That. There is a queue but it's conceptual and entirely contained within the barman's/barmaid's head, it should not be a physical thing.
A truly dying art unfortunately. I always prided myself on my staffs' abilities to manage the 'queue' appropriately...in fact, it was included in day 1 training for any new staff...no mobile phones behind the bar, there's never nothing to do, and always watch for the order folks arrive at the bar, oh, and acknowledge everyone (in your zone on very busy 'scrum' nights - cos city centre venues and all that) so they know they've been seen.
If was a system that didn't exist would you invent it?
If was a system that didn't exist would you invent it?
It depends what you think a pub should be, I guess.
If it's a place where you go with your pre-existing group of friends to sit at a table together then no.
If it's a place where you can go either alone or with just one or two other people so you can sit or stand at the bar and chat with the other weirdos who choose not to sit at tables then yes, you would have to invent some kind of system that allowed people to be served from anywhere along the bar.
If was a system that didn't exist would you invent it?
No. I guess it was just always like that as long as I'd known it, but, while it was like that, we made damn sure to be well known for the excellence of our staff's service, that's all.
Also in this vein, why are the slowest bar staff ever created now employed at gigs. i remember in the good old days when there was basically only three choices - a pint of lager, a pint of guiness or a pint of bitter, the staff would pre-pour the last two to speed things up between bands!
If you happen to like to sit (or stand) at the bar
In my preferred local the bar is only wide enough for about 3 people to stand and get served. But they have decided to have 2 bar stools there so when it's quieter and 2 people sit at the bar, slightly spread out, the only place to get served is by standing in between them when they're mid conversation. It's an odd situation but the beer is good so I put up with the temporary moments of awkwardness.
In my preferred local the bar is only wide enough for about 3 people to stand and get served. But they have decided to have 2 bar stools there so when it's quieter and 2 people sit at the bar, slightly spread out, the only place to get served is by standing in between them when they're mid conversation. It's an odd situation but the beer is good so I put up with the temporary moments of awkwardness.
In a situation like that those two people have chosen those perches for a reason - your temporary moments of awkness are like catnip to them
A situation like that is a perfect set up for a Clabby. Make sure you have a good Clixby lined up or you'll stuck there all night.
Tall blokes who are waving 20's get served first or ladies on a prettyness scale,
When I worked in pubs that wasnt the case. People waving cash were ignored on principle and, as one bar manager said, for pretty women fast service wont get a date so might as well admire the view for longer.
how flippin' many pubs are part of brewery/chain, and basically are not the pubs of old....
In the UK I think, if anything, the number of actual independent free houses has increased both in actual numbers and even more so percentage wise with the closure of many tied pubs.
The big change from "pubs of old" is the reduction in brewery owned pubs. Historically they dominated the sector but Thatcher passed the Beer Orders law which resulted in many of those pubs being sold off to the big pubco chains.
theres a local establishment near me, that even has a big sign "its not a post office, you dont need to queue like its on", but the server got really salty when i rounded the two hipster so and sos, who were busy comparing docker caps and sleeve tats. and had made no efforts to stand near or even close to the bar to do so.
"they were here first", well serve them then, barkeep!
That guy's always a miserable sod tbf.
Only ever noticed it at a couple of gig venues. I don't mind TBH - short people are disadvantaged enough at gigs, if a queue prevents impolite bigger people shoving in then I reckon that's fair enough. It must be more efficient when it's really busy.
I was in a pub the other week and a queue formed, and some old boy mouthed off that it's a pub it should be a queue.
Except the bar was along one side a narrow room, so the only practical way in or out was to queue along the bar, then walk out with your armful of pints behind the queue. Everyone's at the bar anyway, we're just shuffling left to right towards the till end. Besides I quite liked that I got to order my round with some personal space, rather than having the local alcoholic reeking of Rothmans and BO rubbing against me.
It's 16:40 on a Friday in an overpriced "country pub" that's been swallowed by urbanization, not 1:45am in some provincial town's nightclub.
Regardless of where people are standing, you don't jump your turn. There's a special hell reserved for people who when served prematurely don't reply "sorry, s/he was first."
+1, no wonder you "didn't half get the evils"
Same rules in the barbers shop, wait your turn queue or no queue.
I see queues forming regularly at Wetherspoons. I think it's always been a thing there, but I order with the app so I can get table service. However, I was in the Royal Oak, Ambleside on Thursday and that's the first time I've seen it happening in a wee, normal pub. The worst bit was that as I stood up to go to the bar, the six or seven young guys who'd all gotten up from their table next to me formed this queue. Then each one ordered individually....and they were drinking lager.
Flames and pitchforks spring to mind.
+1, no wonder you "didn't half get the evils"
In a pub? Absolutely not. If people don't get how bar service works in a pub, that's their lookout. Different for other places you might be ordering drinks (eg at a gig), but in a pub, queues perpendicular to the bar don't help the bar staff, they just slow everything down... ignore, walk past the queue, and stand at the bar.
In the UK I think, if anything, the number of actual independent free houses has increased both in actual numbers and even more so percentage wise with the closure of many tied pubs.
The big change from "pubs of old" is the reduction in brewery owned pubs. Historically they dominated the sector but Thatcher passed the Beer Orders law which resulted in many of those pubs being sold off to the big pubco chains.
I have a suspicion that all these statistics about "..... pubs close every day" are massively over counting.
Pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, pub-co raises rent (or other economic pressures happen), pub goes bankrupt, pub-co finds a new landlord manager, pub re-opens, repeat ad-infinitum......
One near us just closed because massive roadworks cut them off for months, which is sad for them. But you ca almost guarantee the pub-co will have a new manger in and it'll be re-opened within a few months with massively increased rent because the roadworks are opening up the surrounding land for 2650 new houses. I's going to go from a struggling out of the way country pub to the only pub in a small town of it's own!
Net pub losses are running at about 300-500 a year, depending which recent year you look at.
That's accounting for re-openings and new openings.
But then there are "bars"... and anything else not a pub, but licensed to serve... the numbers of those are increasing faster than pubs are decreasing. But they're sited in different places, in different types of premises, and doing new/different things to attract different people.
When I worked in pubs that wasnt the case. People waving cash were ignored on principle and, as one bar manager said, for pretty women fast service wont get a date so might as well admire the view for longer.
I was just going to post the same. When I worked behind bars as a student, anyone waving notes around would immediately get demoted to “you’ll get served only after every single last person presently in this establishment has been”.
It’s a sure fire bell end signifier that usually precludes an order of 6 pints of Fosters or bottles of Budweiser incoming. The note will also no doubt have the remnants of the cheap, nasty pub gak (contains only trace elements of cocaine) that they’ve just been hoofing in the bogs
six or seven young guys who'd all gotten up from their table next to me formed this queue. Then each one ordered individually...
Young people often don't have the money (or the constitution) to buy seven pints at a time?
^ this would have saved me a fortune back in the day. Not because we used to regularly drink rounds, or because I didn't have the constitution, but I wouldn't have regularly been caught out by 'The Hilly Protocol' - named after our mate who had the uncanny ability to get to the bar in the SU first, get a round in during happy hour at 65p a pint, and then later on in the town centre pubs, or nightclub gently enquire 'didn't I get you a pint in earlier' and then you'd feel obliged to stand him a £2 can of Red Stripe.
Young people often don't have the money (or the constitution) to buy seven pints at a time?
Perhaps appetite rather than constitution - in that theres a younger generation who have entered adulthood accustomed to there being cameras with social media accounts attached everywhere they go both in public and private and perhaps don't have the same appetite for losing control that we had when we were younger.
Barnsley Trades Club 1990ish used to have a rail along the bar with access at one end and exit at the other. Its how we do it up here was the answer I got when I asked. Seemed to work ok.
i have never seen a queue in a pub here. I went to a huge city centre pub after the rugby on Satuday night. Hugely busy but just the normal informal taking ones turn to get a pint, done with.humour and goodwill with a side of "where you before me?"
just how it should be
^ this would have saved me a fortune back in the day. Not because we used to regularly drink rounds, or because I didn't have the constitution, but I wouldn't have regularly been caught out by 'The Hilly Protocol' - named after our mate who had the uncanny ability to get to the bar in the SU first, get a round in during happy hour at 65p a pint, and then later on in the town centre pubs, or nightclub gently enquire 'didn't I get you a pint in earlier' and then you'd feel obliged to stand him a £2 can of Red Stripe.
I had a mate like this, doing rounds he'd always get the last round in and then pace it so that he was going home when it was about to be his turn later, so he got in one fewer than everyone else today.
He's still the same today, though not quite as bad. He's earning easily double the largest salary I've ever seen and the tight git could peel an orange in his pocket.
just how it should be
I don't think it really matters, in honesty. So long as everyone is reading the same rulebook.
I see a formal queue when I walk into a pub then I am walking straight back out again. fortunatly I have loads to choose from locally
It happened during Covid when we were all required to socially distance and so has caught on (to an extent) since then even though the social distancing is no longer required. For a certain demographic of people who became 17/18 during the Covid/post-covid period this is the only way they know and the "default" method.
Like most on here (I suspect) I've been going to pubs for years and it seems kind of ridiculous.
But then again I don't care enough that I would push-in above 10 or 15 people who have been queuing. I don't believe joining the queue signifies that you agree with the method- just that you're willing to wait your actual turn by whatever means required at the time?
I'm sure most pub landlords and bar staff hate the queuing system though so perhaps it wouldn't hurt to just stick a sign on the bar indicating their expectation if it keeps happening.
I'm sure most pub landlords and bar staff hate the queuing system though so perhaps it wouldn't hurt to just stick a sign on the bar indicating their expectation if it keeps happening.
How are we supposed to have an out-crowd to tut about if there are no unwritten rules?
