Supermarkets investigated for selling beer cheaper than water

Supermarket chains and delivery services selling beer cheaper than the price of water are being investigated by the police.

According to reports, delivery chain Uber Eats along with supermarkets in New Zealand such as Foodstuffs and Countdown are all being investigated after allegations that some of them had dropped the price of their almost-expired beer to as low as just 67 cents.

Pak ‘n Save New Plymouth was caught selling Hollandia Premium six-packs for just NZ$3.99 last month, while the usual price was NZ$12.49 – a discount of more than 60%, according to reports from Newsroom.

However, the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act states that any alcoholic drink can not be discounted by more than 25%.

According to sources, Countdown stores had also advertised a dozen Heinekens with NZ$8 off, while global delivery service Uber Eats had begun sending out promotional emails offering 25% off its alcohol.

Police manager of alcohol harm prevention, Inspector Hamish Milne confirmed that each of the supermarkets as well as Uber Eats were all being investigated.

The allegations stated how Uber, which has admitted “human error” led to its advertising of its 25% discounts, has already been warned for breaching the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. However, investigations into Pak ‘n Save are allegedly ongoing and are currently being investigated by alcohol harm prevention officers in each of the respective locations where the alcohol drinks are said to have been sold. According to Milne, Foodstuffs, Countdown and Uber Eats had admitted their mistakes and immediately removed theor offending product and promotional lines from each of their websites.

Foodstuffs spokesperson Emma Wooster told reporters: “As soon as we became aware of the short-dated product being sold for an incorrect price at the relevant Pak ‘n Save stores, we took fast action, and the in-store and online prices were either corrected to the normal retail price or the product was removed from sale.”

A Countdown spokesperson has also declared that it has worked proactively with a number of stakeholders, including police and local councils, to ensure that its approach to the sale and promotion of alcohol complies with legislation and said in a statement: “We haven’t had any concerns raised about our alcohol discount advertising. We’d invite anyone who does have a concern to reach out.”

Alcohol Healthwatch acting director Rebecca Williams said: “Another concern is the behaviour of these licence holders/traders – clearly this heavy discounting isn’t socially responsible, however they continue to do it thinking that no-one can do anything about it.”

Williams added: “If New Zealand was to implement best practise then we would see a ban on all alcohol marketing, implementation of a minimum price regime and increase in alcohol excise tax.”