Pub landlords are jumping at the chance to boost trade and place the pub at the heart of their community by offering customers a parcel collection service.
Pub campaigning group useyourlocal.com has set up the service which enables punters left frustrated by missed deliveries to stop by their local to collect a parcel and potentially order a drink or food at the same time.
Stuart Mills, founder of useyourlocal.com and a former manager at brewer Scottish & Newcastle, said: “For most people the local pub will be nearer to the sorting office with opening hours that suit their busy lives. I have first experience of the pub trade and first hand experience of the problem – this seemed like a fantastic fix.”
More than 500 pubs have already registered for the service, which is free for punters but costs £50 per year for landlords and includes the promotion of events such as charity evenings and quiz nights on the useyourlocal.com website.
Mills set up useyourlocal.com with the brewer Scottish & Newcastle in March this year after pitching his idea to “help pubs to take back their place at the heart of the community” to the UK Board on the London Eye. Mills’s pub, the Beresford Arms in Whalton, Northumbria, was the first to register as a UYL site.
The first consumer received a parcel using the service on 31 July at the Gun Inn, Hyde, Cheshire.
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By Emma White
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