Wetherspoons Is Offering Cheap Food & Drink But Only For One Day
Want to treat the family to a meal out? Wetherspoons has announced plans to slash prices of food and drink by 7.5% at all of its 827 locations.
But, it's only for one day. Prices will be cut on Thursday 14th September to bring attention to the positives of a permanent VAT reduction within the hospitality industry.
It means that if you, a group of friends or families dine or drink in a Wetherspoons pub on 14th September, your bill will be slashed by a whopping 7.5%!
For example, if you go with your family and the bill comes to £40, you'll pay just £37.
Or, if you stop in for a large breakfast on the day, instead of paying £7.21 for a large breakfast, you'll pay just £6.67.
Sophie King from The Sun reported that Tim Martin, Wetherspoon’s founder and chairman, is putting forward this offer to highlight the differences in prices between supermarkets and pubs as a result of the VAT discrepency.
So, while supermarkets pay zero VAT on food sales, the hospitality industry pays a whopping 20%. That means it will always be pricier to order a beer in a pub, than to buy from the supermarket and drink at home.
Tom Church, co-founder of money saving community LatestDeals.co.uk added, "it's great that Wetherspoons is offering this deal to customers. It's for one day only so make sure you mark your calendars if you're planning on making the most of it - you don't want to miss out".
I do remember the wonderful words that the founder once said vote brexit and we will lower our prices . Sadly for Weatherspoons they treated there staff appalling during the pandemic and they got on my Bleep list and I'll go set foot in 1 .
Having been in the hospitality industry for over 25 years, I was there BEFORE the VAT was added. If Tim Martin looks at the reason for the consumers buying from supermarkets instead of pubs, it is the vast difference in the price of a pint.
With some supermarket prices being circa 50p for a 440ml can of larger, the average pub price is circa £5, that is 10 times the cost. This is further displaced when local pubs are consistently charging circa £5, while a large % of seaside pubs are consistently charging circa £3.50/pint.
Therefore, if the staff are earning £7.50/hr, before tax, and go for a drink where they work, they are paying 66% of their salary BACK to the company that pays their wages, profoundly ironic.
Recently Tim Martin gave a statement to the press advising that their annual profits of circa £2 BILLION, ""YES £2 BILLION POUNDS STERLING"", was down around 4.2% on last year's profits.
Maybe if he drastically REDUCED the prices in his pubs, he would PAY LESS VAT/pint, but I am 99% sure that overall sales WOULD INCREASE CONSIDERABLY, and therefore would have very minimal affect on the annual profits, they might actually go UP, as MORE people would be able to afford to 'go out' for a pint than have to stay in with a supermarket can.
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NB. As a comparison outside of pubs, if you buy a ready meal of fish and chips from a supermarket to take home there is NO VAT, however, if you buy the same from a chip shop, to take home, you have to pay VAT. Similarly the cost of the meal from the take away, exceeds the hourly wage of the staff.