What new spin and crap can we associate with lock down?

[G0BHD]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53484355
Cost of working at home?.... the chance to do it would have been a fine thing, sadly doesn't apply to me.
A bit more electric and gas used maybe, but why have folks been buying "far more food" albeit "online", or binging out on tea and biscuits?
I recon in truth the money spent at whatever local source of booze has outstripped the lot of them!
Pubs might have suffered, but whatever sources of "off the shelf" alcohol most definitely have not!
I would personally imagine the biggest winners in sheer cash windfall on the back of the whole lock down situation, have been internet based companies and apps providers, and mobile phone companies of course.

[VK5TM]

Don't forget the airfreight companies that have massively ripped everyone off by increasing their charges out of all proportion to actual costs.

[G0BHD]

Don't forget the airfreight companies that have massively ripped everyone off by increasing their charges out of all proportion to actual costs.

A bit like the "war years" then, every cloud however dark, has a silver lining for the "Spivs and chancers" that milk it for a profit!

[Sangoma]

Our shopping and deliver frequency has stayed exactly like before, but our spending has gone up because prices have risen and many cheaper brands are unavailable. Probably by near 15%.

10kg rice has gone fro £10 to £16 for example.


Pubs etc will suffer, but then that has been going on for years, their prices are inflated, so if you can't see any value in visiting them, you may as well buy from the supermarket.
I'm sure the present situation has shown many people that visiting them is expensive, so it will accelerate what was happening anyway.

My daughter will be working at home for the university, but our energy usage and food consumption has remained the same.

I've done about 10 miles in the car in the last few months, and had to buy a new battery today, as lack of use has brought it to the end of its life.

Yes, costa have gone up because prices have, a lot, but not because we are buying more for any reason.

[G0BHD]

I agree with most of that mate to be honest, prices have risen, often with no good reason, other than they have found a captive panicked audience!
On pubs being expensive in sheer booze prices yes, without doubt, you can always buy booze cheaper at other outlets.
But why folks visit a pub has more to do with social interaction, than it does with prices at the beer pumps, and always has.
In the days when you bought your drink at home beer from the "outdoor" counter of back street pubs, it was always cheaper than if you were sat in the bar, lounge, or snug, enjoying the buildings surroundings and company!
You turned up with a washed out pop bottle or two, (Corona pop bottles were the favorite, as they had sealed screw tops!), and the barman dutifully filled it up with Mild, Bitter, or Lager, whatever your tipple, off the pull via a metal funnel!
I used to be tasked with going and fetching my old mans weekend "take outs"!
Whether this protracted period of folks not being able to visit their friendly "local" pub, and mix with other folks socially, will lead to a rise of the pub decline, ultimately depends really on just how much folks have missed the atmosphere of the pub environment whilst forced to stay away of course.
To me the "pub" has always been about far more than just the availability of the booze it supplies, you can get that just about anywhere these days, including many "fill up your fuel tank" garage outlets, but maybe that whole concept of the pub being the local social life "hub" is slowly dying out?

[Sangoma]

Many years ago, I would have agreed.
I remember from the time I was a toddler the atmosphere of pubs, and then in the early 70s enjoying the atmosphere just before I left for SA.

I have been in a pub once in the last 20 years, maybe not a fair judgement, but adding to that what I constantly hear, it seems now it is more about getting drunk for most people.

I have also noticed over the last few years how many people are not going, and how many pubs I have seen shut and boarded up.

I also think people are more aware of how much cash they do not have since 2008.

I noticed that in Newton Ferrers, both the yacht club and the Dolphin Inn had a very healthy local support, and quite a few of the same faces as in 1964, (though no longer with their fathers ) so maybe there is a big difference between small villages and cities.

There is what is basicall a music venue in Coventry that sells booze, they were doing very well until the lockdown.

So probably there is no generalisation, but different trends.

[G0BHD]

Again I can't argue with that.
We have three pubs in walking distance of us, two down on the main road, and one proper "village" style local pub just at the back of my house.
Lock down has hit them all quite badly, and to be fair one of them was already struggling to keep a regular footfall patronage.
Of the three, one has successfully reopened, "The Squirrel" down on the main road, and has seemed rather busy ever since, the one opposite it on the other side of the main road, "The Oak", has not reopened at all for some reason, and I assume the owners have just given it neck, it had lost popularity even before lock down.
The local one just behind us has reopened, and was always pretty busy to be fair, "The three horse shoes", but the gaffer and his wife have announced they are selling up and getting out of the business as soon as they can, and of course whether anyone else takes it on fairly quickly, or it ends up boarded up for ages, is in the lapse of the Gods.
The Squirrel doesn't surprise me out of the three, for being the most successful returning one, as they have a few more irons in the fire than just the pub.
They own a couple of large plots of land behind the pub, one is a services provided camper van/caravan park, the other is the rented out to local folks allotment plots.
So with restrictions now basically lifted on holidaying, they will most likely get camper van/caravan footfall before the season is over, and those folks will also venture into the pub of course, and the local "green fingers" folks will have kept up their allotment rents no doubt.
The other two are just pubs, and as such if they ain't been selling beer, they ain't been making money of course.
Pubs were struggling even before the lock down to be fair, but being forced to close for such a long period of time, and reopen with quite drastic restrictions in place, will probably be the death knell for many more.

[G6CSL]

Pubs, and especially Workingmens/Social Clubs have been on borrowed time since the smoking ban, and Wu-Flu could be the death knell.

I've hardly set foot in one since the ban, and even then just the beer garden. Now they are coming after smokers in beer gardens, with no sense of irony.