Here’s another little snippet which caused me to go cross-eyed momentarily:
The number of coffee shops in Britain is set to overtake pubs by the year 2030, according to industry research.
Some three coffee shops are opening every day adding an extra 21 a week serving up lattes and cappuccinos.
By contrast between 21 and 25 pubs are closing every week, with many turned into homes and convenience stores.
Fhe switch from lager to latte means that the number of UK coffee shops has increased from 10,000 in 2007 to 24,000 today.
At the same time, the traditional pub is suffering with the total down from around 75,000 in the 1970s to around 47,000 today.
Oy. It’s enough to make me want to crawl into a corner and whimper like a little girl. Then again, there may still be a little of the bulldog spirit left:
I mean, I love coffee. But it’s a morning drink — or at least, an after-dinner choice. But nothing beats a good pub. Here’s one that I visited with The Englishman, because the King’s Arms was just too far away for our thirst, and it was a case of “Stand aside, Coffee; this is a job for BEER.”
No doubt it will be gone by the time I get back Over There.
Somebody hide the pills.
It’s a real problem. The drink-drive laws have hit hard, and the high prices of all drinks in a pub – not just alcoholic ones – have hit just as hard. It’s easier and much cheaper to invite your friends round and have some supermarket beer and a take-away.
No doubt many on this side of The Pond consider this A Good Thing ™, and hope similar trends happen here.
I’ve noted before that Americans are….odd about alcohol. An example makes my point well. When I lived in NYC I had a little local bar where I’d go for a few (or more) beers, play darts, listen to music, and try to pick up women. It was a dive, but it was local (meaning I could walk there and stagger home), there were seldom problems, and it was a fun place. One Christmas they put up decorations as was their wont, and those decorations included pictures of Santa Claus. The NYC powers-that-regulate-all-things-alcohol told them they had to take down the Santa decorations, or risk fine and/or closure. Because the decorations might attract children and children in a bar are Verboten. Mind you, DAYS after I was born my parents took me to their local hang-out to show me off to their friends, and what they did was illegal because I was under-age in a bar.
Now realistically, no 19 year old (legal age was 21) goes into a bar because Santa is on the wall, and if a five-year-old comes in because he sees Santa I’m quite sure the bartender won’t serve him alcohol.
Don’t get me started on open-container laws, a story for another time.
And the fastest growing population in England does not drink alcohol.
.. and intends to stop you from drinking it as well.
They profess that quite loudly but I could show you multiple places in Saudi and Kuwait one could acquire the good stuff, locally produced siddiqui aka bathtub gin or may as well be was quite the cottage industry.
Hide the pils? No self respecting anglophile will touch the stuff, it belongs down a drain. Draw me a stout, porter or brown ale any day, never a pils…unless there is a lack of all dark brews in a 50 mile radius. Oh! Sorry, I see now it says “pills”, never mind but the above still applies!
It matters not to me.
Don’t care for coffee and quit drinking alcohol about 6 years ago.
Doesn’t England also have some weird pub laws that require them to close early? 10:00 or some such? I can see that as being kind of a buzz kill, too.