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Find a pub that needs you

ismypubfucked.com

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Re: Find a pub that needs you

#341

Post by dgroshev »

pjc50 wrote: post #311
dgroshev wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest problem is that the tax on a median taxpayer is not just "middling", it's a bit over a third of what a median German taxpayer is paying. The rest of the fiscal problems (convoluted tax rules, cliff edges to try to claw something back, abrupt tax increases like the one on pubs) are downstream from that.

> the tax on a median taxpayer is not just "middling", it's a bit over a third of what a median German taxpayer is paying Could you put the actual numbers in for that please, because to me that implies German tax rates of 120%? Is that across all forms of taxation, including local (the relevant one here!)

Apologies, brain glitch: it's half, not third. Also, I'm talking about the effective tax rate, not the marginal tax rate. Here are the numbers:

Median salary of a full time employee in the UK in 2023 (to match the German source): £34,963 [1]

Take home on that salary (after income tax and NI): £28,692 [2]

Effective tax rate on a median salary in the UK: ~18%

Median salary of a full time employee in Germany: €4,479 pm [3] or €53,748 per year

Take home: €34,281 [4]

Effective tax rate on a median salary in Germany: ~36%

Tax _rates_ are not that different, but the previous British governments really ramped up the tax-free allowance, which significantly reduces the effective tax rate.

[1]: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwor...

[2]: https://www.thesalarycalculator.co.uk/salary.php

[3]: https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Labour/Earnings/Earnings-E...

[4]: https://salaryaftertax.com/de/salary-calculator

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#342

Post by t-3 »

iso1631 wrote: post #256
bodge5000 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is spoons though, most pubs are 3-4x that

Most expensive pint I've paid round here was £6, so pubs are about 2x that - about half hour of adult minimum wage, same as spoons charged 25 years ago. So how do spoons make a profit? The main difference that I see is that they buy cheap properties and thus don't have crushing rents. What this page doesn't show is the increase in rent for these buildings.

> So how do spoons make a profit?

Think about the price of a keg of beer - much cheaper/pint than buying beer at a pub or from anywhere else in a smaller size. Very high-volume customers have contracts with distributors that can get them even better deals, sometimes significantly better.

Alcohol is pretty much always sold at a huge markup though - 4-5x is standard in the US. UK regulation might be different, but it's likely that the majority of costs in the pub business are in insurance and licensing rather than alcohol and rent.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#343

Post by jimnotgym »

Aromasin wrote: post #220
jimnotgym wrote: post #207

One striking feature in the UK is the number of pubs that 'went on fire'. The business is no longer viable, planning constraints (and often listed building constraints, which is protection for historical buildings, many pubs are very old) won't let them do anything else with the building so they sit empty until they spontaneously combust. Soon after they get demolished and regrow as a supermarket or apartments.

Worth noting the circle of "pubs that light on fire" and "flat roofed 1970s slum pub" almost entirely overlap. Nobodies setting fire to their thatched-roof pub from 1650 because of pub rates. They just change hands through the breweries every 3-4 years now. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat-roofed_pub

Not quite that old, but plenty of historic pubs have gone on fire

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq87x44ey9po

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#344

Post by wat10000 »

crazygringo wrote: post #340
wat10000 wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basic decency and respect is either ignoring it or putting in the three seconds of effort it takes to understand it, instead of complaining to someone who isn't even attempting to talk to you. Are you the sort of person who goes up to people in public and asks what they're talking about? Because that's what you're doing. Except you aren't even asking, you're just saying "if you're going to talk in public then you nee…

This is just about elementary communication skills. You're arguing that obfuscation is somehow a good thing. How does that make any sense? When people communicate clearly, it makes the world a better place. People understand each other more easily. They don't have to waste as much time figuring things out. It's the golden rule, treating others the way you'd like to be treated. If you don't understand that, I genuinel…

All communication requires some context.

You're on a web site with a vague title and a bunch of random links, and zero explanation on the front page for what it's all about. Do you also complain about that?

This is not obfuscation, this is aiming at a particular audience that you aren't a part of. This web site doesn't need an introduction so that people browsing from Kazakhstan can understand what it's about, any more than a calculus lecture needs to start with basic arithmetic to cover attendees with no math background.

You're doing the internet equivalent of yelling at people to speak English when they're having a conversation in another language. It's as uncouth here as it is there.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#345

Post by rconti »

amiga386 wrote: post #119
rconti wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, interesting. So it sounds like the tax roughly scales with property value (or size). And pubs are probably a "poor use of land" because the revenue per square foot is not particularly high?

Yes. It scales with a government agency's estimate of the property's annual rent (even if you own it), based on market rates in the area over the past two years, which they then scale up/down based on floorspace and how dilapidated the building is. You pay a percentage of the hypothetical rent as tax. There is a lower rate if you're a small business, and there are also tax reliefs for various reasons (charity, partia…

Interesting how punitive the tax structure is on vacant buildings. On the one hand, harsh for the landlord. On the other hand, encourages lower rent to get the space occupied and reduce blight.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#346

Post by rconti »

bloak wrote: post #321
amiga386 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It scales with a government agency's estimate of the property's annual rent (even if you own it), based on market rates in the area over the past two years, which they then scale up/down based on floorspace and how dilapidated the building is. You pay a percentage of the hypothetical rent as tax. There is a lower rate if you're a small business, and there are also tax reliefs for various reasons (charity, partia…

But how does the "snail farm" scheme compare with the "place of worship" scheme? https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/mar/23/ye-of-littl...

This is the opposite of the Free House in Nelson, NZ; a pub in a former church.

https://thefreehouse.co.nz

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#347

Post by lazyasciiart »

GJim wrote: post #237
lazyasciiart wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The most hilarious thing is that I learned recently that when they applied to be a state, the people from WA requested to be the state of Columbia. But a Kentucky rep said that would be too easily confused with the District of Columbia, and Congress changed it to Washington.

> when they applied to be a state, the people from WA Western Australia?

Yes. Little known fact, it was renamed Washington by Congress.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#348

Post by econ »

hiimkeks wrote: post #282
dismantlethesun wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The were making 8.5 per hour which above the 2026 youth wage. They also are relating a story from their past and since they have had an account since 2015, I am assuming their youthful past was at least 1 decade ago if not nearly 20 years ago.

No, the 340 were per month, the 40 hours are per week. I usually do back-of-the-envelope calculations with 4.3 weeks per month, which would leave them below 2 EUR/h. Edit: But you are of course right about inflation! According to this website[1] it would bump them to 3.2 EUR/h. [1]: https://www.inflationtool.com/euro-netherlands/2005-to-prese...

Sounds about right.

The point was that market value has very little to do with cost but is driven by intentionally limiting construction permits.

Out of the million euro that people have to pay to buy the 350 000 home very little goes towards building it.

The surplus of people looking to live someplace isn't an accident.

Now let us imagine what it is like running a pub. After subtracting the cost and the 5000 rent bill they probably have a sizable negative salary.

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#349

Post by firefax »

piltdownman wrote: post #246
alexfoo wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. Applebee’s is still too food oriented. Wetherspoons are definitely pubs. They just have a reputation for cheap drinks and cheap meals. But there’s still a significant proportion of people who go there for drinks only. It’s more like a drinking warehouse with carpet on the floor and a menu of mostly beige food than a larger version of a cosy country pub with a roaring fire and a varied food menu sometimes…

It's the VA for survivors of the 1980s as it doesn't allow music or TV inside, so tends to get ignored by the soccer followers of a weekend and the younger generation entirely. TBF their curry club and other food specials are basically subsidising old bachelors to the point of being an ersatz social service @ £8.45 to £11.45, including a drink, for 12 hours of service every Thursday. https://thewetherspoonsmenu.uk/we…

no music or tv? that sounds fucked... why don't ppl just drink in a park? iirc public drinking is actually legal in the uk?

(I know in some countries it's actually not -- Bratislava being one surprising example, though some cops were really chill when I was like hey sorry, I thought this was allowed, it's cold out so I bought a pounder and I wanted to warm up on the way to my hostel I'm not trying to bother anyone... though maybe they may have been letting me slide mostly because they were amused by what a pounder is once I defined it)

(A pounder is a big can of beer that got it's nickname because American frat bros will "pound" (chug) it to get very drunk quickly in places where the sales of beer are looser than liquor)

Re: Find a pub that needs you

#350

Post by fakedang »

cbeach wrote: post #295
fakedang wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curtail immigration to pre-Brexit levels (with a strong focus on repatriating criminals and net tax non-contributing immigrant households), focus on the working class and devise a route for the UK to get back into the EU. Also refocus policing to focus on actual societal issues - child grooming and the rise of fundamentalist elements (as evidenced by the UAE banning their citizens from studying in the UK) - as oppose…

Disagree on being subsumed into the stagnating EU (far better to align with dynamic English-speaking economies with strong growth, like the US). The EU customs union prevented the UK striking bilateral global free trade deals, and the legacy of EU over-regulation continues to curtail our innovation. The UK has a solid history of global trade and innovation, and it can acheive more if unshackled from the EU. Austerity…

Y'all got any of those bilateral trade deals yet? Brexit was done and dusted by 2019, it's been 7 years now. Where are those deals you're talking about? Where's your trade deal with English-speaking economies like the US? Heck, not even CANZ want to deal with you guys now.

On the NHS, of course, gut the only thing that's keeping the country sane. I can literally not keep count anymore of the number of skilled doctors and talent who have left the UK after years of practice because the pay was becoming untenable with current living needs. Remove the NHS and you might as well call yourself a client state of the US.

On renewables and net-zero, yes, what we need is more reliance on conventional fuels so that we can be ever more reliant on Russia and the Middle East and the US right? Meanwhile economies like China, India and even your brethren in Australia are racing to put in more renewables capacity because it is just so much more cheaper and efficient now. Those guys are forging real paths to energy independence, unlike you lot.

Renewables haven't been reducing your energy bills because you guys haven't been putting up anything of note. Wake me up when Hinckley Point C comes online.

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