Free pints scheme ineffective for Bournemouth pub

The Duck in Westbourne have experienced less than “astronomical” crowds from a ‘free pints of Heineken’ scheme.

The scheme, launched by Heineken themselves, is an idea aimed at bringing more people to local pubs after work.

The offer can be claimed on any weekday after 4:59pm and allows a customer to order themselves, and three others, a free pint of either Heineken or Heineken 0.0.

However, after speaking with a manager at The Duck, he claims that the promotion hasn’t brought up huge numbers of new customers.

Manager, Lewis – who chose not to reveal his surname – said: “feedback for the actual thing itself hasn’t been astronomical shall we say.”

Lewis keeps track of the number of sales made through the promotion and noted that they had only given away seven or eight free pints within the first few days of its launch.

He also pointed out the confusion some have experienced with the promotion.

“We’ve had a couple of people come in to claim the free pints, and I think they haven’t read through the fine print to say it’s only limited to one per person, and it’s meant to encourage a group of people.”

“I’ve had a couple of instances where the guy has tried to claim three free pints all to himself.”

He also described the experience of setting up the promotion, saying that when the stock for the promotion arrived from Heineken, there wasn’t a notification letter to describe the promotion itself which he was expecting.

The Duck are one of many taking part in the promotion, other pubs in Bournemouth running the deal include The Grove Tavern in Southbourne and Sydney House Hotel.

However, Lewis said that the promotion had peaked an interest.

The promotion, whilst low in numbers, has given way to new customers who have arrived with the promotion in mind, rather than current customers utilising the scheme.

“We haven’t had anyone from our business, come in, scan the QR code and follow the procedure, then claim a free pint. Most of the people that have claimed it, have already done it prior to arriving.”