Social distancing in pubs

[Quinch]

Just had a long chat with one of my larger pubs sites and the social distancing requirements sound like a nightmare. It's a Punch place and they are being told to prepare to open on July 4th with these measures in place:

ALL gambling, gaming, toy, sweet etc machines removed from the pub because they are regular contact surfaces and they can't be cleaned every time they are used by customers.

Pub capacity reduced from 120 in the main room to 38. This is another reason to remove machines, to make space.

ALL doors to be wedged open ALL the time the pub is open so no-one has to touch door handles. Heat lamps being installed in doorways. This also includes toilet doors, queues for the toilet have to start 2 metres away from the toilet for privacy.

One way entrance/exit/around the pub system in place. Fire exit doors are now the way in, main doors the way out.

Perspex screens at the bar and 2 metre space queuing system. Contactless payments recommended

10 minute gap between customers leaving/sitting at tables to allow for cleaning of the tables and chairs.

No private party bookings/functions/ bands etc taken before Christmas

It's hard to see how many pubs could make this work and the landlady I spoke to of this place didn't think it would but they have to open whether they like it or not. I'm sure many of you will have had the tubz vending email about them selling hand sanitising stations for the machines and stickers, not a bad idea in some ways but not sure it's going to keep your machine in the pub. Haven't seen any pictures of them but unless it's welded on it's hard to see how they won't be immediately nicked.

With the above measures in place even if you can keep your machines on site it's hard to see how sales could be anything other than abysmal.

[Vendition Ltd]

I think the person you were chatting to sounds like one of those ‘over the top’ kind of people! The distancing is going to be reduced to 1 metre, I can’t see them removing all the gaming machines/ pool tables/ duke boxes as they relly heavily on the income received from these machines. I think we will lose some sites but keep the majority of pubs out there

[PGBrew]

Since the lockdown rules were eased a few weeks ago. I've been visiting a few toy site in the London area which are now producing revenue again. One site I've even visited for the 2nd time it practically sold out in two weeks. These machines are all based outside at convienience stores.

[Quinch]

I think the person you were chatting to sounds like one of those ‘over the top’ kind of people! The distancing is going to be reduced to 1 metre, I can’t see them removing all the gaming machines/ pool tables/ duke boxes as they relly heavily on the income received from these machines. I think we will lose some sites but keep the majority of pubs out there

The person I was speaking to was just relaying to me the measures that were being imposed on them by Punch, they weren't happy about it and didn't think it was going to work but are still tied in to a long tenancy so have no options other than to comply. I've seen the inside of the pub, all the machines have been removed. Punch are just following government guidelines, the landlady said the compliance measures booklet was 37 pages long and their BDM had been in to advise on the measures they had to put in place then was coming back when the measures are in place to certify they had done everything necessary.

Hopefully the distancing will be reduced to 1 metre and some of the measures listed above will not be necessary or reduced but the distancing measures will not necessarily affect the hygiene/contact surfaces measures which is the main reason the machines have been removed by Punch. This is obviously just how Punch are interpreting the guidelines and other pubs, clubs etc may differ.

[Quinch]

Should probably add as far as I know there are not yet any official guidelines for pubs so assume Punch are basing theirs on a combination of what is already standard practice in supermarkets/shops etc and what they anticipate will be necessary when the government announces them officially

[radical.richard]

Hi there

I was sort of thinking that this is the end to this industry mainly due to physical nature of towers, but just saw this today

https://www.insider.co.uk/sponsored/how-give-your-business-up-22175420

and the company supplying the product is here

https://zoono.co.uk/pages/our-technology-efficacy-testing


If it really does what it says on the tin, 1) they will make a million (hesitated on clean up LOL) and 2) it would be ideal for us as most towers can be visited at least monthly and re applied.

I have forwarded it to Simon at tubz vending as they are more likely to be able to put the advertising and build customer acceptance of this as a solution, potentially it could resolve the gaming machines issue as well, so would be good to hear back what your Punch pub has to say about it

All that is supposing of course its not fake news.

Cheers

[Vendition Ltd]

I think the person you were chatting to sounds like one of those ‘over the top’ kind of people! The distancing is going to be reduced to 1 metre, I can’t see them removing all the gaming machines/ pool tables/ duke boxes as they relly heavily on the income received from these machines. I think we will lose some sites but keep the majority of pubs out there

The person I was speaking to was just relaying to me the measures that were being imposed on them by Punch, they weren't happy about it and didn't think it was going to work but are still tied in to a long tenancy so have no options other than to comply. I've seen the inside of the pub, all the machines have been removed. Punch are just following government guidelines, the landlady said the compliance measures booklet was 37 pages long and their BDM had been in to advise on the measures they had to put in place then was coming back when the measures are in place to certify they had done everything necessary.

Hopefully the distancing will be reduced to 1 metre and some of the measures listed above will not be necessary or reduced but the distancing measures will not necessarily affect the hygiene/contact surfaces measures which is the main reason the machines have been removed by Punch. This is obviously just how Punch are interpreting the guidelines and other pubs, clubs etc may differ.

I just checked I don’t think I have many Punch pubs, sounds crazy for them to enforce this and lose the revenue made from all the machines! Did you lose the site then? Or can you get back in later this year when things calm down?

I have lost about 10 sites that I know of so far, it will obviously be a lot more than this but we just need to try and survive the year and then rebuild next year

[PGBrew]

If social distancing and quarentene rules are not relaxed soon, there will be mass unemployment. The result of which pubs won't have any customers anyway. Lost one pub site so far although I'm refusing to remove machines at the moment.

[Quinch]

I don't see it working for most pubs if it stays at 2 metres, even if they are big enough to open and operate the distancing the pub experience will be so totally different I expect a lot of people will stay away anyway. Confidence is a big issue also, if people still think the virus is out there some won't want to risk it even with the distancing in place. I'm sure plenty of young people and the die-hard locals will be desperate to go back to pubs as soon as they open but the larger family groups with older generation members will be much more reluctant to, and who can blame them?

As to my site, I've got a pretty good relationship with them so they've just moved the machines to a back room for now and I'm hoping to get them back out if the restrictions get lifted.

Hi there

I was sort of thinking that this is the end to this industry mainly due to physical nature of towers, but just saw this today

https://www.insider.co.uk/sponsored/how ... p-22175420

and the company supplying the product is here

https://zoono.co.uk/pages/our-technolog ... cy-testing


If it really does what it says on the tin, 1) they will make a million (hesitated on clean up LOL) and 2) it would be ideal for us as most towers can be visited at least monthly and re applied.

I have forwarded it to Simon at tubz vending vending as they are more likely to be able to put the advertising and build customer acceptance of this as a solution, potentially it could resolve the gaming machines issue as well, so would be good to hear back what your Punch pub has to say about it

All that is supposing of course its not fake news.

Cheers

This sounds really interesting and could potentially give sites the confidence to keep machines in place if they know they are hygienic and customers are safe to use them. I personally think the whole hygiene issue is overkill as it's impossible to go into any business and not touch some surfaces, pint glasses in pubs for instance. If people just use their common sense and don't touch their mouth/nose/eyes when they're out somewhere there's no problem with touching surfaces. If people buy a pot of sweets or Pringles, open it, then sanitise their hands before touching the food there's no problem.

I did a bit of basic online research into Zoono and it sounds genuine. I emailed them for more details about independent testing of their 30 day claim and any big organisations that are currently using their products so I'll see what their response is to that. I also gave them a link to the forum so they could respond directly on here if they want to.

[Coin Operated Group]

can you imagine trying to police a queue of drunk people wanting the toilet?