Pilsner Urquell - supply and/or price issues

coylemj

I shop in O'Brien's (various southside branches) and Dunnes Cornelscourt. A few weeks ago, I was in Dunnes and saw that they were selling Pilsner Urquell 50cl bottles for €2 with no minimum purchase i.e. it was not a '5 for €10' offer. On only one occasion in the past have O'Briens reduced the price of this item and that was when it was briefly included in the '5 for €10' offer a few months ago. Normally O'Briens do not discount PU 50cl bottles, you can occasionally get a good price on four cans when they have them but they hardly ever discount the 50cl bottles.

In the past few weeks, I've noticed that PU has disappeared off the shelves in O'Brien's (Sandymount and Carrickmines) and today there was none on the shelves in Dunnes Cornelscourt.

The conspiracy theorist in me says that there's some kind of muscle being used to force an end to discounting on this product and until the discounter 'sees sense', the other major retailer is refusing to stock the product. Comments welcome.

BeerNut

You could always email Richmond and tell them you can't get stock in Dunnes or O'Briens. It could be a simple logistics issue.

schemingbohemia

But conspiracy theories are much more fun than facts!

BeerNut

That's what they want you to think.

coylemj

Got a reply from the guy in Richmond assuring me that there isn't a supply issue so I'll check the next time I'm in Dunnes and O'Briens and see if it's back on the shelves.

BTW, the conspiracy theory I was floating goes on all the time with grocery staples, here's an example.......

1. Lidl discounts the 1 lb (454g) tub of Dairygold from the normal price €2.69, say they drop it to €2.25.

2. Dairygold suddenly disappears from the shelves in Dunnes, replaced with Kerrymaid and other dairy products.

3. Lidl sells out of Dairygold and then they have no stock for a few weeks. When it comes back, it's at the old price of €2.69

4. Dairygold reappears on the shelves in Dunnes.

There is a huge amount of anti-competitive and anti-consumer price fixing going on with grocery staples and when one retailer steps out of line, the big boys retaliate until order is restored.

Working in a dunnes off licence myself and I definitely think your over thinking it, sometimes we just don't order enough stock to cover demand! You might order enough to match the last few weeks sales and then one guy will come in and buy everything you have and your short stock until the next delivery. Happens all the time.