Price of beer in Tesco

pog it

Anyone know what's up here?
Went in this evening looking to pick up reasonably priced six pack or some such and everything is over-priced in relation to what I perceive as fair value.

Decided I'm not going to buy any more beer from them and using my local off licence which has far better offers and a wider range to boot.

But how can my local off licence manage to offer lower prices than Tesco, or even in and around the same prices as Tesco for a lot of the beers?

What is the story with distribution and supply of beers to Tesco?

They are practically all priced around the same and you've got to pay over 2 euro for a humble can of beer. Only Stella Artois and Canadian on special offer were available for 1.07 and 1.25 respectively and I don't go for either.

How do I make an official complaint to get this investigated?

BeerNut

pog it wrote: »

How do I make an official complaint to get this investigated?

You don't. You buy beer from the places that give you the best price for what you want. It's how the market works.

fr336

pog it

BeerNut wrote: »

You don't. You buy beer from the places that give you the best price for what you want. It's how the market works.

Yes... and that's what I am doing, as per my post.

I'm still asking the same questions though.

All of the beers are priced in exactly the same price range. Has anything come to light from consumer agency research or another independent investigation?

Morf

pog it wrote: »

Yes... and that's what I am doing, as per my post.

I'm still asking the same questions though.

All of the beers are priced in exactly the same price range. Has anything come to light from consumer agency research or another independent investigation?

Tesco will fluctuate prices to suit different things.

It might go up this week to be substantially discounted next week.

Consumer behaviour/planned discounts/excess stock/short dated stock might all affect their prices.

Shop around is the best policy.

Your only grounds for complaint were if Tesco and other retailers were colluding to artificially alter prices at the detriment of the customer. I might say there wouldn't seem to be any evidence of that.

Lux23

They might go down next week for the rugby.

Geuze

Lidl have 4pk Leffe blond for 5.49.

Tesco were priced at 7.99 or 8.49 for same.

Now suddenly Tesco are matching the 5.49 of Lidl.

What we need to learn...........prices are in no way fixed, they can go up and down for same product from month to month.

Also, in some sense, prices bear less of a link to cost than we might think.

jane82

Plus they dont have fridges.

rubadub

pog it wrote: »

But how can my local off licence manage to offer lower prices than Tesco, or even in and around the same prices as Tesco for a lot of the beers?

eurospar near me often had 5% and 4.3% heineken alongside each other. Both brewed in holland, the 5% was cheaper, it was intended for the scottish market. Heineken are obviously charing are lower wholesale prices in scotland, so a grey area importer can bring it in and sell it here. I never saw this 5% stuff in tesco, they seem to stick with the official suppliers.

Some would be getting the same price as tescos but still just deciding to sell at a lower margin than tesco.

pog it wrote: »

Has anything come to light from consumer agency research or another independent investigation?

What would they investigate? If they were charging €50 per can there would be no need to investigate, they are free to do it. I am not sure what you think would be disclosed/discovered.

If this was back when below cost selling was illegal they might investigate cheap cans, but would have no issue with expensive ones.

Tesco hope people will just buy beer there along with groceries. There is an off licence next to my local tesco but I still see young lads pay more for the room temp beer in tesco.

When tesco have say heineken at €1 a can, I presume its really heineken promoting it, giving it cheap to tesco who sell it at a possibly agreed price.

Below cost selling does not go on as much as the lying publicans make out, in the UK they did study it as an alternative to minimum pricing, they only found 2 or 3 odd non-mainstream brands were being sold below cost. We have a similar enough market here.

Ravelleman

rubadub wrote: »

We have a similar enough market here.

Do we?

rubadub

Ravelleman wrote: »

Do we?

I would have thought so, do you have info saying otherwise?

I have never seen any evidence of the alleged widespread below cost selling going on here, which is my main point about it. The UK had a similar bunch of lying publicans trying to justify the high prices, but were proven to be liars when the study was done.

Ravelleman

rubadub wrote: »

I would have thought so, do you have info saying otherwise?

Your point about below-cost selling might be true - I have no idea - but the beer market itself seems quite different to me. Here are some cursory examples.

Historically the UK wasn't dominated by a single brewery for several decades like Ireland was/is.

If you look at the range of beers (not just brands but also styles) available in Tesco the UK and Ireland you'll find them to be significantly different. This surely indicates a difference in tastes.

Your point about varying ABV levels also demonstrates that manufacturers and retailers treat our market quite differently to the UK one.

The taxation system here also leads to what seem like higher prices.

Just a few thoughts. Perhaps they arrived at the same position regarding below-cost selling despite all of these differences. Or perhaps they did it because it was more profitable to sell them for a profit directly related to the beer instead of absorbing it into the cost of the overall average shop by customers.

Geuze

Ravelleman wrote: »

The taxation system here also leads to what seem like higher prices.

Irish beer excise duty
http://www.revenue.ie/en/tax/excise/duties/excise-duty-rates.html

22.55 euro per hectolitre per cent of alc

That's 12.8 cent per pint per %alc

That's 55 cent per pint of 4.3% beer.

This is dated Oct 2013, so may be before Budget 2014 increase??


UK beer excise duty from March 2013

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/rates/alcohol-duty.htm

19.12 GBP per hectolitre per %alc, or 10.86 pence per pint per %alc.

That's 46.7 pence per 4.3% beer



Today's exchange rate is about 82p, admittedly a low for the year I think.

46.7 pence converts into 57 cent approx.

Ravelleman

Well, there you go. That was based on perception, not necessarily fact as I tried to indicate. Beer does seem to be cheaper in the UK anyway.

Geuze

Yes.

People in RoI often blame higher taxes for the higher prices here.

My point is that our excise is broadly similar to UK excise duty.

This wasn't always the case, but we had flat duty for 10 years and the UK had a "beer duty escalator", so they have caught up.

Our VAT at 23% is a bit higher than the 20% in the UK.

My point is that we point the finger at the brewers and the importers/distributors as well.

gallag

For a while there I was getting 4 duvel for £5 in tesco, or two big 750 bottles of leffe for £5. Good times, liver did not like it.

pog it

Yeah I was in a bigger Tesco store today and they had far better offers there.
My local one seems to be in between a convenience sized one and the larger full format.

They had some decent deals but still nothing shockingly great.

Morf

pog it wrote: »

Yeah I was in a bigger Tesco store today and they had far better offers there.
My local one seems to be in between a convenience sized one and the larger full format.

They had some decent deals but still nothing shockingly great.

I think they even mention it on the site that prices may not apply to non-standard Tesco stores. Tesco Extra or whichever.

Ravelleman

Smaller Tescos in more convenient locations like the city centre always have higher prices.

Thundercats Ho

Innis & Gunn 330ml bottles are are €1.79 each in Tesco (Carlow branch at least)

pog it

Morf wrote: »

I think they even mention it on the site that prices may not apply to non-standard Tesco stores. Tesco Extra or whichever.

It's not a Tesco Extra, just smaller than the largest size! Country town store.