Thinking the thoughts they do: symbolism and meaning in the consumer experience of the “British pub”

The paper argues the need for an appraisal of the symbolic meaning of the “pub” and derivative managerialist concepts from the perspective of the consumers’ experience. Set against background developments of the “pub”, the paper explores the use of semiotics as a means of examining the symbolic meaning of pre‐modern, modern and post‐modern pub formats. The paper draws on extensive interviews with a stratified purposive sample of customers of pub formats in the north‐west of England to undertake a semiotic appraisal of the reason why consumers “think the thoughts they do” about managerial developments of this distinctly social phenomenon.