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As a wet-lead pub with a split of over 90% on liquid-based refreshments, for many years now we’ve struggled to grow the food side of our business despite repeatedly being told a) how nice our food is, b) what great value it is and c) marketing our butts off to get people’s attention.
We are known for being a drinking pub, even in this post-smoking ban period, and have managed to keep this reputation in the face of the beer tie, rising prices, recession and supermarket domination.
Whenever somebody walks in for something to eat – and it would be foolish of us not to have some sort of offering, I agree – it often costs us more to serve them than is financially viable.
As a consequence, we don’t provide food on Mondays and Tuesdays, preferring instead to not spend the money on staff and kitchen costs for the occasional trade we might take, and concentrate on our weekly teams, such as darts.
But we do have a small food trade, especially around the weekends, that is worth focusing on and recently a little story unfolded that made me titter:
In retail, you’re taught from an early age that the customer is always right. Like food, I take some umbrage at this, but I do believe the customer, when entering the premises, is buying the right to think they are right… unless they are blatantly wrong.
A little while ago, when finishing their meal and sipping the last of their coffee, one table asked for the bill, which we duly produced. My barmaid was then called back to the table with a query; the bill, it seemed, must be wrong.
The barmaid checked the bill, confirmed it was correct, and advised the customer so. At which point he asked to speak to me. “You are charging me VAT on food!” He cried. “You do not pay VAT on food, so please remove it from the bill. You are in error!”
I had to inform the customer that VAT is, indeed, charged on food when prepared in such an establishment, but he was having none of it. It took some polite explaining, much to the amusement of drinking customers around us, but eventually I did get the gentleman to recognise the difference between buying his food in Tesco for preparation at home and coming in to a pub to have somebody prepare his food for him.
Then, only last week, another customer said to me: “we don’t pay VAT when buying food from you, do we?” *groan*
The customer, therefore, isn’t always right, but we have to do our best to try and make them think they are and, when they’re not, we have to be careful how we correct them without sounding patronising.
Unless, of course, I’ve been advised incorrectly by my accountant these past six and a half years…!
Mark Daniels is the licensee at The Tharp Arms in Chippenham, Cambridgeshire
