It comes as a shock to the system when you return to a place not visited for a number of years only to discover that it has changed out of all recognition. One such place was the Alhambra public house managed by Jim and the very attractive Claire, ably supported by Don.
Claire produced scrumptious meals, Don was quietly efficient and then there was Jim. He was a 'character'. He seemed to be at constant loggerheads with the brewery. Like almost all tied tenants/managers he had to take his stock from the brewery. No going to cash-and-carry and buying in bottles of shorts, wine and juices at far cheaper prices than those charged by the brewery. That was the theory.
The reality was that, like many others, Jim was buying in drink from non-brewery sources, the brewery knew he was and he knew the brewery knew. Eventually the brewery insisted on specifying which 'shorts' went on each optic and each optic was fitted with a counter. Of course the simple way round that was to have bottles on the shelf and measuring cups. Payments for such drinks couldn't go through the till, but of course in a busy pub with a lot of staff, they did and showed up as discrepancies on the till-roll.
The Alhambra has been demolished and it won't be long before no-one is around who can recall the fun that was had.
A few years later I was in a pub in Yorkshire. The landlord informed me that his till was linked to the brewery so he didn't have to make out a weekly order: the brewery knew what he had sold and the stock he was carrying. Even Jim wouldn't have beaten that system.
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