Salthill publican slashes prices to counter effects of the recession

Date Published: 18-Sep-2009

A Salthill publican has decided to respond to the crisis in the drinks industry by offering pints of lager and stout for €2.50 each in a bid to attract customers.
Licensee James Flaherty, of PJ Flaherty’s bar in Lower Salthill, has been delighted by the response from the drinking public since introducing the promotion on draught pints of Fosters and Beamish at the start of this month.
‘Don’t Let the Recession Ruin Your Session’ is the theme at the bar for the month of September as Flaherty and his staff bid to woo back customers and welcome students to the city in the midst of the economic downturn.
“I’m not making any money out of it, but the response has been fantastic,” said Mr Flaherty. “Everybody is feeling the pinch at the moment and a lot of our regulars would have been made redundant or put on three-day weeks.
“People are coming in the door now, knowing that they can get four pints for €10. It’s an attempt to bring a bit of ‘craic’ back into the pub trade and we’re telling people that ‘going out is the new staying in’ with all of the talk of people drinking at home these days. We’ve put up posters all over the place and, if nothing else, it’s got people talking!”
Last month’s comprehensive Galway City Tribune survey of drink prices in city pubs found that PJ’s was the second cheapest establishment in Salthill and Flaherty decided to introduce the special promotion after receiving a positive response from the customers to the survey.
The survey of 105 pubs, which found that drinkers could save up to €8 on a round of drinks if they ‘shopped around’, proved to be a huge topic of conversation among the regulars at PJ’s when the results were published in this newspaper four weeks ago.
“There was a huge amount of interest in that survey and our customers were delighted that we were the second cheapest pub in the area,” he said. “I believe in bringing people in and this survey is showing people that there are alternatives.
“People know that they can go out for a few pints and it’s not going to kill them in the pocket. We’re running this promotion for the month of September and we’re already planning something different for October.”
James, who took over the pub from his father, PJ, almost seven years ago, has been delighted by the response from drinkers to the September promotion.