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Alcohol strengths on supermarket websites |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,087
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Alcohol strengths on supermarket websites
A few weeks ago, the Asda website removed all alcohol strengths listed on its website. Tesco and Aldi never listed them, and that leaves Lidl stating the strengths of the alcoholic drinks listed on its website.
I presume this is some kind of 'responsible drinking' thing, but surely the strength of the alcohol you buy is an important piece of information, just like the amount of fruit juice and sugar in a cordial tell you a lot about it and give a hint about how it might taste? By hiding this, you're as likely to buy a 14.5% wine just because you liked the photo of the bottle as you are to buy an 11% wine? And if you want to buy spirits, the strength can be an important clue as to whether it's good or not. For example, a rule of thumb is that 36% brandies and rums tend not to be as good as 40% brands. It's only a hint, but it's something some buyers look for. Aldi do an own-brand amaretto that isn't very nice compared to a proper brand. One big clue is that the Aldi one is about 14% whereas proper ones are around 28%, but you wouldn't spot that big clue on their website. The same goes for some own-brand beers that are about 2% and taste of cat wee. So, what do others think about the trend for supermarket websites hiding the strength of alcoholic drinks? |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: The Sunny Side Of The Street
Posts: 40,106
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I always thought it was very important and it is dangerous not to list it.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 947
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Hmm, you learn something every day. Never realised they did hide the strength. How odd
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Scotland
Posts: 11,157
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I noticed this with asda a few weeks ago, its very strange and annoying I was trying to buy my Dad the Cava he likes, its a lower alcohol one they do several bottles that look the same but I could find this because of the content until now.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 21,375
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From my understanding of licensing law it is actually a legal requirement to make the ABV percentage available on any menu's, promotional literature etc. and I would have assumed that would extend to a supermarket website.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 21,738
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Quote:
A few weeks ago, the Asda website removed all alcohol strengths listed on its website. Tesco and Aldi never listed them, and that leaves Lidl stating the strengths of the alcoholic drinks listed on its website.
I presume this is some kind of 'responsible drinking' thing, but surely the strength of the alcohol you buy is an important piece of information, just like the amount of fruit juice and sugar in a cordial tell you a lot about it and give a hint about how it might taste? By hiding this, you're as likely to buy a 14.5% wine just because you liked the photo of the bottle as you are to buy an 11% wine? And if you want to buy spirits, the strength can be an important clue as to whether it's good or not. For example, a rule of thumb is that 36% brandies and rums tend not to be as good as 40% brands. It's only a hint, but it's something some buyers look for. Aldi do an own-brand amaretto that isn't very nice compared to a proper brand. One big clue is that the Aldi one is about 14% whereas proper ones are around 28%, but you wouldn't spot that big clue on their website. The same goes for some own-brand beers that are about 2% and taste of cat wee. So, what do others think about the trend for supermarket websites hiding the strength of alcoholic drinks? |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 11,481
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I don't use the websites, but out of curiosity had a look at Asda - the wine doesn't have any indication of strength, but this beer does - Golden Ale
Puzzling. I'm not sure strength of drinks is always a guide to quality, well not with wines anyway, as it seems the cheaper wines are often the stronger, which seems to be a way of covering up lower quality. Mind you I can't handle too much booze now so I tend to spend ages checking ABV and must look like a right alco when in fact I'm trying to find one of the few that are under 13%
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2012
Posts: 21,738
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Quote:
I don't use the websites, but out of curiosity had a look at Asda - the wine doesn't have any indication of strength, but this beer does - Golden Ale
Puzzling. I'm not sure strength of drinks is always a guide to quality, well not with wines anyway, as it seems the cheaper wines are often the stronger, which seems to be a way of covering up lower quality. Mind you I can't handle too much booze now so I tend to spend ages checking ABV and must look like a right alco when in fact I'm trying to find one of the few that are under 13% ![]() |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 375
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Tesco does show the strengths.
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 3,228
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Quote:
Tesco does show the strengths.
e.g. http://www.tesco.com/groceries/Produ.../?id=273884670 Don't know what the OP is talking about. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 3,725
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That's odd, I thought it was law that they had to show it.
They don't have to show it anywhere in America, we found a lot of bars don't even display it on the pumps. Some had it on the beer menus but some had nothing. I spent a lovely afternoon drinking quite a few pints of this gorgeous beer that turned out to be 7.5%, I thought I was just being a bit of a lightweight on that day! |
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,087
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That's brand new to the Tesco site. They've only just started showing strengths, perhaps because they noticed Asda stopped? It's newness is probably responsible for their teething troubles in listing the number of units per drink as the ABV figure a couple of days ago, something which is now fixed.
I still think it's wrong for supermarket websites to hide the strength of alcoholic drinks. Clearly it can't be the law to do so otherwise Asda wouldn't have removed them and Tesco, Aldi, Waitrose (spirits), M&S and others would all have been listing them over the years. Perhaps you only need to state strengths if they're to be consumed on the premises? And going back to Aldi's rubbish amaretto, I notice they've redesigned the bottle so that the alcoholic strength is no longer printed on the front. It's a huge giveaway that it's not as good as a proper brand. |
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