PUBS. The beating heart of our communities. We need them. We love them. We can’t function without them. The dog friendly pubs. The child friendly pubs. The pubs that show sport. The roast dinner pubs. The all-nighter pubs. The pub quiz pub. The gay pub. The straight pub. The LGBTQ pub. The meet your friend on a Monday night pub. PUBS. We need them AND they need you.
On average three pubs close a day. Of those, 80% are independents struggling against soaring rates and beer taxes. It is this startling statistic that inspired the BarCode – a new shiny app created by pub lovers for independent pubs. Its co-founders Ben and Phil want to level the playing field for publicans, so they designed a platform that pubs can use to reach an audience of engaged and enthusiastic pub goers promoting events, drinks and food offers and other promotions. It’s the digital chalkboard for independent pubs and it’s free.
It will launch in February. And it can’t come soon enough. Back in 2018, 116,794 pub-supporting people got together and persuaded the then chancellor Philip Hammond to freeze beer duty until February 2020. The end of this freeze looms, but people are lobbying once more to persuade the current landlord of the exchequer Sajid Javid to listen and act. LONG LIVE THE LOCAL is running a petition. We urge you to sign it, after watching the accompanying film (brace yourselves it’s a tear-jerker).
The Barcode is launching at the end of a dry and gruelling month of sobriety. We’re encouraging everyone to be good little duckies and get back in the rub-a-dub, download the app and you’ll get free drinks in February – you can literally save your local by drinking!
Our independent pubs are vital to the communities they serve and they need our help to survive and thrive. Money isn’t an issue this February, we’re giving you the drinks, you just need to show up.
