Campaigners Blast Low Supermarket Booze Prices
British supermarkets have had accusations levelled against them suggesting that they tend to promote irresponsible alcohol consumption habits by selling booze at cheaper prices than bottled water.
Campaigners have accused retail giants including Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s of tacit approval of binge drinking, after the retailers were found to be selling beer at a little over 5p per 100 ml, which is 3 pence less than the typical cost of a 100 ml bottle of water.
The campaigners claim that supermarkets encourage binge drinking through the use of cheap alcohol prices to attract customers to their stores, ignoring the health risks that are associated with excessive consumption of alcohol.
Alcohol Concern’s chief executive Don Shenker said that government policy aimed at dealing with binge drinking was being seriously undermined by the price cuts undertaken by retailers.
“Unless they tackle the problem of cheap alcohol, they are fighting a losing battle.The evidence shows young people and harmful drinkers are drawn to very cheap alcohol. Supermarkets sell alcohol at a loss because they know it gets people into the stores. A lot of these sales are irresponsible.” Mr. Shenker said.
A spokeswoman for the British Medical Association added: “It is a real worry that you can buy alcohol cheaper than mineral water. We have a huge problem with alcohol abuse in the UK, so we want a clampdown on these cut-throat price deals.”
Sir Liam Donaldson, the UK’s chief medical officer last month criticised the cheap availability of alcohol at supermarkets, and recommended the introduction of minimum pricing for booze.
Mr. Donaldson suggested that an increase in the average cost of a six pack of beer to £6 or by 50 pence per can, could save as many as 3,400 lives and reduce the number of hospital admissions by as many as 100,00 per year.
Please Note - All Prices Quoted Are Correct at Time of Posting
Liked This Post?
Subscribe to our RSS feed or follow us on twitter, right now!
Comments
Leave a Reply
