A distillery is halting production of discount four-litre vodka jugs after the Alberta minister responsible for the province's liquor industry called out the product for not being responsibly priced.
I wonder what the issue is. Seems to me that using something as ubiquitous as the 1 gallon milk jug makes sense. Are they really concerned that someone that’s tempted to drink the entire gallon will be stopped by having to purchase more than one container? The article has a strong focus on the pricing of the vodka… so, who on the Canadian Liquor Board is getting paid to keep prices up? “Spirit of the Albertans” – seems disingenuous to say that the locals are in support of price fixing, as the article seems to imply.
The end of the article hints at spirits-makers being able to bulk purchase alcohol to be blended, and how newer distileries/spirits-makers aren’t required to make the same investment into producing their own base alcohol as was previously required. The way it reads, makes it seem like the article is being sponsored by the big makers in terms of how “small makers” have the unfair advantage and that it’s the small guys lowering prices that is the bad thing.
<shrug> My interpretation could be off, but my tl;dr is corporate has a problem with prices effecting profits, so hit-piece on the independents it is.
Your interpretation is in line with conversations I’ve had with store clerks. The big distilleries, Smirnoff etc, don’t like the free market competition and apparently this isn’t the first time they’ve gotten the province involved.
As I admittedly don’t actually know much of Canadian politics, especially so at the provincial level, I had to make some broad assumptions but it seems that such practices are just a given at this point, regardless of geographical location. I found out recently that despite living in the land of the so-called free, it is apparently very much frowned upon to just like… open a roadside tavern for weary travelers. Something about health codes and livestock in common areas or something <shrug>.
Pictures of the jug and price circulated as a funny/embarrassing " 'berta, fuck yeah!" meme. Absolutely nobody cared in the slightest bit.
So of course Marlaina and co. jumped on it to make headlines and noise about being the authority on good corporate behaviour, and looking out for the best interests of Albertans, etc…
It’s UCP noise-making and flag-waving, nothing more.
I wonder what the issue is. Seems to me that using something as ubiquitous as the 1 gallon milk jug makes sense. Are they really concerned that someone that’s tempted to drink the entire gallon will be stopped by having to purchase more than one container? The article has a strong focus on the pricing of the vodka… so, who on the Canadian Liquor Board is getting paid to keep prices up? “Spirit of the Albertans” – seems disingenuous to say that the locals are in support of price fixing, as the article seems to imply.
The end of the article hints at spirits-makers being able to bulk purchase alcohol to be blended, and how newer distileries/spirits-makers aren’t required to make the same investment into producing their own base alcohol as was previously required. The way it reads, makes it seem like the article is being sponsored by the big makers in terms of how “small makers” have the unfair advantage and that it’s the small guys lowering prices that is the bad thing.
<shrug> My interpretation could be off, but my tl;dr is corporate has a problem with prices effecting profits, so hit-piece on the independents it is.
You ever been on the swish hard?
Your interpretation is in line with conversations I’ve had with store clerks. The big distilleries, Smirnoff etc, don’t like the free market competition and apparently this isn’t the first time they’ve gotten the province involved.
As I admittedly don’t actually know much of Canadian politics, especially so at the provincial level, I had to make some broad assumptions but it seems that such practices are just a given at this point, regardless of geographical location. I found out recently that despite living in the land of the so-called free, it is apparently very much frowned upon to just like… open a roadside tavern for weary travelers. Something about health codes and livestock in common areas or something <shrug>.
The issue is that we drink 4L of liquid out of bags, not out of jugs, so now they’ll need to change the container to fit Canadian tradition.
No bags in Alberta, that’s just ET and AT time zones (maybe newfies too? Not sure)
The ‘issue,’ as far as I’m concerned, is this:
Pictures of the jug and price circulated as a funny/embarrassing " 'berta, fuck yeah!" meme. Absolutely nobody cared in the slightest bit.
So of course Marlaina and co. jumped on it to make headlines and noise about being the authority on good corporate behaviour, and looking out for the best interests of Albertans, etc…
It’s UCP noise-making and flag-waving, nothing more.