The weekend just gone I went to Gourock; it’s my hometown.
I was there to celebrate my parent’s 50th wedding anniversary. That is the most incredible achievement but it’s not really what this blog is about I just wanted to give them a shout out. Well done Anne and Neil, you are an inspiration.
As I travelled through my hometown I noticed pretty much all the pubs are still the same except they are shutting down.
There is no doubt that the pubs in Scotland have suffered badly as a result of the smoking ban but what has become apparent in Gourock is that every time that I attend the pubs change hands and someone new comes in.
This is a phenomenon I have noticed in fact locally to where I am as well. I guess it’s one that applies across business.
So the new person comes in, which changes very little if anything and has a dream that it’ll become the best pub in the world without making anything different. Maybe they paint the place or change one or two little things but in essence it’s the same establishment and the same fate that awaits them.
Soon after the pub is up again for lease and someone else takes over etc. etc.
It seems obvious to me that what would work in Gourock is something entirely different. Say a specialist whiskey drinker’s pub that didn’t sell beer, or a gin palace, just something out of the ordinary that would get people talking and people would go to try. If you’d put in an exceptional service, have different products that you can charge a premium for because you can’t get them anywhere else, it’s likely to be far more of a success than doing the same thing as everyone else.
I have watched a local pub near to me do the same thing. One pub in Ruddington, a village close by, they flipped it entirely around. They changed it into a Gastro pub with great service and a great menu from what had been a spit and sawdust place that was going down and down. If you take over the business and do the same the only option you have is to go cheap. That is the only differential you have from the people around you who are also doing the same. Cheap is death, either it’s slow or it’s quick but in the end it’s death.
In case you hadn’t noticed the market for almost everything is entirely saturated. The only way to succeed over the longer term is to be different and continue to be so.
Blog post number: 1387