Crafty Sods!

Essex_Al

DJ'd last night at The Westcliffe Hotel in Southend. To make sure I could get to yesterday's game, my mate and me set up at 10 in the morning, finished by 11 and decided to treat ourselves to breakfast down on the seafront before travelling to the Valley. So got a nice table outside sitting in the sun and had a decent breakfast to be fair. As we were finishing our meal an estate car pulls up outside and the staff start unloading a shipment of food etc. from local suppliers. On the menu was was lager at £3 a pint, to our surprise they were unloading cases of Asda own brand budget lager (thankfully we didn't have one)! I don't know how much Asda cheapo lager is a can probably about 40p and they were knocking it out for £3, never mind the taste! Makes you wonder how many other places do the same thing.

Actually I just remembered back in the day, I used to work in the Charcoal Burner in Sidcup and the guvnor in there used to fill up his posh sherry cask with cheapo stuff. Not to mention all the slops at the end of the night going back in the barrel for the next day.

tangoflash

96p per can if you're wondering.

Doesn't surprise me at all. most pubs and bars that don't have regular customers will always sell the cheapest alcohol at top prices. Do you think the pubs where all the younger people pack out on a friday & saturday night really have Smirnoff or bells in their optics?

It's one of the reasons all the smaller local pubs are closing at an alarming rate. They can't compete. When a customer of theirs orders a glass of glenfiddich 12 yr old malt that he's been sipping for 20 years, try serving him a cheap supermarket alternative...........................

carly burn

had a decent breakfast

You really don't want to know where the sausages and bacon came from!

Stig

We had our Honeymoon in the Westcliff Hotel, times were hard and money tight.

EastStand

Where I used to work if we told you it was fosters/bells/london pride thats what it was. 

Pretty sure its against the law to misrepresent products. You can't sell asda larger/whiskey if you call it carling/bells. You can call it larger/house whiskey fine though, so perhaps thats what they were doing. 

Vinnie V.

Where I used to work if we told you it was fosters/bells/london pride thats what it was. 

Pretty sure its against the law to misrepresent products. You can't sell asda larger/whiskey if you call it carling/bells. You can call it larger/house whiskey fine though, so perhaps thats what they were doing. 

To be fair it's probably better than Carling.

tangoflash

Where I used to work if we told you it was fosters/bells/london pride thats what it was. 

Pretty sure its against the law to misrepresent products. You can't sell asda larger/whiskey if you call it carling/bells. You can call it larger/house whiskey fine though, so perhaps thats what they were doing. 

But you're splitting hairs between what is legal and what happens in reality. The type of pubs i mention are the one's full of 18-25 yr olds who probably couldn't tell the difference between Smirnoff and cabbage water.

Leroy Ambrose

Oldest trick in the book. They used to do this when I ran a bar in a club in London. Caseloads of cheap shitty vodka, scotch and Rum and fill up the bottles in the optics whenever there was an indie night on - you could feed drunken students watered down piss and they'd think it was JW blue.

EastStand

Where I used to work if we told you it was fosters/bells/london pride thats what it was. 

Pretty sure its against the law to misrepresent products. You can't sell asda larger/whiskey if you call it carling/bells. You can call it larger/house whiskey fine though, so perhaps thats what they were doing. 

But you're splitting hairs between what is legal and what happens in reality. The type of pubs i mention are the one's full of 18-25 yr olds who probably couldn't tell the difference between Smirnoff and cabbage water.

And thats why I don't go to clubs or any pub in central London!

Chunes

To be honest, a bottle of Sainsbury's basics vodka will get you just as pissed as a bottle of smirnoff will. It's just you'll have a bit more of a headache in the morning.

tangoflash

Cheap vodka gives me a sore arse............................................ at least it did the last time i got pissed in Brighton. ;-)

Essex_Al

Had a look this morning, Asda cheapo own brand lager just 22p per can, nice!

richie8

I reckon 99% of Landlords are at it with the drink.I remember watching my Uncle changing barrels at his pub and putting the beer that isn't selling through the pump of the better selling beer.Though the worst was what happened to a former Alma in Sidcup regular who emigrated and got served industrial alcohol in his new local.Last I saw him he was paralysed. 

Algarveaddick

Meet the 1% Richie. Everything we sell is what it says, in fact the only time it's not is when it's a better product in a lesser bottle because we have bought something in Gibraltar that you can't get in Portugal i.e. Pussers rum in a Captain Morgan bottle. In my opinion A) it's not worth it should the weights and measures people turn up and  I am honest.

richie8

Good to hear there are some about.Landlord of our local freely says its the same lager out of which ever font they use.Ive also seem too many landlords guarding the slops as if their life depends on it.Others I know buying spirits from the supermarket.

Algarveaddick

Nothing wrong with buying it from the supermarket, as long as what is in the bottle is what it's supposed to be. As for lager, it all tastes the same in England anyway... ;-)

richie8

Good point! I think the supermarket bit was to do with the brewery fleecing them.If the gaffer says its all the same lager and charges you the same  for it I suppose that ain't bad.

Bournemouth Addick

Meet the 1% Richie. Everything we sell is what it says, in fact the only time it's not is when it's a better product in a lesser bottle because we have bought something in Gibraltar that you can't get in Portugal i.e. Pussers rum in a Captain Morgan bottle. In my opinion A) it's not worth it should the weights and measures people turn up and  I am honest.

As one of the Weights & Measures men that Algarve refers to I can confirm that, whilst there are a number of retailers that pull stunts like substitution, it is nowhere near the figures that have been bandied about on this thread and that it's still relatively rare in the pub game (and always has been since I started in the mid-80's to be fair). Landlords have always found other ways of being "creative" shall we say rather than run the risk of a prosecution!

I'm not going into details but there are ways to tell if a spirit has been substituted into a more expensive branded bottle and we do spot checks and visits when we can but unfortunately, budget pressures being what they are, these are likely to be less often than either we or the public would like in the future.

From the figures I've seen I'd be more worried about other sources of substitution than your local boozer and there's plenty of counterfeit stuff out there too

 

ken from bexley

Cheap vodka gives me a sore arse............................................ at least it did the last time i got pissed in Brighton. ;-)

I heard it was a 'bad rash' around the mouth........

It is not the 'crabs' on the beach you have to worry about, down there Tango........

DRF

I worked at a fesitval once and watched the van next to us unload pizza with £1 each on the box in the morning. By the afternoon they were selling them for £6.

smiffyboy

I worked at a fesitval once and watched the van next to us unload pizza with £1 each on the box in the morning. By the afternoon they were selling them for £6.

That's just business every person / outlet selling something sells it for more than they paid for it.