The Stop Smoking Megathread [ including Champix]

[purdy]

Yes but pubs are now in trouble because they alienated a large part of their smoking customers, and non-smokers who didn't go to the pub in the past aren't now going to pubs to fill the shortfall. Pubs are closing all over the place because of this, and it's a shame.

 

No, I'm not a smoker.

 

Well hardly. I go down town and see new bars springing up all over the place. There are 3 or 4 new ones in Leopold Square alone. All the old shops and offices along Division Street, Cambridge Street and West Street have recently become bars. Even banks, swimming pools and cinemas are being converted into pubs. I suspect there are now far more than there were 10 years ago, which is something of a revival.

 

There is a book by a chap called Douglas Lamb called A Pub on Every Corner. It lists the hundreds of pubs that were around in Sheffield 100 years ago that weren't around when the book was published in 1996. 2/3 of the pubs in Sheffield disappeared before the smoking ban. This was the era that Tom Fletcher refers to in his posts where 95% of pub goers smoked and the 70% of the population that didn't smoke did not frequent pubs because they couldn't breathe. So far from the smoking ban closing pubs, it was the smokers who alienated the potential customers who didn't smoke and caused most of those pubs to become non viable. So since the smoking ban came along folks can take their family down to the pub for a drink and very likely something to eat.

There are of course some dives that cannot adapt to the new customer base and will close. However there are far more that have fumigated the bars and installed proper toilets that are fit for family use. Those that have not adapted and have fallen by the way the wayside have been replaced by modern wine bars, cafe bars and new look pubs.

Nip down to Leopold Square and try one. They even have smoking areas outside so everyone is happy.

Edited August 19, 2011 by purdy

[swaroberts]

Nip down to Leopold Square and try one. They even have smoking areas outside so everyone is happy.

 

Have done, didn't like them. They're not pubs they're bars. I used to like the spit-n-sawdust type of pubs. They're the ones that are shutting down.

Why can't we have both? Bars for families and kids and pubs for hardcore smokers and drinkers?

[SnailyBoy]

Have done, didn't like them. They're not pubs they're bars. I used to like the spit-n-sawdust type of pubs. They're the ones that are shutting down.

Why can't we have both? Bars for families and kids and pubs for hardcore smokers and drinkers?

 

The ban on smoking in public buildings is to protect others from the hardcore smokers.

[purdy]

Have done, didn't like them. They're not pubs they're bars. I used to like the spit-n-sawdust type of pubs. They're the ones that are shutting down.

Why can't we have both? Bars for families and kids and pubs for hardcore smokers and drinkers?

 

Tough, but that's the way things are. Pubs are not closing because of the smoking ban. New bars are replacing them because they couldn't adapt to their new customer base. It is precisely because they were spit and sawdust pubs that is closing them down.

Incidentally I went to a new pub last night. 12 real ales on the bar and packed to the gunnels. Nice and clean inside and a few folks smoking outside. That's the new reality, and I like it.

[vinyl]

The ban on smoking in public buildings is to protect others from the hardcore smokers.

 

Most people prefer to have a shower before they go out for a drink, not to have to take one when they get back afterwards.

[Sid Umpley]

Pubs also need to realise that we are customers, and unless they are the only pub in walking distance we will go elsewhere.

 

My local changed landlords recently. the new landlord is a sarcastic bloke who was sat there one day telling the drinkers what they wanted. i see a good few of those few drinkers in the pub i now call my local.

[Shogun]

Well hardly. I go down town and see new bars springing up all over the place. There are 3 or 4 new ones in Leopold Square alone. All the old shops and offices along Division Street, Cambridge Street and West Street have recently become bars. Even banks, swimming pools and cinemas are being converted into pubs. I suspect there are now far more than there were 10 years ago, which is something of a revival.

 

There is a book by a chap called Douglas Lamb called A Pub on Every Corner. It lists the hundreds of pubs that were around in Sheffield 100 years ago that weren't around when the book was published in 1996. 2/3 of the pubs in Sheffield disappeared before the smoking ban. This was the era that Tom Fletcher refers to in his posts where 95% of pub goers smoked and the 70% of the population that didn't smoke did not frequent pubs because they couldn't breathe. So far from the smoking ban closing pubs, it was the smokers who alienated the potential customers who didn't smoke and caused most of those pubs to become non viable. So since the smoking ban came along folks can take their family down to the pub for a drink and very likely something to eat.

There are of course some dives that cannot adapt to the new customer base and will close. However there are far more that have fumigated the bars and installed proper toilets that are fit for family use. Those that have not adapted and have fallen by the way the wayside have been replaced by modern wine bars, cafe bars and new look pubs.

Nip down to Leopold Square and try one. They even have smoking areas outside so everyone is happy.

You have made some good points there,but I think people were more tolerant towards smoking in them days, most adults smoked in them days as well I was in the minority as all my friends smoked,there was not as many eating pubs back then and kids were not allowed in pubs at all so you would not get families in,I worked for Shipstones and most of there pubs were boozers or wet house,the first pub I worked in that was a wet and dry pub was the Belfry in Beighton at that time the pub was packed every night, 20 staff, the bar was 5 deep on most nights taking over 20k a week when a pint was less than £1 and people smoked in the restaurant as well,so I don't think smoking put any one off then

[Cyclone]

People were more tolerant, probably because they didn't realise that it was harming them.

 

Maybe in some pubs most of the patrons smoked, it probably wasn't true in every pub though given that only 45% of the adult population smoked.

[alchresearch]

Bars for families and kids and pubs for hardcore smokers and drinkers?

 

"hardcore smokers and drinkers"? This isn't the Victorian times. What next, opium dens and workhouses?

 

Things have changed, people need to do the same.

[Shogun]

People were more tolerant, probably because they didn't realise that it was harming them.

 

Maybe in some pubs most of the patrons smoked, it probably wasn't true in every pub though given that only 45% of the adult population smoked.

 

Yes I find it hard to believe that only 45% smoked at that time it surly seemed a lot more.