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All pubcos, by evidence of behaviour, are the same. As long as the tenant is pouring cash into their coffers they say the tenant landlord relationship is great. As soon as the cash starts to dry up they say the tenant is a useless scumbag, who knows nothing about business. They say your overheads are too high, you have too many staff, you have them on at times when they are not needed, you pay them too much, you don't do enough hours on the floor, you should look at your supplier prices (I like the irony of that one!), you need to check your 'product mix', your 'price point', your 'retail margin', your blackboards are not prominent enough, you don't make enough use of specials, are you sure your marketing is getting to the right people? Are you in top of your stock? Can you trust your employees? Do you use an external stock taker (this one, presumably, because you obviously can't trust yourself)? Have you considered refurbishing the premises?

If you've got a week to spare, in sixteen years with tied pubcos, I've seen it all. Not once has any of these useless lazy lying double dealing self promoting shysters EVER admitted that their beer prices, being double what they are free of tie, are a part of the problem.

They use the same tactics, employ the same third party, poor quality, companies to do their dirty work, they pass themselves round and round from one company to the next deceiving tenants and themselves that there's nothing untoward about what they're doing. They have mortgages to pay, kids to send to school and take skiing and rugby games to watch. YOU/I/WE are their bread and butter. When we start to let them down because we can't pay the rent or afford their beer anymore and our beer volumes are falling ('your the only tenant on my patch who's having any problems' - sound familiar?) because our businesses are becoming quieter because four pints cost fifteen quid they just say we are ripping THEM off, we're fiddling, we're not in control of costs, budgets, our business, it's all OUR fault. The accusations begin, the threats start, the investigations are put into action and the machinery clicks into place to protect their assets. Schedule of dilapidation survey is done. Questions about beer volumes are asked, 'you must be buying out' comes up and so it goes.

Boring but true. They're all the same until proven otherwise.