Pub chain limits parents’ drinks

For the original article Click Here

Title – Pub chain limits parents’ drinks
Source – www.bbc.co.uk
Date – 4th January 2008

This seems to be a perfect example of how a company policy can be misunderstood, misrepresented and misinterpreted and the actions of an employee or manager can be blown out of proportion. Employees are often put under pressure to provide a reason for their decisions and they should provide one, but they have to get it right first time and be honest. Telling a customer that they have to leave after 2 drinks to prevent “cruelty to children” effectively says; “to stop you being cruel to your children” implying that the parent is irresponsible. Is it any surprise that when told it is a company policy the customer went straight to the press? The “nanny state” is one thing, but when pub chains join in at this level, people will react badly.

So what was JD Wetherspoon trying to do? Follow the licensing objective “protection of children from harm”? Are they taking it too literally? The legislation is there for a reason, but not for licenses to dictate how parents behave.

But JD Wetherspoon should be applauded for taking a lead in responsible alcohol retailing rather then being chastised. It does sometimes feel like the Licensed Retail Sector is blamed when it doesn’t act and blamed when it does. The policy may be well thought out, but maybe in this one instance not well executed. But like a goal keeper, one mistake can affect the whole team, good training can make all the difference.

JD Wetherspoon posted this response to the news article on their website.
Basically, if parents are accompanied by their children when they visit our pubs we have a responsibility as a pub company to ensure that this is handled in a professional manner and in a way that is in keeping with our duty of care to our customers.

Below are the guidelines by which our pubs address the issue of children in our pubs:

• Adults that are accompanied with children wishing to purchase an alcoholic drink should purchase a meal


• Once the meal has been finished and tables cleared it is our recommendation that only one more alcoholic drink should be purchased for each adult

If parents and their children are visiting our pubs and purchasing non-alcoholic drinks, then there is no limit to the number of drinks that can be purchased or the length of stay at the pub.

In all situations it is important that our Pub Managers assesses the behaviour and attitude of the parents as well as the interests of other customers to ensure the situation is handled in a suitable manner.As a company we do not want to restrict families visiting our pubs, if fact, we actively encourage families and have recently won an award for our children's menu.

Please visit our website at www.btbl.co.uk