Today The Economist released an on-line story about pub closings in the UK. Overall the story makes pretty good sense:
Britain's pubs
Why are Britain's pubs shutting?
...[I]n recent years many Britons have changed their drinking habits, shunning the pub and preferring to imbibe at home instead. Now over 50 pubs are closing every week, almost double the rate of a year ago, says the British Beer & Pub Association, a trade group. The recession, cheap alcohol at supermakets, and a smoking ban in pubs enacted in 2007 are all to blame. The government is also taking a bigger chunk in tax: from around 8p a pint in 1980 to nearly 38p now.
Do you think maybe prices and incomes have quadrupled (roughly) in Britain in the past 30 years? If so, then the tax explanation is weak, at best. The others seem pretty reasonable, though. If you go to the original article, you can see from their graph that the trend in pub closings has been fairly steady over the past 30 years and is not necessarily a recent phenomenon. The number of pubs declined steadily during the 1980s and into the early 90s. Though the number of pubs seemed to remain fairly constant during much of the 1990s, the number began declining again around 2000.
My experience there during the past few years is consistent with the argument that cheap alcohol in the supermarkets, coupled with phenomenally improved options for home entertainment via television, satellite, and the internet, has provided major competition for the pubs.