Pub parties like it’s 1999
Boss offers £2 pints in supermarkets battle
PUB boss Allister Collins is winding the clock back to 1999 – by selling beer for £2 a pint to boost trade.
Punters hope the move, which will see beer revert to the price it was on the eve of the millennium, will be adopted by other locals.
Allister, owner of The Tyler’s Kiln in Canterbury, Kent, believes his idea will woo back trade at a time when pubs are fighting to survive and an average of 18 are closing every week.
He said: “Customers are finding it much cheaper to stay at home with low-price supermarket beer. But we are absolutely not giving up.”
On average a pint of bitter costs £3.10, some 10 per cent more than five years ago. The offer at the Kiln, which is said to be haunted, is limited to one drink per person and also applies to wine, teas and coffees. Allister added: “There’s nothing wrong with having a drink at home watching Netflix, but there’s nothing like putting the world to rights with mates in the pub.” Brigid Simmonds, boss of the British Beer and Pub Association, said: “Supermarkets can’t match the great atmosphere of the pub.”