'22p a can lager, get drunk for £1. MoneySaving or MoneyWasting?' blog discussion

CLIVE_WALDER

While lager at 22p per can may sound cheap and obviously will help people save money I can’t help thinking that it is irresponsible.

While we are right to say that sales should be adequately policed the fact is that a considerable amount of underage drinking is sourced from cheap supermarket products. Many will get it bought for them by older siblings and friends. The supermarket has no control over who actually ends up drinking the beer, unlike in a pub.

Many people caught drunk and incapable in the evening have started off by drinking copious amounts of cheap supermarket booze.

The pub trade has made great strides in cutting out irresponsible drinking by banning most promotions and happy hours that start in the early evening. It’s time the supermarkets played their part as they are by far the biggest culprits

tahrey

Random wrote: »

I think this is immoral. When did you last see the level of offers you get on crisps, biscuits or ready meals on fruit or vegetables? Then they complain about obesity.

Try Aldi, Lidl, they have done cut price veg and 30-70% offers on certain fresh items (varies week to week) for several years now, the price does give you a genuine saving compared to other nearby outlets (it's not a discount off a jacked-up price), and the stuff is usually pretty good quality too. Not the best, but you wouldn't be easily able to pick it out in a double blind test. Germans don't often skimp on the quality of their food probably they could do it even cheaper but it would be in order to sell stuff you wouldn't much want to eat.

Random

I do go to Aldis and Lidl when I can, mainly for the fruit and veg offers, and of course that their biscuits etc tend to have better ingredients than ours! Show me some English biscuits listing 'butter' as an ingredient. Sadly its a 30 mile round trip though, so a false economy unless I'm going already.

Strangely enough, I went into the awful Tesco shop this week, and found half price offers on both broccoli and carrots. Usually their offers are on heavily pre prepared and packaged stuff that is way overpriced.

tubster

There is nothing quite so hypocritical as an MP who criticises cheap lager and 24 hour drinking, who then drinks at a subsidised bar with no licence restrictions at all hours in the House of Commons and gets ratted at functions and dinner parties on wine.
The problem is a cultural one, and kicking the poor isn't going to solve it. Every aspect of our lives seems to have the expectation or the temptation of a drink at some point (weddings, funerals, spectating, birthdays, seeing friends, going on holiday, Christmas)
No wonder children are interested in it, alcohol comes out at every single interesting event of their family lives.
A friend of mine died last week aged 37 from alcohol related organ failure, she was destroyed by it. It can be a terrible drug, the last few years of her life were miserable and she couldn't even look after her child. It was somewhat ironic at the funeral when we all cheered up a little when a whisky bottle came out. Now I love beer and wine, I drink a little every day and I don't want to give it up, but I'm starting to think how my two kids are going to grow up with this, and how I can teach them to manage alcohol. Maybe families will start to celebrate it a bit less so it isn't such a big exciting deal?

Tubster

Debt_Free_Dreamer

I think we paid about 10p per can in Mauritius. They were selling the same cans for over £1 in the hotel. Our taxi driver took us to a garage, not of the petrol variety but a proper garage, the type you would park your car in.

Anyway we bought a crate for a silly amount of money, cheaper than the bottles of coke a cola which were 12p a bottle!

:beer:

brightonman123

i dont think it is good to 'promote' cheap alcohol, anywhere- will just encorage impresionable people to get stupidly drunk, with the cosequenses that may bring.