[setanta]

There's a lot of factors involved. Having worked in the pub trade myself for a number of years I'd say that the majority of the money that came in the pub was from the middle aged punters who could put a fair few pints into them and would create a good atmosphere on their own. Other thing about them was they would come in more then the one night a week and generally wouldn't be half cut from drinking at home before heading out.

There's too many kids coming out now who are wasted prior to entering pubs and really don't know how to handle drink in the first place. Regular punters tend to disappear when there's youngsters out acting like prats and thats become very very prevalent in the last decade or so.

Price hikes and taxation hasn't helped, along with how much more isolated we've become as people. The art of conversation is dying off as far as I can tell, with people more at ease staring at a computer screen or telly rather than chatting away with a crowd in a pub. Old school mentalities are disappearing.