Supermarket beer sales overtake pub beer sales for first time - Telegraph

The figures come just two weeks after a report suggested that visits to local pubs had fallen by 19pc in the last year, further threatening the future of one of the great British institutions.

Back in the 1970s more than 90pc of all beer drunk in Britain was bought from the "on trade" – pubs and clubs, with less than 10pc brought from the "off trade" of supermarkets and off-licences.

According to the British Beer & Pub Association this ratio had fallen to 50.9pc from pubs and 49.1pc from supermarkets at the end of last year. "It will cross over in the near future," said a spokesman, possibly as soon as this Christmas.

This would be a watershed moment for Britain's beer industry, a culmination of long-standing change in consumers' drinking habits as well as confirmation that the recession has caused people to stay at home more.

The figure came as a report from the GMB union highlighted how the high price of beer has caused the destruction of thousands of neighbourhood pubs, in turn damaging many working class communities. It said that local pubs, many of which were had survived the Blitz and the great depression of the 1930s, were now being destroyed by the recession.

via telegraph.co.uk

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