JDW's back in hot water over sloppy' Pricewatch

by Ewan Turney

JD Wetherspoon has vowed to continue running Pricewatch posters despite clocking up its 21st complaint for the controversial marketing campaign last week.

Manchester brewer and pub operator JW Lees blasted Wether-spoon for "poor, sloppy retailing" and reported it to Trading Standards over an inaccurate Pricewatch poster in Chester.

Pricewatch posters compare pub prices in an area. The poster at Wetherspoon's in Foregate Street compared the price of John Smith's Smooth to a totally different product served in JW Lees outlet, the Mansion House.

"We don't even sell John Smith's Smooth," JW Lees operations director Mark Welch told Morning Advertiser sister publication M&C Report. "They took the price for John Willies Smooth and compared it to their price for John Smith's. The two products can hardly be compared."

Also wrong on the poster was the price of a Smirnoff and Pepsi, which Wetherspoon's sells for £1.89. The poster quoted the Mansion House as selling this drink for £4.14 ­ but it stocks Coca-Cola and not Pepsi. A vodka with a bottle of coke costs £3.08 but with a dash of Coke is £2.41.

Welch added: "There is nothing wrong with Wetherspoon comparing prices, but this is just poor, sloppy retailing. It wouldn't be so bad, but the two pubs don't really compete.

"Ours is a young person's bar, serving top-end food and we have never sought to compete with them on price. We offer a totally different experience."

JW Lees' area manager David Whiteside was even more damning. "I would be horrified if our prices were as low as theirs," he said. "We don't want their sort of customers."

Undeterred by previous complaints and criticisms, JD Wetherspoon will continue to use the scheme. Spokesman Eddie Gershon said: "Pricewatch is an excellent way to highlight the difference in prices between Wetherspoon's and other pubs in a certain area.

"We were not aware of the problems with the Chester Pricewatch, but will now look at it and, if it is wrong, we will change it."

Wetherspoon had earlier faced complaints from individual licensees about inaccurate Pricewatch posters at its bars at Hastings in East Sussex, Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Boston in Lincolnshire, and West Houghton, near Bolton. It also received 16 complaints about the posters from rival managed pubco the Yates Group.