“Your round….”

Would you like your customers to spend 14 months of their life in your pub and have them spend €105,335 while doing so?

We thought you might.

A new study has discovered that the average consumer in the UK will spend 14 months of their life in the pub over the course of a lifetime and they’ll spend £90,942 in total while there.

According to online market researchers OnePoll, the average adult in the UK spends just over three hours a week at their local, supping food and drinks worth almost £28 a time.

This means a total of just under seven days a year – the equivalent of more than one year and two months over the average adult lifetime – will be spent in the pub.

 

Reasons for visiting

“Some see a trip to the pub as a way of winding down at the end of a long day at work while for others it’s more about big nights out to celebrate a special event,” said Kevin Smith of OnePoll which commissioned the research, “For many couples, it’s just a way to escape the kids, tuck into some nice food and catch-up with their other half over a cold beer or wine.

“Either way, it seems we’re still spending a large amount of our time and money in pubs.”

It also emerged that between the ages of 18 and 81 some 13,104 alcoholic drinks and 3,276 shots will be sunk in the pub.

Simply catching up with friends is the most popular reason to visit the pub followed by having a quiet drink and getting away from the partner and/or the children.

Watching football and wanting to unwind after a long day at work also sees Brits heading for their local.

 

“Your round…..?”

But the study of 2,000 people found that there are still disputes about rounds with more than one in four admitting they’ve tried to avoid having to get the drinks in.

Drinking so slowly that someone else ends up stepping in to get the next round is the most common way to dodge buying a round, followed by holding the door open for the group so you’re the last in to the bar.

Other ways to avoid getting a round in include going to the toilet when it’s your turn, pretending to have forgotten your wallet or making an ‘important’ phone call just as everyone’s drinks are running out.

But while three-quarters of those successfully dodge getting a round in, three in 10 have been caught empty-handed in the attempt.

One sneaky punter pretended to be sick when he failed to cough up for a round while another jammy dodger tried to charge a round to his friend’s debit card behind the bar – until the bar manager announced his trickery to the rest of the pub.

A quarter of adults even admitted to buying cheaper drinks when it’s their turn but making an expensive choice when someone else is getting the drinks in.

As a result, one in 10 have even ended up in a row with their drinking buddies over a round.

 

The curmudgeon’s 10 ways to avoid buying a round:

1. Drink slowly when it’s your turn so someone else buys the drink
2. Hold the door open to let the group in so you’re at the back when you get to the bar
3. Go to the toilet when it’s your round
4. Buy a round as early as possible in the night to avoid expensive rounds of shots later on
5. Pretend to have an important phone-call when it’s your turn to buy a round
6. Pretend you forgot your wallet
7. Wait until last in the hope people have gone home when it gets to your turn
8. Go out for a cigarette when it is your turn
9. Say you have to go as it’s approaching your turn
10. Talk about how skint you are to make your friends feel guilty about asking.

 

 

Does all this sound familiar?

We thought it might.