If you have visited the Rosemount Hotel in the past couple of weeks you’d have noticed something big has happened…huge in fact… the long standing wonderful tradition of gracing the Rosie with your presence and enjoying a few pints has vanished… the pints are gone. 

Gone but not forgotten. It seems many of you are very upset by this change and thus we thought it would be appropriate to let you all in on the decision making process which lead to this change. We are not trying to make excuses, or force you agree with our decision we just thought that with a little bit of insight you would be a little more forgiving and understanding of why such a change was implemented throughout the venue. 

In the interest of public safety, we have for the past three years introduced throw away plastic cups for events attracting an above average number of patrons. Simultaneously, we have experienced an increase in events of this nature and thus have had to use throw away plastic cups for a higher number of events, than originally anticipated. Not only is using such a high number of throw away plastic cups an environmental concern for us, when costed, it is clearly not sustainable nor very visually appealing. Serving beverages in throw away plastic cups, from the onset, was never something we envisaged doing more than a few times a month, however our event schedule meant that we were using these cups two to three times a week. 

Introducing polysafe unbreakable drinkware. Almost identical to standard glass in look, feel and weight with one big difference – it is virtually unbreakable. As standard glass poses a potential danger to the safety of staff and patrons, the Australian Hospitality Association (AHA) has released that although a replacement scheme is not compulsory the key is maintaining quality products in quality glassware while improving public safety. The AHA also released that although the system would be self-regulatory, they did expect most hotels and bars to change over to tempered beer glasses. 

In essence we decided that the introduction of polysafe glasses into the venue’s bars would be a proactive, progressive and sustainable decision by The Rosemount Hotel as a responsible licensed venue, in the interest of public safety and to counteract the issues faced by using throw away plastic. 

So what does this have to do with us no longer serving in Pints? I hear you ask (or demand). Well, it’s interconnected with… you guessed it, the Consumer Price Index (CPI). 

Due to CPI consistently rising the cost of alcohol, we are no longer able to absorb these cost increases and are thus forced to pass price increases onto our customers, in order to continue to run a viable business. In saying so, you will see the price of pints continue to rise well and truly over the $10 mark throughout hotels and bars in WA (predominantly inner Perth). By conducting customer research we found that customers felt that $10 was an appropriate maximum price point for a typical drink (tap beer/cider) over the bar. When asked if they would prefer to purchase a relatively (relative to millage) priced schooner or in some cases an $11.50 pint, the overwhelming response was schooner. Through this research we also found that, coupled with the Australian ‘buying a round’ mentality, our customers felt that the cost of said round was borderline unaffordable should you be expected to purchase, for example, five pints. 

At a time when the decision had already been made to switch the venue over to polysafe glasses, we had to also make the decision as to whether or not the investment in polysafe pints was truly necessary seeing as the pint was due to be discontinued, based on our customer research findings, in response to increased pint prices. We decided to make the switch to schooners with schooner prices reflective of what you would pay for a pint minus the millage and introduce safety glass throughout the venue, a scheme which we hope to complete by the end of June 2012.

So there you have it, it might not be what you want to hear but its reality, we can promise you that. Like all major decisions that affect our punters we knew we would face some backlash but we can only hope that the positives we bring to the entertainment, food and atmosphere ‘table’ far outweigh the negatives.  

For more information please visit http://www.ahawa.asn.au/, http://www.rgl.wa.gov.au/, www.polysafe.com.au or email Catherine Milbrandt, Marketing (PR) & Events Manager, The Rosemount Hotel on events@rosemounthotel.com.au.  

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