Thursday, 8 December 2011

A couple of niggles

Two things recently observed in pubs that, while individually trivial, both contribute to a feeling of lack of interest in customers:

  1. The pub isn’t busy, and a middle-aged guy who I presume is the licensee is the only one serving. He’s chatting on the phone, and carries on doing this even though he can see I am waiting to be served. This continues for maybe three minutes. Couldn’t he have either said “hang on, let me just serve this customer”, or said that he would ring back when more convenient? And no apology even when he eventually comes off the phone.

  2. Another pub is nowhere near full, but ticking over reasonably. The landlady has allowed her daughter, aged approximately 10, to occupy what to my mind is the best seating position in the pub to do her maths homework on her laptop. There were other places to sit, but that, a comfortable corner bench with a clear view of the bar and a window behind, is where I always sit by preference in that particular pub if it is available.
on

4 comments:

  1. Xopher8 December 2011 at 18:12

    What I find most galling is 'well qualified', young bar staff who despite gaining some sort of GNVQ (or whatever) fail to sort out priorities.
    They're good at tidying the bar, washing up, cleaning tables, talking to colleagues but B useless at keeping an eye out for thirsty customers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Curmudgeon8 December 2011 at 18:58

    Indeed, exactly what I described here a few years ago (second item down).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bill8 December 2011 at 21:19

    1. Massively annoying and downright rude.
    2. Child shouldn't even be in the bar. She can do her homework upstairs.

    ReplyDelete
  4. nisakiman9 December 2011 at 21:42

    When I first got into the trade in the early 80s, I worked for an excellent manager (Canadian guy) who instilled in me that unless they were three deep at the bar (in which case you couldn't do anything about it) nobody, but nobody should have to wait for a drink. Doesn't matter what you're doing - chatting to a punter, washing glasses, bottling up, you keep a hawk-like eye on the bar, and if someone needs serving, you drop everything and serve them. Immediately.

    Which, if you want to keep your trade, is really pretty bloody obvious. However, some landlords still don't get it.

    ReplyDelete

Comments, especially on older posts, may require prior approval by the blog owner. See here for details of my comment policy.

Please register an account to comment. Unregistered comments will generally be rejected unless I recognise the author. If you want to comment using an unregistered ID, you will need to tell me something about yourself.