Cheap alcohol trips to Derry still on after Government pricing plan hits rocks
Fewer people are going to Derry now to do their food shopping with most Movillians shopping in places like Gillens. A price comparison showed that Gillens was now cheaper than Sainsbury’s and with the cost of getting to Derry, and back and with the cost of converting Euros to pounds, this was even more so.
Derry
However, it is still cheaper to buy alcohol in Derry. The Government had plans to introduce minimum pricing in England and Wales. They were intending to force supermarkets to have a minimum charge per unit of 45p. This would mean that a can of strong lager would have a minimum price of £1.56 a bottle and a bottle of wine would sell for a minimum of £4.22.
I recently bought 30 cans of Carling in Sainsbury’s for £19. This would have gone up dramatically.
Saturday Nights
This would have been very good news for those who sell alcohol in Moville but bad news for those buying alcohol. Indeed many people on Saturday nights go to each other’s houses to have a few cans of cheap alcohol before going out to the pubs so that their bill at the end of the night is much less.
These are recessionary times in Moville (even Depressionary) and this allowed people to still have their Saturday nights out but at lower cost.
Dropped
The Coalition Government in the UK is now wavering about measures that would see a minimum price for alcohol as doctors recommend. There has been opposition within the cabinet on the Conservative side and his has caused them to reconsider the proposals in England and Wales. Conservatives there have traditionally been against the nanny state and this caused some of them to revolt.
Northern Ireland has still to decide yet and have been looking at their own proposals. They could still go ahead with it but if they drop the proposals for England and Wales it would make this less likely and will at least delay it causing them to consider it again in the light of the news from Westminster.
Those who partake of cheap alcohol in Moville that they get from Derry will be pleased. Those who sell alcohol off-sales in Moville will be less so.