The price of alcohol. A radical solution?

[beer]

There has been talk of pubs closing due to the availability of cheap booze in supermarkets. Also talk of a minimum price of a unit of alcohol. This however would merely reward the supermarkets as the increased prices would simply increase their margins.

 

I thought up an alternative. It is here for folk to knock spots off it.

 

Increase the rate of duty on bottled or canned alcoholic beverages by 50%.

 

This wouldn't affect pub draught beer prices but would increase supermarket prices for canned and bottled booze. Instead of supermarkets reaping the rewards, the exchequer would benefit and a tax here is a tax not needed elsewhere.

Perhaps a variation in duty rate could be worked out for wines and spirits.

 

Does the idea have any merit?

[truman]

How would that affect spirits in pubs? They're all in bottles...

[quisquose]

How many pints had you drunk by the time you came up with this idea?

 

[beer]

How would that affect spirits in pubs? They're all in bottles...

 

Like I said the rate could be adjusted for wines and spirits. These aren't the problem areas.

Perhaps the answer is to add a 10p tax to each bottle or can.

[Shogun]

I like a bottle of whiskey and I find it lasts a couple of weeks if I don't go mad so its not a problem the price to me,I like to brew beer myself it is a bit of a hobby as well, you can make some real nice beer when you get a bit of experience at it.

[Penistone999]

Increase the rate of duty on bottled or canned alcoholic beverages by 50%.

 

This wouldn't affect pub draught beer prices but would increase supermarket prices for canned and bottled booze. Instead of supermarkets reaping the rewards, the exchequer would benefit and a tax here is a tax not needed elsewhere.

 

Why would you want to increase the price of cheap supermarket booze. ? The cheaper the better for me. If supermarkets want to sell booze as a loss leader , then thats good news for consumers.

[El Cid]

Just a higher rate of VAT if the alcohol is not consumed on the premises.

[beer]

Just a higher rate of VAT if the alcohol is not consumed on the premises.

 

Same result.

 

---------- Post added 26-03-2013 at 23:43 ----------

 

Why would you want to increase the price of cheap supermarket booze. ? The cheaper the better for me. If supermarkets want to sell booze as a loss leader , then thats good news for consumers.

 

The alternative would appear to be an imposed minimum price for a unit of alcohol. The price would go up just the same but the government wouldn't benefit through increased tax. So they would have to raise their tax from you by taxing something else.... and the price of you booze would still go up as well.

 

http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2012/11/government-proposes-45p-minimum-unit-price-for-alcohol/

 

Government proposes 45p minimum unit price for alcohol

[esme]

I used to buy a 36 pint polypin of Pale Rider direct from the brewery at Kelham Island for home consumption over Christmas and New Year.

 

Then I found I could buy 40 pints of bottled Pale Rider in Asda for around £10 cheaper than I got it direct from the brewery.

 

So I started to get my beer from the supermarket because it doesn't make sense to pay more.

 

This is for home consumption during the holidays mind, I still go to pubs when I can find a decent one that hasn't closed.

 

Pubs can't compete with Supermarkets, there is no such thing as a loss leader in a pub, so they are going out of business.

 

And the Breweries also can't compete, so new startups who haven't done deals with supermarkets find they can't sell enough of their product to stay viable, no matter how good it is.

 

OK, you get cheap beer but you are at the mercy of the supermarket, if they decide a particular beer isn't selling well enough they stop buying it from the brewery and the brewery fails.

 

And conversely if they notice people buy a particular beer but don't buy enough of anything else to offset the supermarket discount, they will either stop stocking the beer and the brewery will fail or they will put the price up which will cause sales to fall and then we're back to not buying enough, so the supermarket stops stocking it and the brewery fails again.

 

If this keeps up long enough there will be precious little to drink that isn't some flavourless fizzy water with added alcohol, manufactured in some chemical plant owned by a foreign multinational and all the choice and diversity, all the beers with flavour, all the beers you drink for the taste rather than drink to get drunk will have gone

 

Cheap supermarket prices are not doing beer drinkers any favours in the long run.

[Itrytoplease]

The police are powerless at tackling binge drinking, so It’s proposed to have a minimum price per unit, making us all pay for the discretions of the few.

If I was a member of parliament I’d be ashamed of bringing this into force as it shows just how inept the police are.

Surely the answer is to punish the offenders , and this can only be done by tougher sentences, Very heavy fines and where violence is involved imprisonment no and’s if's or but’s - Guilty =12 months, take him/her down. Let’s see how many come back for a second helping.