Low Alcohol price rip off

Gwynston

Why do low and non-alcoholic beers and wines cost the same as the real stuff? Surely a large proportion of the selling price is alcohol duty? So alcohol-free drinks should surely cost a lot less for the consumer?

I'm sure it would help to encourage people to buy such drinks if they're driving. I for one can't stand drinking soft drinks all night if I'm driving. Too sweet. But I feel ripped off at the prices of alcohol-free beers.

As a point of reference - I noticed on trips to Germany that it's the same case there. Although of course you're only paying 90c for a bottle of weissbier in the first place! But the alcohol free-ones cost the same...!

guildofevil

You're absolutely right. There is no excuse for having these drinks as expensive as their alcoholic counterparts.

Having said that, how much are the soft drinks in your local pub? Most pubs sock them in little 200ml bottles and then give you a load of ice so that it doesn't look too pathetic in a glass. I think you'll find that, pint for pint, soft drinks are at least as expensive as beer. Which is also ridiculous.

rubadub

Yes- non-alcoholic beer is still cheaper per ml in a lot of places compared to non-alcoholic soft drinks.

A while ago I think coke gave free soft-drinks to designated drivers in certain pubs,- not sure how that worked.

In many pubs the NA beer is the same price, while in offies there is usually a saving due to the duty. However this is like with like, so NA erdinger is cheaper than normal erdinger in a offie, yet it is still dearer to the huge selection of "€1 bottles".

If the government were remotely serious about stopping drink driving and trying to limit the "drink culture" then they would step in and introduce price fixing of soft drinks in pubs, or some other control. In fact the soft drink manufacturers should do it. I cannot see a reason they cannot put "flashed" pricing in place,- like how chocolate bar makers put 65cent on items so rip off shops cannot overcharge. If I go into a convenience store I always try to buy items with manufacturers prices on them.

I can usually get 2L of coke in tescos for €1.50 on average, (usually an offer on). 2L of coke in my local costs €28- ridiculous. It is rare to find a pub selling cans too, always crappy 200ml bottles. They are so expensive my mates split one between 3 people, this only encourages more drunkeness, they end up drinking strong doubles, 71ml vodka with 65ml coke. In some countries they just have 2 litre bottles of coke at the counter and you can get it in your spirits for free.

Gwynston

I was thinking mainly about supermarkets and offies.

Pubs are a different matter - all those diddly bottles of pop need to be distributed and returned, so there is an expense associated with them. What would be much cheaper is if they used the fountain dispensers, like in UK pubs (like at McDonalds, etc.) They're much cheaper and are ideal for pubs serving spirits with just a splash of mixture. And then they could promote the designated driver thing too - buy one soft drink and get free refills, like you see sometimes at fast food places in food courts (certainly in the US anyway).

As for the supermarkets - places like Tesco and Dunnes are usually very competitive and are probably only making a few pennies profit on beers after handing back the government duty. So how can NA beers be so expensive? Who's taking the profit, which must be way more than regular beer? Is it the manufacturer, or does the shop have to charge a lot because sales volumes are so low? (It's the high volume sales that allows Tesco to sell stuff at such tiny profits.)

rubadub

Gwynston wrote: »

So how can NA beers be so expensive? Who's taking the profit, which must be way more than regular beer? Is it the manufacturer, or does the shop have to charge a lot because sales volumes are so low? (It's the high volume sales that allows Tesco to sell stuff at such tiny profits.)

I find they do charge correctly. What beer are you thinking of in particular?

e.g. erdinger- it costs more to produce a NA beer than a normal one, it is usually brewed and then processed to remove it. So it costs the erdinger factory more to produce a NA beer, yet in most offies it will cost less than regular erdinger, due to the duty difference. It is a low turnover product in offies and supermarkets. The 63cent 330ml beers you see can be below cost, and are loss leaders to the shop. It would be rare to see a person buy a crate of NA beer, it should be considered like a different product altogether, like a giner ale or other 500ml bottle of fancy grape juice- which will also cost more than regular beer.

In a supermarket 500ml of coke might be €1, while a 2L is €1.50. Different margins on different products. Malt extract that is used in beer is available in tescos and costs a fortune, I would not be comparing its price to 63cent beers though.