Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-related deaths in Glasgow

Re:Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-relat... by Symbiote on Friday September 20, 2019 @08:15AM (#21025777)

A "unit" of alcohol is 1cL. This amount is commonly used in the UK -- the amount of alcohol in a drink is often printed on the label in "units", and people have some ideas around how many "units" one can drink safely. It's used in personal health education at school.

The minimum price was set to 50p per unit / centilitre of alcohol.

(Keeping easy metric amounts for simplicity. In bars beer and cider is sold in 568mL glasses, though wine and spirits are nice round metric amounts.)

A 1L bottle of vodka, at 40% ABV, contains 40cL of alcohol. The shop or bar must sell it for at least 40×£0.50 = £20. In England, Tesco's cheapest 1L bottle of vodka is £15, so this has increased the price by £5 in Scotland. A fancy vodka which costs £22 in England is unaffected.

A 2L bottle of cheap cider at 5% ABV must cost at least £5. At Tesco in England, this is available for about £2.

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Re:Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-relat... by XJ6 on Friday September 20, 2019 @08:35AM (#21025966)

5% is considered weak for that kind of cheap cider too, white lightning was far stronger than that for a similar price. (And if I remember correctly usually came in 3L bottles)

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Re:Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-relat... by michaelt on Friday September 20, 2019 @09:14AM (#21026289)

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/268607379 - 2 litres @ 5% is 10 units of alcohol. Price now £2.05, with a mandatory minimum it'll rise to £5.

Admittedly, 99% of the alcohol on the market is already well above the price minimum,

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Re:Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-relat... by rconti on Friday September 20, 2019 @01:39PM (#21029268)

The higher end makers are probably glad the price curve is flattening. They can make a bit more profit and still be minimally more expensive than the cheap competition.

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Re:Minimum unit pricing may have helped reduce alcohol-relat... by Symbiote on Friday September 20, 2019 @11:47AM (#21028006)

Yes, was 8% around normal?

But I went with what was for sale on the Tesco website. I think I read some time ago that they voluntarily stopped selling "White Lightning" etc.

I bought it once when I was 15, so I'm a bit out of touch.

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