Opinion: 99p pint won't be around long

The real question that arises from the Wetherspoon's 99p pint story is: what happens if these extreme promotions become the norm?

You'll see from reading the pages of any business section, including our own, that consumers' spending power is not looking like getting any greater as we move further into 2009. More and more, if they're to buy beer in the pub, they're going to be persuaded by price, and price alone.

And that makes Wetherspoon's, ever the ruthless discounter of the pub trade, very attractive. While tied houses will not be able to compete on discounting, other managed chains already look like opting into a price war.

However, it cannot be in Wetherspoon's interests to continue this tactic long term. It might work as an immediate shock to consumers' systems, but economic thinking has it that, if deflation persists across the board as it currently is with most consumables, people will hold off buying things, leading to falling demand. And if drinkers get used to these prices in the Big W down the high-street, it will be difficult for Tim Martin and his bar managers to bring them back up to more profitable levels when the economy recovers.

Neither can it be in brand owners' interests, whose concern will continue to be a reputation for quality worth paying for. Pubcos will have difficulty negotiating contracts with brewers if they are to devalue Greene King's products or those of any of their competitors.

I'll stake a pint of IPA that the 99p pint won't be around for long.