Is it time to stop the sale of Cheap Beer

[Brian King]

Hello

I see the government have banned the advertisement of cheap beers and drink offers in pubs etc. I feel they should stop the big Supermarkets selling cheap beer, i.e. offers like £20 for up to 45 cans or bottles. I know we all like a bargain and will shop round for a good deal. I do this my self and watch the ads.

These shops have the buying power and drive down the price and some use this as a lost leader to get the customers through the door.
What are these shop doing ?
It’s encouraging some people to drink far more than they should and putting them self’s in danger. Not only their safety but there actions too, it could lead them on to getting hooked or ending up with a record.

At one time people would take six to eight cans to a party, but now you see because it’s so cheap people taking a pack of 15 to 20 cans.
Yes it’s down to the people using there loaf and dinking sensible and for some people that's fine. I do worry about the younger end, as some are out there trying to impress others to how much they can drink and then ending up in all sorts of trouble.

I don’t want stop them drinking nor do I want them not to enjoy them self’s. It’s the supermarkets getting richer and not being responsible for there actions selling the cheap beer
I have always told my family it all very well having a drink, but please stay together and always think how you are getting home.

Brian

[sandyship]

We have a similar problem over here in Nz. The supermarkets are selling beer and now wine(because there is a glut) really cheap. So the youngsters mainly get tanked up at home before they hit the town and then cause mayhem at 2.o'clock in the morning. Christchurch is one of our worst cities for this binge -drinking culture.
sandy

[Spitfire]

I fully agree that the problem needs to be tackled, but how is this best done? I don`t think raising the price will deter the desperate ones.
Look at the price of drugs. People still find (?) the money for those.

[noel]

Maybe if these youngsters had their benefits stopped?

[LDunlop76]

I think one of the reasons for cheap booze offers in the supermarkets is the change in law on duty on alcohol people bring in from the continent. Some people regularly take a van across to France and return with cheap booze and fags, which are then sold off - illegally, of course, as you're only supposed to bring stuff for your own consumption. I hadn't realised the scale of this till I attended an NHS course on helping people stop smoking this Monday. Apparently the sale of black market cigarettes now has escalated so much that for the first time it is costing the govt more to treat the diseases smoking causes than the revenue they get from tobacco - hence the big push to get all NHS employees to promote smoking cessation.

So if people can get cheap black market booze, the supermarkets have to compete somehow or lose trade. Maybe a big part of the solution to the booze problem is to clamp down on the amount brought across the Channel?

[Fiverise]

To be honest I used to go into france twice a year to buy Cigarettes in Belgium and wine in France.
Gave up smoking, and to be honest can now buy good wine here in uk at cheaper prices than in France when you take into account the cost of transport etc
The only way I bother now is if we are genuinely going on holiday to France ,a place I love.

[Colin Damp]

As s publican in Plymouth for the last 20 years, I can't agree more that something should be done about cheap supermarket booze rather than hitting the on-licence trade. But can you really expect a governing party one of whose biggest donors is Lord Sainsbury to do anything?

I'm also thinking of starting a website petition to be signed by anyone who agrees promising not to vote at the next election for any sitting MP or candidate who supported or supports the smoking ban. I'd like to know how the trade unions would react to a law which reduced their members' wages by 20%. That's what happened to my income as a result of the ban.

[JDH]

Where do you stop Brian? No more cases of beer? No more reductions on bottles of wine?

I don't buy the big cases of beer because they are usually mass produced ****e, but I object to the cost of alcohol being raised for me because of other people being so stupid that "getting ****faced" passes as a good time.

A better tactic is to ban alcopops and any other drink that attempts to turn alcohol into a soft or fruity drink. Beer and wine generally tastes awful until you are about 17-18, alcopops encourage drinking from a far younger age.

Don't blame supermarkets, get people to take responsibility for their own actions.

[Caroline]

A degree of health education's certainly needed, and ban any advertisement of alcohol. Stop those cheap deals on booze, which won't deter the seasoned drinker, but will put the brakes on the young.
Things seemed to be a lot calmer when alcohol wasn't sold so readily available and cheaply in supermarkets, but when you had to go to the Off Licence or that little off-sales hatch at the pub.

[Alan Marsden]

Here in Canada the Provinces control the sale of alcohol by owning the outlets , each Provence operates has it's own distribution and sales outlets (LCBO -Liquor Control Board of Ontario in the case of this provence), there are no independant outlets . LCBO outlets are well modern well laid out and pleasant establishments,stocked with a vast amount of varieties of wines and liquor and beers from around the world, prices are reasonable but approx 10% higher than in New York state (largely because a Federal tax is included within the purchase prices in addition to the provencial tax). The profits go directly to the Provence contributing to the provincial treasury.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LCBO)

Overall the system appears to work well, of course one cannot purchase booze from the local supermarket , there are no 'selling out shops' and there are no cheap booze outlets , neither are there drunks on the streets and the profits go towards running the hospitals and such !