Southport again & GBG prices.

I just got an email from Amazon - _______________________________________ Dear Customer,

We wanted to give you an update on the status of your order

We now have the delivery date(s) for the order you placed on 11 September 2008, 09:35 MEST We have listed the item(s) below with the expected delivery date(s):

Roger Protz (Author) "Good Beer Guide 2009" [Paperback] Estimated arrival date: 03/10/08 - 17/10/08 ________________________________________

Hmmm - I reckon this slow delivery is due more to my choosing the free delivery (on orders over £15 ) option than anything else.

But possibly a month or more to deliver a bleeding book!

Had they told me how long it would take, I might have got a copy from my local branch!

Harumph & ho hum. cheers MikeMcG

which expletive was that? - my vocabulary's pretty good, but one with

Personally that the GBG contains more rustic, rough, plain & simple pubs is fine by me (from back street boozers, bikers' pubs, rock pubs, rural rough-ish places) but maybe the entry should be clearer about that (& if you've been unwittingly guided to really dodgy pubs by the GBG, then that's not good at all - IIRC I've not had this happen to me).

Agreed that the 2 (GPG & GBG) share a lot of entries, but The Good Pub Guide seemed mostly rural-based & a bit too twee, middle-class & gastro-pub food-led for me - but I'm happy that the 2 guides have separate functions & know which suits me better. Cheers MikeMcG

I've been a CAMRA member for 20 years, but for 20 years have also regularly submitted reports to the GPG. Whilst the GBG tends to focus on real ale, the GPG takes many other factors into account. I have seldom been disappointed when visiting GPG recommended pubs. They make it clear whether the pub has real ale (and if not, I wouldn't go there) and if so whether it's well kept, and in my experience they get it pretty well spot on. And as for "mostly focuses on more up-market rural dining inns", that wouldn't explain why the splendid, basic and rustic Yew Tree in Cauldon, Staffs is considered worth the ultimate accolade of two stars. Yes, many pubs are in both guides, but only if, as well as selling well kept real ale, they are worth a visit for other reasons. Myself I always take both guides, but tend to use the GBG only if the GPG has nothing to offer in the area. Because as an overall indicator of the pub, the GPG tends to be more informative.

Brian

Two comments.

1. The delivery date doesn't depend on whether you have selected free delivery. I can say that as I've used Amazon many times (including to order the GBG).

1. They often quote a delivery time of several weeks, then deliver it almost immediately. Probably because they prefer to err on the safe side.

In message , BrianW wrote

As someone else has pointed out, it's CAMRA that keep the stock of the books so if Amazon are quoting long delivery dates for the GBG then surely it is the normal inefficiency of CAMRA that is to blame?

Albeit 15 years ago, I went to a CAMRA HQ open day and was somewhat disappointed to be told that the 'allow 28 days for delivery' was fairly typical . In those days next day delivery was becoming common place. I suspect things are not much better judging by the length of time a new member waits for his card to arrive through the post.

On Fri 12 Sep08 10:22, gavin wrote in :

Gavin, you have to give these things some thought. How would you carry that around with you if you only had a PC?

Of course, I have given it thought - you need to!!! Why would I want to carry the whole of the GBG around with me? Ever heard of a new fangled device called a "printer"?

I belive there is also newfangled stuff such as Pendrives, SD cards and Hard disks. also Wireless networking is increasingly available (in wetherspoons and many other pubs). I don't see this as a realistic objection. The real reason, IMO, is that CAMRA would lose a valuable income stream.

That of course is a completely different argument. I wonder how much profit is derived from the GBG and whether this could be realised via online advertising?