25th September 2026
Pubs, restaurants and hotels are reporting that the growing popularity of weight-loss medicines may be changing the way some customers eat and drink.
The Scottish Licensed Trade Association has surveyed around 300 pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels for its latest summer market report. Sixteen per cent said they believed visits had fallen because of weight-loss drugs, while another 22% said their customers had become more "discerning".
That does not prove that weight-loss medicines are responsible for falling sales. Businesses are also dealing with higher prices, weaker consumer confidence and customers with less disposable income.
But it raises an interesting question.
Could medicines designed to reduce appetite eventually have an effect on the wider economy?
The drugs, known as GLP-1 medicines, have become increasingly prominent in recent years. They work partly by reducing appetite and slowing digestion, meaning that some people taking them may simply want to eat less.
For a restaurant, that could mean a customer ordering a smaller meal.
For a pub, it could mean fewer drinks.
For a food manufacturer, it could eventually mean changes in what consumers buy in supermarkets.
That is potentially much bigger than the effect on a few pubs.
The Scottish hospitality survey suggests that businesses are already noticing some change. But it would be wrong to conclude that weight-loss drugs are suddenly responsible for the problems facing the sector.
The same survey found that 97% of businesses reported higher costs compared with a year earlier, while 57% said their cost increases were significantly above UK inflation. The trade association also reports continuing concerns about consumer confidence and disposable income.
In other words, there are several forces acting at the same time.
A household that decides to spend less on eating out might be doing so because restaurant prices have increased, because household finances are tight, or because someone in the household is taking a medicine that has reduced their appetite. It could also be a combination of all three.
There are some more encouraging signs in the hospitality figures.
The SLTA says 71% of the businesses surveyed expect to break even or make a profit, compared with 63% in its winter survey. Sixty-one per cent expect their trading to be either stable or growing during the remainder of 2026, while the number considering closure has fallen.
So this is not a story about Scottish pubs suddenly disappearing because of weight-loss injections.
It is potentially a story about changing consumer behaviour.
Businesses have always had to adapt when people's habits change. The rise of supermarkets changed the high street. Online shopping changed retail. Smartphones changed advertising and entertainment. Home working has altered spending patterns in town centres.
Weight-loss medicines could become another example, although it is still too early to know how significant the long-term effect will be.
And there could be winners as well as losers.
If people eat less, they may buy smaller quantities of food. But they may also become more interested in the quality and nutritional value of what they do eat. Restaurants might respond with smaller portions, different menus or more emphasis on quality rather than quantity.
Food manufacturers and retailers will have to watch the same trend.
For Caithness, there is an additional question.
A rural community depends heavily on pubs, cafés, restaurants and hotels not simply as businesses but as places where people meet. If consumer habits change, local businesses may have to adapt again in an industry that is already dealing with high costs.
The lesson may be that businesses cannot simply assume that today's customers will behave like yesterday's customers.
The next big change in consumer spending might not come from a new shop, a new website or a new piece of technology.
It might come from people simply wanting less food.