Supermarket booze price war danger
The Mail on Sunday has set its sights on cheap supermarket booze, revealing that beer is now cheaper than cola and water.
The move by the paper will come as a double relief by the pub trade. Firstly, the paper has shifted its blame for binge drinking away from the on-trade and it will help highlight the problems of cheap supermarket booze on a national scale.
However, licensees will be wary of the paper which battered the pub trade for more than a year over extended opening hours.
There is also a fear the new wave of press activity highlighting the offtrade may be driven by the new Alcohol Health Alliance seeking to increase tax on alcohol across the board.
The paper reports that Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda now offer lager at 22p a can - meaning someone could get drunk for just £1.
The Mail's investigation said lager is now so cheap the stores pay more in excise duty than they charge at the till.
It estimates stores are losing around 8p a can in for every sale.
It says last Monday, Asda slashed the price of Smart Price Lager to just 22p for a 440ml can following a similar move from Tesco.
Both stores now match Sainsbury's, whose Basics range has sold at 22p since June 2005.
By contrast, bottles of own-brand mineral water cost between 56p and 92p a litre.
The paper also claims that the price war has only just begun with Asda clearing their shelves of single cans last week and replacing them with multi-packs.
A spokesman for Asda told the Mail: "We were reluctant to bring our price down but we are the price leader and we cannot afford to be exposed by our rivals. It is a competitive market and if someone is offering something at a ridiculous price, we have to match it."
