The pandemic offers a chance to consider better ways to pay for social environments we enjoy spending time in. A “seat fee” would be one.
A large chunk of the price we pay for a pint, for example, is gobbled up in tax and in paying the brewer, with what’s left used to cover the landlord’s rent, heat, rates, repairs and staff, and so on.
The enjoyment of being in a pub or bar is largely about playing. We do not need alcohol for that, but we do need access to well-run social spaces, other people and permission to play.
The viability of our social spaces, is in this way, tightly bound to the volume of drinks we consume. The costs need to be covered whatever we buy, which is why a Coke or a lime and soda cost an arm and a leg.
And this is also why pubs and bars are set up to market drinks, snacks and other light refreshments so forcefully. Without selling a lot of them they would perish.
In the case of alcohol this is potentially problematic because of the harms it causes. This means there is a conflict of interest between the landlord’s bank account and the well-being of their customers.
To lessen this problem we could try decoupling the cost of our being in a particular location, absorbing its heat, seeing with its lights, hearing its music and wearing down its carpet, from what we consume.
A “seat fee” could be taken separately using some kind of whizzbang gadgetry which sensed when we were there and when we left. It could be a pound, a euro or dollar an hour, maybe?
Pitched at the right amount the fee would go a long way to sustaining the pub, allowing it to host people without having to pressurise them to consume more, although it would doubtless be a welcome top-up.
Adopting such a model would make pubs and bars more resilient to changes in the cost of their products, notably alcohol tax. And it would also mean being less reliant on selling any particular product, notably alcohol.
We might also stay longer because they place was nice to be in, because our friends were there, or because there was something interesting happening, perhaps, gigs, games or talks.
The idea of making a pub into a space you have to pay for goes against the grain, no-doubt, but at the same time we are fooling ourselves if we imagine we are not paying already.
There is an immediate proxy for such a system. If we want to discreetly help our local without drinking a large amount of alcohol, the price of a lime and soda or a cup of tea nearly all goes directly to the landlord.
It is a dreadful time for hospitality, particularly its often poorly-paid staff. It is a sector almost everyone misses as customers. But its eventual reboot will, hopefully, see healthy social spaces designed for the future. ■