A Brecht of stale air
Dave Broomon the worrying trend towards ruthless discounting
On occasion, I have been known to hum a ditty by Bertolt Brecht and Hans Eisler called Supply and Demand*. Acharacter, just known as âthe businessmanâ, sings about rice and how he can maximise the return on his investment. The chorus goes:
âWhat is rice, actually?
Do I know, do you know
whatâs this thing called rice?
God only knows what rice is,
I only know its price.â
As a critique of capitalism itâs as neat as they come. I hadnât thought of it in a long time, but a recent press release brought it to mind. It came from Netto and trumpeted the discount retailerâs first ever blended whisky, McCauleyâs. Then came the shock. It was to retail at £6.86. Now, youâre hardly going to pay premium prices in a Netto store, but this one shocked me.
Thereâs a number of issues arising from this.
The quality of the whisky itself. I obtained a bottle which states proudly that it is three years old. You wonât be surprised to hear that it tastes like it as well. Immature, slightly bitter with a finish which can only be called abrasive.
You can picture the smoke from the just extinguished candles on its third birthday cake still floating in the air as the components are quickly disgorged and bottled. But McCauleyâs couldnât have been four years old. If it had been it would have missed Nettoâs price point, which brings me to my next one.
How can you sell whisky for £6.86 in the United Kingdom and expect to make any profit? Consider this.
The tax alone amou.....
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By Dave Broom
Section : A dram with Dave Broom
Page number : 12
