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why are there no J D Wetherspoon pubs in ROI?

dd972

You'd think with the boozing culture we have they'd have colonised our town and cities some time ago, plus costwise they'd annihilate the opposition paying through the nose for their Guinness and Heineken.

Only heard bit and bobs of rumour as to why there's no Spoon pubs here ranging from the fact that it's in the Eurozone and it doesn't fit in with their business plan and the Victuallers Association here are keeping them out by some means or other, anybody heard anything more substantial?

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ScumLord

I believe the main reasoning behind Wetherspoons not being in Ireland is because some one said "won't somebody think of the children?"

I'd say there are a few reasons why they wouldn't come to Ireland, the local pubs would fight them tooth and nail and wetherspons simply couldn't work their model of business in Ireland.

I don't know how lifeless wetherspoons is, they can be wedged at certain times of the day. The rest of the time is has the odd lush propping up the bar. It's ridiculously cheap though. Usually hae two for one offers on everything from bottles of beer to shots. Last time I was in one I got pie and chips (a good pie and chips) with a free English Ale for a fiver.

[Deleted User]

BraziliaNZ wrote: »

I think you're underestimating their food, it's decent for what you pay

'For what you pay' being the key. If it's a choice between McDonald's or Wetherspoon's, I'll go for Wetherspoon's. I have eaten there quite a few times and it is edible and grand if you're starving and just want something quick with a pint, but there's no way it's 'good' food.

getz

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

But at least most Irish food pubs serve proper, homecooked food, not frozen crap that's thrown into a fryer. I'd rather eat cardboard than Wetherspoon's 'nachos' or 'pies'. I'd sooner have a menu with 4 nice things on it than a huge menu full of microwave meals.

its obvious you have not been to the same pubs in ireland as i have

ScumLord

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

'For what you pay' being the key.

For what you pay it's perfectly fine food. You'd easily pay twice as much in another pub chain restaurant and get more or less the same quality of food.

The chains are damned annoying at times though. One time in London I walked down a street looking at menus outside pubs and restaurants. I viewed 10 different places but only saw two menus.

BraziliaNZ

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

'For what you pay' being the key. If it's a choice between McDonald's or Wetherspoon's, I'll go for Wetherspoon's. I have eaten there quite a few times and it is edible and grand if you're starving and just want something quick with a pint, but there's no way it's 'good' food.

Well call me a philistine, but I would actually say it's "pretty good", in the Wetherspoons up the road from me. The cheap price probably makes it taste better though.

rossie1977

wetherspoons are fine, good value, obviously not somewhere i would spend the night drinking, but for a quick meal and a few drinks during the day its perfect

bbuzz

The food's grand in Spoons, and you know it will be in every pub (and that's because it's all preprepared somewhere else and whacked in a microwave at the pub). But it's a decent price and decent quality. Only problem is the chips, the chips in Wetherspoons are beyond terrible.

The price of pints depends on which Wetherspoons, my local spoons in Coventry charges £3.60 for a guinness, about €4.20, so there's not that big a difference between my local pub in Dublin which is €4.40. But there's always cheep lagers (Carling

) and sometimes £2 ales

BraziliaNZ

bbuzz wrote: »

The food's grand in Spoons, and you know it will be in every pub (and that's because it's all preprepared somewhere else and whacked in a microwave at the pub). But it's a decent price and decent quality. Only problem is the chips, the chips in Wetherspoons are beyond terrible.

The price of pints depends on which Wetherspoons, my local spoons in Coventry charges £3.60 for a guinness, about €4.20, so there's not that big a difference between my local pub in Dublin which is €4.40. But there's always cheep lagers (Carling ) and sometimes £2 ales

That's crazy, it's 1.99 for a Guinness in my local Wethers, and that's in London ffs

desertcircus

They stock a big range of good beers, a handful of crappy beers sold dirt cheap, and serviceable food at ridiculously low prices. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to at least have the option; they at least keep other places honest on pricing.

Also: McSorley's in Ranelagh and the Palace in Fleet Street offer craft beer on tap. 5am Saint in McSorley's is particularly good.

ScumLord

bbuzz wrote: »

The price of pints depends on which Wetherspoons, my local spoons in Coventry charges £3.60 for a guinness, about €4.20, so there's not that big a difference between my local pub in Dublin which is €4.40. But there's always cheep lagers (Carling ) and sometimes £2 ales

That's kind of weird. I haven't been to Coventry in a while but I go to Birmingham regularly and the big thing I notice about that area is how cheap everything is. Brummies seem obsessed with discount shops and everything being as cheap as possible.

awec

desertcircus wrote: »

They stock a big range of good beers, a handful of crappy beers sold dirt cheap, and serviceable food at ridiculously low prices. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to at least have the option; they at least keep other places honest on pricing.

Also: McSorley's in Ranelagh and the Palace in Fleet Street offer craft beer on tap. 5am Saint in McSorley's is particularly good.

This is a myth.

Wetherspoons pubs have no real effect on the price of booze in other pubs. Pub owners know that nobody really wants to spend their night in Wetherspoons, it's a quick stopgap for a pint and a bit of food and then on to a better bar.

There is a bit of a strange atmosphere in them in my experience. The cheap drink attracts a lot of undesirables, you are less likely to find yourself chatting to someone you've never met before in a Wetherspoons pub. It's like everyone keeps themselves to themselves.

ScumLord

awec wrote: »

This is a myth.

Wetherspoons pubs have no real effect on the price of booze in other pubs.

Yeah, all the other places have been driven out of the market.

joeguevara

awec wrote: »

This is a myth.

Wetherspoons pubs have no real effect on the price of booze in other pubs.

You are completely right. In the pub I managed in Camberwell, there was an O'Neils directly next door who charge 3 timesour price for guinness. We were packed from open to close 7 days a week and they had barely a trickle in through the door. They never changed their prices.

Cienciano

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

Typical menu...

Full Irish Heartattack Breakfast

Soup of the day and a roll
Beef Stew or variation thereof
Breaded fish with tartare sauce, usually touted as cod, but may be something else entirely, with salad
Burger with salad
Something Something Chicken based meal with salad
Vegetarian (where available) Stir Fry

Kids menu, all the fattening stuff...
Chicken nuggets/Chips/Sausages

Chicken goujons and chips.
Lasangne and chips
Scampi and chips
It's not uncommon for a pub not to do food at all.

IzzyWizzy wrote: »

But at least most Irish food pubs serve proper, homecooked food, not frozen crap that's thrown into a fryer. I'd rather eat cardboard than Wetherspoon's 'nachos' or 'pies'. I'd sooner have a menu with 4 nice things on it than a huge menu full of microwave meals.

I have to disagree, that's a bit of a generalisation. Last irish pub I was in was selling pizzas for 10 or 12 quid, the barmaid was unwrapping the frozen pizzas from the cellophane and sticking them in the oven!
I wouldn't class irish pubs to have better food than a british chain pub. Some do good food, but generally if a pub does good food here you'll pay for it.

awec

ScumLord wrote: »

Yeah, all the other places have been driven out of the market.

Not even.

There is a Wetherspoons in Belfast. It has had no effect on the price of booze elsewhere.

People will happily pay the extra 2 or 3 quid for a pint to go to a classier bar, or at least a bar with some atmosphere.

Cantona's Collars

Been to a few in different parts of the UK & they vary in 'quality'.Great when on a stag do or heading to a match as the beer is dirt cheap.

There's one in Cardiff which used to be an old cinema that specialised in adult movies.

United fans will be familiar with the Bishops Blaize which used to be a dive of a place (can't remember the original name) which has since been taken over by Wetherspoons & revamped.

It's gas how you can get a large bottle of Bulmers (Magners over there) for a hell of a lot less than you pay here.

I for one wouldn't mind a few opening over here-it might put the frightners on the Vintners Association & the sky high prices of going for a night out.

Great selection of drinks too,outside the cities here the idea of a selection of beers is the usual Bud,Carlsberg,Guinness etc. with Bavaria as the exotic out of the norm beer.

http://www.jdwetherspoon.co.uk/home/drink

Nice Martyr

Went to one in Manchester last year before a Pearl Jam gig. A converted house with no music. Sounds boring but great for drunk talk and nice local ales.

PS. Cheap as funk.

RDM_83 again

awec wrote: »

Not even.

There is a Wetherspoons in Belfast. It has had no effect on the price of booze elsewhere.

People will happily pay the extra 2 or 3 quid for a pint to go to a classier bar, or at least a bar with some atmosphere.

I don't know about that I know they first came into derry there was a slight drop in prices in some pubs, its also not comparing like with like, even with price rises for drink in the North its still much cheaper than Dublin (Galway would be slightly closer).

I think Derry is quite a good example of how they would move into the Republic actually as when they first came in they had a properly strict no football tops rule, no music, no sports on and lots of massive bouncers (all these things have since changed) which was probably deliberate to prevent it becoming too nasty.

Also the point about all the Craft brews and pubs serving them in Ireland is sort of missing the point, in W,spoons these are affordable and often cheaper than the mass produced stuff, I drink beer and like the taste but its not wine and paying 6 euro plus for a pint is just unappealing* , and most importantly they serve a range of ciders not just something massively overpriced like Aspels (2 pound 7.3% cloudy westons scrumpy

).

* The Gingerman does have cheap franciscian well stuff but I've had horrendous hangovers of it.

RossyG

As a student in the late-90s, I was a frequent Wetherspoons (known locally as Spoons) customer. You could get a beer and a burger (with chips) for £2.99 and Mondays was pound a pint day. I'd get rat-arsed for a tenner. I used to enjoy Curry Club, as well.

We'd go to the one in Portsmouth, affectionately calling it our Gentleman's Club because of the décor (bookcases, high ceiling, mahogany tables...) It was ok, full of students like us as well as old people who liked a drink. Packed on Fridays nights but only the odd scuffle or raised voice.

I used to visit the one in Chichester too, although for a genteel cathedral city it seemed to attract its fair of scumbags. When they instigated their own smoking ban, the scumbags went elsewhere, but when all pubs in the UK for forced by law to be smoke free they returned with a vengeance.

On the negative side, they can certainly attract undesirables and also be a bit soulless; on the plus side, the booze is very cheap and the food isn't too bad. That said, I never go in them now. I'd rather a proper pub with an atmosphere even if it's an eye-watering £4 a pint. It helps that I drink a lot less in my old age.

Mr Benevolent

MadsL wrote: »

Someone needs to sort out the utter pish that passes for beer in Ireland.

Ireland has been left way, way behind, when the best beer in the world is being brewed by Americans.

Eh? Have you looked for American craft beer? It's all over the place! Good off licences have reams of craft beers.

jossnjuice

Strange this is up here today, i was talking about it last night without evening knowing this had been started..........Apparently, Either Yeates or Wetherspoons could be opening on the site of the Foxhunter in Lucan soon......

Liverpool and Newcastle breweries (???) are in talks with nama.

Cienciano

RossyG wrote: »

As a student in the late-90s, I was a frequent Wetherspoons (known locally as Spoons) customer. You could get a beer and a burger (with chips) for £2.99 and Mondays was pound a pint day. I'd get rat-arsed for a tenner. I used to enjoy Curry Club, as well.

We'd go to the one in Portsmouth, affectionately calling it our Gentleman's Club because of the décor (bookcases, high ceiling, mahogany tables...) It was ok, full of students like us as well as old people who liked a drink. Packed on Fridays nights but only the odd scuffle or raised voice.

I used to visit the one in Chichester too, although for a genteel cathedral city it seemed to attract its fair of scumbags. When they instigated their own smoking ban, the scumbags went elsewhere, but when all pubs in the UK for forced by law to be smoke free they returned with a vengeance.

On the negative side, they can certainly attract undesirables and also be a bit soulless; on the plus side, the booze is very cheap and the food isn't too bad. That said, I never go in them now. I'd rather a proper pub with an atmosphere even if it's an eye-watering £4 a pint. It helps that I drink a lot less in my old age.

I was in a pub owned by Stonegate Pub Company (another pub chain) about 2 weeks ago and it was £5 for a burger, chips and a pint.
I ordered beef and ale pie and chips, 2 pints and large nachos and it was under £11.
Some of these pubs can be souless, but the only way you'd know this pub was part of a chain is because the menus had colour photos of each meal and were fairly flashy for a pub.

Latchy

Defiler Of The Coffin wrote: »

There's a decent one in Manchester city centre done up like a plush house. I know a few people who go there because of the lack of loud music. They can be quite hit and miss but you can't argue with the price.

Nice Martyr wrote: »

Went to one in Manchester last year before a Pearl Jam gig. A converted house with no music. Sounds boring but great for drunk talk and nice local ales.

PS. Cheap as funk.

Myself and a friend popped in that particular WP in Manchester last year when we went to see Ultravox in concert and got a decent pint of beer there for £1.75 .The place was far from soulless but you only need one or two people for company to enjoy yourself anyway , anywhere .

ScumLord

Cienciano wrote: »

I was in a pub owned by Stonegate Pub Company (another pub chain) about 2 weeks ago and it was £5 for a burger, chips and a pint.
I ordered beef and ale pie and chips, 2 pints and large nachos and it was under £11.
Some of these pubs can be souless, but the only way you'd know this pub was part of a chain is because the menus had colour photos of each meal and were fairly flashy for a pub.

On the other hand they do have excellent chains in places too. I stopped off at some Ye olde town in the UK last time I was there, it was obviously a tourist spot but a typical old English town. The pubs there were serving English Ale made up the road in a traditional factory that had working parts going back to Saxon or Roman times and the pint was only £2.30.

I think over in the UK they do have a better Artisan tradition than we do in Ireland. Businesses can spring up out of excellence in the UK. Whereas in Ireland everything has to try and be a business to get up and running. The foundation of the UK artisan trade is making the best product, in Ireland the foundation is always corrupted by the need for financial gain.

Biggins

joeguevara wrote: »

...From what I heard, the reason they decided not to move into Ireland is due to the fact that they would not get any discount for bulk buying from the breerys...

NOT so... As I've already said, they were supposed to coming to Ireland but they pulled out when the economy fell:

...During the year, JD Wetherspoon looked set to enter the market, acquiring a premises in Capel St, Dublin. However, the chain pulled out before it really began.

The aborted launch here resulted in a €900,000 loss for the company, which said that it could not find enough locations here to replicate its model in Britain.

http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/pubs-still-a-big-draw-for-buyers-187159.html

PRIOR to that:

BRITISH pub chain JD Wetherspoon, which opens its first pub in Northern Ireland this week is interested in starting up in the Republic.
The company currently owns 420 pubs, and property consultants will be watching for a suitable premises south of the Irish border, said spokesman Eddie Gershon....

http://www.independent.ie/business/wetherspoons-eyeing-up-south-370054.html

stimpson

Biggins wrote: »

NOT so... As I've already said, they were supposed to coming to Ireland but they pulled out when the economy fell:

They pulled out in 2003. Long before the economy tanked.

Biggins

stimpson wrote: »

They pulled out in 2003. Long before the economy tanked.

True to some extent but the entertainment industry got a head start downward because of a number of still debatable factors.
Some are mentioned in both articles.

stimpson

Biggins wrote: »

True to some extent but the entertainment industry got a head start downward because of a number of still debatable factors.
Some are mentioned in both articles.

Where? They said they couldn't secure enough suitable premises ie. because the economy was booming. A cut price operation like Witherspoons would make a killing in recession Dublin.

Lyaiera

Confab wrote: »

Eh? Have you looked for American craft beer? It's all over the place! Good off licences have reams of craft beers.

It's really not. The bigger brands of American craft stuff is here, along with some of the well known smaller craft brands. I've talked to the guys importing beer and it's far easier to import stuff from the UK, Belgium and Germany than it is to get stuff from America. It's just a pure cost thing. They'd love to do it, but unless someone in one of those countries imports massive stocks of American stuff and the Irish buy it off them you're just not going to find the really good American stuff.

And part of that is simply down to these beers being craft beers. They just don't have the logistics and supply chains of the macros to get it over here. But the same would be said of the smaller European beers in America. The top 10% of craft beers make it to America, the rest don't.

It's a catch 22 situation. If you want the beers to remain craft you have to accept this, if you want them available worldwide they'll cease being craft. Although that is happening to some degree. The macros are buying up craft beers with huge promises that they won't interfere with the brewing process and beer selection but they will provide funding and logistics. The Fran Well is one to watch in Cork. Molson Coors bought them up and they're going to expand to being biggest or second biggest brewer in Ireland and people are waiting to see if it has an effect on the brewing.

And that's something else that's a problem with craft beer. Some people just want good beer, others take a philosophical view that anything that isn't craft is automatically bad based on them being owned by a megacorp.

dd972

Don't know why there's so many downers on the food from spoons, don't think it's that bad, not gastropub or restaurant standard but better than some pubs I've had food in.