This will concentrate the money in the hands of even fewer imho.
The in an abstract way interesting thing is what the long term drop off in trade will be, as itâs possible that people will change their behaviour, and simply not want to drink out of communal glasses in crowded pubs. Staff wonât want to handle reusable personal cups in coffee shops and bars etc etc.
Biodegradable cups may be the thing for a while, which is just yet more consumption.
Iâd add a PS that any landlord who can possibly afford not to, still taking full rent in times like this is a total cunt who deserves whatever misery comes his or her way.
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Indeed itâll be biodegradable cups or bring your own glass youâd imagine when they do reopen and theyâll have to wash out your own glass after every use. There will surely have to be hand sanitizer everywhere too and cordoned off areas from each other with social distancing rules, i.e. tables two metres apart, no groups above 3-4 together. Something common sense even would be table service only so the bar person takes your order at your seat and comes back to you, without everyone congregating shoulder to shoulder at counters waiting to order. Now that would only work in quiet rural pubs, couldnât happen on a Saturday night in a city. So as if things werenât bad enough for publicans itâs going to slow down efficiency inside the pub eating into profit margins, maybe more staff needed due to all the new rules/roles as well. Then you have a lot of people maybe scared to enter pubs and a changing habit would be people drinking at home who didnât before. These are ballsy guys or foolhardy guys whichever way you look at it whoâve been renting pubs up to now, business I think could be unsustainable for a lot in the new reality for them whenever we see it. Its the main area I see suffering hugely in the short to medium term, besides of course air travel.
Tourism or foreign tourism to be more specific will be on its knees for the next few years. Iâd say even the domestic tourism (staycations) will struggle.
Youâll also have the ever dwindling number of people for whom going for a pint every night was a habit.
Theyâll now be 2 or 3 months out of that habit. Will they return to it?
Thereâs one pub at home where there wouldnât be a sinner in it after 9pm, but from 2 to 5 the place would have a very solid trade of nonfunctional alcoholics and then they would be joined from 5 - 8 by the functional alcoholics coming from work. Places like that could really struggle to get their numbers back.
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What happened in Asia after Sars?
Was social distancing introduced/demanded in bars and restaurants and other such businesses?
Iâm guessing not, or else it went back to normal after a while?
cc @Juhniallio
They were back spitting on each other within 3 weeks.
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Yeah my local would have itâs core trade Monday - Friday of people who are in the âcocooningâ class or very close to it i.e 65+. So are enough of these lads sensible enough that even if pubs reopen but the virus is still with us, are they going to be scared to slip into usual habits attending the pub every night or every other night. Youâd imagine a cohort wonât give a shit and value their pints and craic more but surely some wonât return for a long time (if ever).
In saying that my auld fella was telling me that one local bachelor pensioner that falls into this bracket of a regular pub attendee for his bit of company is flouting the rules locally and doesnât care about the virus despite being 70+. Heâs driving into the village and doing slow drives until he meets someone he knows and gets out and goes right up to their face talking about the virus and that heâs sick of it. He has done this twice to my auld fella alone on different days. The guards have caught him doing it one day and driving without valid excuse and gave him a warning. 
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The pubs will never come back from it in Ireland, watching the likes of RTE they are driving the general public into a frenzy that will take years of counselling to overcome, some lads will be afraid to leave the house for the next 2 or 3 years
My sister is due to get married in August, do ye think thatâll go ahead in a hotel with 200 people or so? It looked fine a few weeks ago but the longer this goes on it looks like even gatherings in August are in trouble.
No chance. She should have a plan B.
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She should break it off with him now.
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no one will be getting married this year in Ireland
No idea @Bandage. It predates my stint as TFK Asian correspondent. There was a bird flu outbreak during my time there but there were fuck all precautions really. Theyâd get on a plane in hazmats when it arrived in Beijing and theyâd spray the entire cabin and everyone on it. Aside from that, there wasnât much.
Fellas too afraid to go to pubs now were probably never much use before this. Theyâll be missed at Christmas time. There will be a shitload of excess stock for large companies, Heineken, Diageo etc to get through, a few handy offers will have the masses flocking back in no time. The smaller craft breweries will have their market but it will be tough for them
Pubs are finished lads.
Everything must change for everything to stay the same.
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Pubs wonât reopen till 2022. No gaa till 2022.
RIP
Lads cannot get their heads around the fact that the world pre February 2020 has ceased to exist forever. They are grieving. They are only at the shock and denial stage.
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