BarTalk

How was your festive trade

this year?

Nick Green

Stansfield Arms

Apperley Bridge

North Yorkshire

We had a good Christmas here - we're well up on last year for December. If we had just relied on our day-to-day sales we would have been down on last year. We erected a marquee in the car park for dining, which increased our capacity for wet sales inside. It's important to look after your customers over Christmas - only take in as many as you can cope with or they won't come back.

Justine Stevens

Five Degrees West

Falmouth

Cornwall

Good, but different - people came in at different times of day. It's difficult to know whether that was down to the smoke ban, but we're about the same as last year for December. Christmas Day and Boxing Day were very quiet. We had a good seasonal menu and had lots of party bookings because we're quite a big venue. This year, as a tourist town, we're a bit worried about a possible drop in visitors.

Dave Parker

Shoulder of Mutton

Castleford

Yorkshire

It's been fine - we can't complain and it wasn't very different from last year. We had a New Year's Eve karaoke disco, but generally it was business as usual. My stocktaker said things haven't been too bad in this area. Some venues have seen a slight drop in sales due to the ban and uncertainty about the economy. January and February will be quiet, as usual - that will give us time to recover.

Gail Brockbank

Levers Arms

Darcy Lever

Lancashire

It's been very poor here.

We're a small community local and I'd say we're about £1,400 down over December. I blame

it all on the smoking ban -

it's making people stay away and when they do come in

they don't stay for nearly

as long as they did. We've installed a smoking area but

I'm not sure if that's helping things. I'm very worried about my business.