We thought we’d share our perspective of the government’s Eat Out To Help Out scheme, now it’s come to an end.

In case you didn’t count amongst the 64 million(!) redemptions in the first 3 weeks, here’s how it worked: on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout August, you could get a 50% discount on your food and (non-alcoholic) drinks, up to a maximum of £10 per transaction, if consumed on the premises. The value of the discounts issued was then totted up by the establishment, reported, and refunded by the government.

So from our perspective, did it work? Well – in a sense, yes!. Positives first: the scheme was simplicity itself to run. It did slow our order taking process down a little as we had to ask you if you were consuming on site or taking away and the government also asked us to record how many were in your party. But thereafter, our till system crunched the numbers.

We loved that you, our customers, didn’t have to bring along any vouchers, codes etc. And for us, once per week, we just had to submit 2 numbers to the government: the number of people who’d benefited and the total sum to be repaid. 2-3 days later, the funds would be in our account.

We didn’t feel that it brought many new customers to us, partly we think because we were already well established post-lockdown and many of our customers were already used to visiting us and to feeling entirely safe when they did so. It was a very welcome surprise for some of our regulars though.

But speaking with others in the industry, it’s very obvious that pubs and restaurants saw massive gains and of course, these are the environments many folks are still nervous about returning to. The lockdown message was so crystal clear and stark that eating out has been an alien concept for many of us for many months. So we think the scheme did a fabulous job of breaking the ‘eat at home’ habit and we applaud the majority of establishments that have taken great pains to keep guests safe and comfortable once they’re over the threshold.

We’ve heard many complaints about the scheme. One is that it sits slightly uneasily with the government’s obesity / health strategy but ultimately, we all have a choice when we eat out and there are usually some healthy options available.

We’ve also heard that it simply rewards folks who were already happy to pay to eat out, at the taxpayers’ expense. There is some logic to this, but we believe the benefits in encouraging people to venture back to their favourite restaurant or coffee shop make it all worthwhile. Not only is the hospitality sector a very significant employer in the UK, it could just be the salvation of the high street in the coming years now we are all so used to shopping online…?

The one concern we have is that it could make eating out very ‘discount driven’. The truth is that the net margins for the industry are slim to say the least: if customers are only tempted out when they’re able to pay below cost price, then this doesn’t bode well for the future. We hope that customers understand this and that they’ll continue to support establishments that offer good value every day, rather than unsustainable short-term discounts.

We can see a case for the scheme returning, perhaps after Christmas when more is known about the virus and the hospitality industry may need another boost…

We’d love to hear your views…