrong, they won’t.

It’s called running a business.

4 users thanked author for this post.

DerekVH, SimonS1, ontherunhome, ASK1945

[DavidSmith2]

At least in the short/medium term, throughput of customers in the pub and restaurant business is likely to be greatly reduced because of distancing and then cleaning requirements. So it makes sense to target higher value customers, who will yield better returns, than the cheaper end of the market. Whether you make that a transparent COVID charge or add it on in other ways, is a matter of business strategy (and tactics).

Whether those short/medium term pressures are worth resisting, for long-term gain in terms of ongoing customer loyalty, will be a finely-balanced judgment for some. But customers are notoriously fickle and I really can’t blame premises for raising prices, one way or the other, to maintain liquidity. If you can only accommodate half your normal through-traffic, then you want it to be the highest-yielding 50%.

3 users thanked author for this post.

TominScotland, esselle, SimonS1

[Author]

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