Cold Weather? Snow Thanks!

Bit of snow and it grinds to a halt.

It's snowing. Bugger. This means that my Christmas rush will be severely curtailed in the next few days. But it's preeeety I hear you whine, yeah maybe but there are hundreds of businesses out there that will be affected by this weather, including pubs and the wholesalers that supply them!
The effect the weather had on us last time was awful. You see a lot of my customers rely on the trains into London Bridge to get them into the area, this includes the office workers and the other people who come into town on the weekend to do their shopping.
3 weeks ago when we got the first lot of snow, London Bridge station practically closed down and we had one of the worst weeks if not the worst week since I took over The Rake.
So spare a thought for the pub & bar operators during this weather, they will be hit hard and you can get there they do need your custom.

If you can get to London Bridge this weekend we're doing the Geek-Out Sunday tomorrow where I'll have four one-off St Austells beers, 2 new Brodies beers and a vertical tasting of Anchor Christmas 07, 08, 09 and 10. Oh and there may be a cask JW Lees Harvest Ale knocking around for a cellar run or two too!
Now, lets hope I can get to work!

52 pubs a week, are we surprised?

I hate this weather. It's bad enough that we have duty increases imposed on us without a seconds thought by a lame-duck government in the throws of dying an ugly, slow and painful death but now the weather 'chips-in' an completely cripples pub going.
This is the first week back at work after Christmas so I never expect the bar to be busy but whenever it snows the whole country comes to a standstill as the transport system slips up on the ice.
Yes it's pretty, but with approx 52 pubs closing a week this is not good news for the pub trade.
There's also the ill-advised, daily mail style scaremongering from the local and national media that is sending people scuttling back home quickly after work.
How about the annual get-fit January from people who try to shed their latent catholic guilt about drinking, eating and having too much fun? Dust-diets all round I guess.
Add into the mix the cheap booze being sold by supermarkets(of which I admit I partook on New Years Eve) and crippling rents being imposed on pub operators by greedy landlords and well, I could go on for hours about this but I know we've heard it all before.
My message to all customers, mine and others too is this : Get yourselves out to the pub tonight, lets see some of that famous British blitz spirit, it's only snow! The pub should be the heart of the community, lets make 2010 the year of the pub.