Jacqueline Cooper, landlady of The Odd Fellows Arms on Devonport Road, said: "People aren't coming out anymore. They are staying home. If it's nice weather they stay at home and have a barbecue or they stay in with their cans and watch the television.
"Where they may have come in before once a week, they now only come in once a month and sometimes it's not even that."
Sue Milton, landlady of The Ford Inn on Alexandra Road, said that on some evenings, there were not enough customers to justify the cost of paying the pub's overheads just to open.
She said: "There's just not as many people coming into the pubs."
Husband and landlord Trevor added: "These days there's a classic situation in pubs where we miss our pensioner customers. Many used to come in with £10 and buy four pints but these days they can buy about three and next year it could be as few as two.
"The pub used to be a meeting place for them but we see fewer now because drink is so expensive for us to buy.
"Supermarkets can sell booze cheaper than we can sell it and as lease-holders we are tied to buying stock from our pub company which is expensive. We are surviving but it is hard work."
Landlords have spoken out after recent figures from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs highlighted a massive 39 per cent drop in beer sales since 2002, resulting in many pubs being priced out of the market.
Keith DeBruin, Chairman of the Devon and Cornwall British Innkeeping Institute, said: "The supermarkets are selling alcohol too cheaply and the pubs just cannot compete.
"People just don't have as much money any more so they just aren't going to the pubs."
Conservative MP for South West Devon Gary Streeter, who last week called on the Government to help pubs, said pubs were a key part of the community.
He told The Herald: "Pubs form an important part in our society, economy and culture and they could tell you that they are being undermined by the supermarkets.
"I think it is right that the Government should do something about this."
Pubs in Plymouth echoed calls for the Government to step in and offer more support. And there is growing resentment towards supermarkets taking away traditional pub customers.
Ian Wood, landlord of The Waterloo Inn in Stoke, who has been in the trade for 30 years, said: "We've been telling the Government this for donkeys years.
"The main state of the decline in our business is because of what the supermarkets are charging for their beer and the duty the Government are adding on for no economic reason but to put the final nail in the coffin for public houses, and that's what they've done.
"Where people used to come and spend a few hours in the public houses, they now come out later in the evening and usually leave to go elsewhere.
"Years ago my pub used to be packed out when Manchester United or Chelsea were on, but now they tend to go to the supermarket, buy a few cans of beer and watch it on their own 42inch screens.
"We are a free house so we can cope a bit better than the lease holders who have to pay the high rents."
Maggie Hillman, who is the landlady of The Clovelly Bay Inn in Turnchapel, said: "We are keeping our head above the water but only just, the Government keep popping our armbands.
"We are seeing a decline in people generally going out to pubs because they can get their drink cheaper in the supermarkets.
"There not going to spend £3.20 on a pint which we have to charge to cover the duty, the VAT, the utilities and business rates that we have to put into our price when they can buy 24 cans of Stella Artois for £6 from Morrisons.
"We've been in the trade for 32 years and we've seen a recession before but it's never been anything like this one. We are doing well in one sense because we haven't shut down like many other pubs."
Jason Pepper, landlord of The Cherry Tree pub on Ham Drive, "We do have a strong business but like everybody we have seen a fall in takings over the past few years, about 20 percent.
"A lot of the customers we get here, who are self employed, have got less work so they have less money to spend and the ones who were employed have lost their jobs and the ones that have got their jobs are being very careful what they spend now.
"Where people were happy to go out a few times a week, we will be lucky to see them once a month.
"We've done a lot of cutbacks ourselves, where staff have left we haven't replaced them and we've tried to cut down our bills too."
Anne Dodds, landlady of The Prince Maurice pub in Eggbuckland said the pub trade 'isn't what it used to be'.
She said: "The smoking ban, the recession and the couple of bad summers haven't helped.
"The supermarkets selling cheap beer as loss leaders doesn't help our trade at all.
"Peoples habits have changed they buy cheap beer in the supermarkets and drink before they go out now.
Ed Williams, landlord of The Tradesman's Arms on Octagon Street, said: "It's very tough at the moment because of the decline in the market itself.
"Two years ago we were doing approximately £5/6,000 a week. Now we are lucky if we take four.
"Now people can buy drinks in the supermarkets so cheap they're more inclined to stay at home.
"Whereas Friday and Saturday nights used to be the 'night out' nights, people are coming out later at say 10pm rather than 8pm and what they're doing is buying cheap booze at the supermarkets and drinking at home before they come out."
Gareth Perrin, Landlord of The Volunteer Inn in Yealmpton, said: "Some of our older customers, who would come seven nights a week for a couple of pints now only do three nights a week.
"They have even told us they would rather just buy some from Tesco's and sit and home and have a couple of beers.
"There's not enough money and inflation is just too high for ordinary wages, I just don't think the money is there at the minute."
George Harvey, manager of The Providence Inn, said "I am definitely down on last year but as long as you can pay the bills you're still in business.
"It is annoying that I'm selling drink here that's maybe £3 a bottle and I see the same things in the supermarket for £1.25 - it is very annoying.
"Nobody likes prices going up but you just have to do it, we've already had two big hikes and we are due another, it's not good."
Stuart Fegan, Senior Organiser for the GMB trade union South West, which is campaigning for pubs as they fight soaring beer prices, said the new government and the spending cuts had had a massive impact on local public houses.
He said: "The drop in sales is not surprising considering the wider state of the economy.
"We are still emerging from the recession and that coupled with public sector spending cuts and no growth in the economy, it has consequences of people tightening their belts.
"Going out for a social pint or glass of wine may not necessarily be high on peoples' agenda. It's clear one year on from a new government that the change isn't working."
The British Retail Consortium defended supermarket pricing, saying that customers have 'free choice' over where to buy booze.
Spokesman Richard Dodd said: "Going to a pub is about food, atmosphere or entertainment as much as it's about prices. Pubs that are not appealing to customers would not be helped by forcing up shop prices, and there is no reason why people buying in stores should be compelled to pay more."
Source http://www.thisisplymouth.co.uk/
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