Supermarket booze is ridiculously cheap. At Asda, for example, you can buy four cans of Skol lager for just 90p, or less than 23p a can. Why pay £3 for a pint of beer in a nice pub when it’s cheaper to get blitzed on 12 cans of Skol?
So you see how this could be a problem.
Alcohol campaigners believe that supermarkets need to consider the impact that heavily discounted booze could have on underage drinkers and low-income social groups. Asda agree that they need to promote responsible drinking – that’s why they’re planning to print alcohol awareness and safety messages on milk cartons during the festive season. Asda’s milk will offer pearls of wisdom like, “Don’t leave your drink unattended,” “Look after your personal property” and “Drink responsibly, know your limit.”
I guess milk makes more sense than, say, hummus or laundry detergent, but it still seems like a pretty random place to put an alcohol warning. Why not put it on something that people might eat while they’re drinking, like crisps or peanuts? Or on something people associate with hangovers, like painkillers? (Actually, I suppose if you have a hangover it’s too late to remind you to “Drink responsibly, know your limit.”)
Or, and this is getting pretty crazy, just put the alcohol awareness messages on the alcohol.
Better yet – instead of pretending that you care about the binge drinking problem by proposing some bogus scheme that makes about as much sense as the plot of Failure to Launch, just stop selling beers that cost less than a pack of gum.
As if I needed another reason to hate Asda.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
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9 comments:
That is just so absurd that it's laughable.
The government ought to tax low-price alcohol so it becomes just the same cost to the consumer as ordinary-price alcohol. But of course it won't.
Katie, I was going to do a post about that tomorrow tacking a slightly different tack. Keep an eye out. Still loving your blog.
I know underage and antisocial drinking's a major concern but I've never liked policies moves where where the cure seemed to consist entirely of making people pay more money.
It's like making people abandon their cheaply purchased supermarket bottled water at the airport security check but letting them buy the same bottle a few yards after the checkpoint.
It doesn't seem to keep you very safe but you can pretty obviously see someone benefit from it.
In the case of alcohol it's an absolute tax on the volume sold so really raising the price isn't even going to help raise public spending, it's just making Asda earn more profit from some pretty terrible products.
I think ASDA hot rock bottom and went right downhill when they were bought out by WalMart. Are the warnings going on ASDA brand milk? If they put them on Skol, wouldn't they have to OK it with every supermarket and off-license?
I don't know if this'll help any.
You are pure right. That film was really bad.
What about the Haddows now? Every shop was changed from just being Haddows a year or so ago to being Haddows Discount Booze. Plus their Buckie is too expensive.
Also Stella bringing out a 4% can. What kind of noncesense is that? 5% and over or nothing at all.
"beers that cost less than a pack of gum."
You know, I really hadn't thought of it that way, and that's something which really puts it into perspective. Wow.
There was a BBC article on "short measures" at pubs. It's not just about pubs shorting people, though - it's also about pubs giving people too much in their serving, as well. It's worth a read, really.
Think about it: you go into your local and order a Gin & Tonic. You drink this, as you usually do, and have another, because you can handle that at your local, which routinely serves you short measures.
So, when you go out, and end up at that odd pub which serves you 60% over the right measure? Well, if you order 2 G&T's you'll be drinking something like 4 times as much alcohol as you would have at your local.
They surveyed 217 licensed premises. 190 served incorrect servings.
Of course, this presumes that you're somebody who drinks without the express intention of getting blitzed.
I saw the little smiley face on it, when we first moved here, and I said, "Hey...!"
Walmart. I could not believe it. There's no escape!!!
That would be awesome if hummus had a warning on it. "Danger. Do not consume if drinking, otherwise you will eat the entire container"
I don't think it's Asda's responsiblity to solve the binge drinking problem, but..well, selling beer at less than 23p a can certainly doesn't help things.
I think A Brit Different brought up a good point - they probably don't have permission to put alcohol warnings on anything but their own-branded products. That still doesn't explain why they chose milk, though...
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