Is it illegal to put beer on sale (big discount)?

Almost fifty and I’ve never, ever seen beer heavily discounted. Not even the skunky stuff near the sell by date.

I save a buck at Sams on 12 packs of Dos Equis in bottles. Thats about the best discount I see. Liquor stores are usually a buck more for 12 packs of beer than grocery stores.

You’d think the capitalist spirit would yield beer wars with stores slashing the price 3 or 4 bucks or more. Just like gas wars result in lower prices between stations.

Is it illegal to heavily discount beer?

Depends on where you live, I suppose, but around here (southeastern U.S.) it’s not uncommon to see seasonal beers discounted after the holidays - think maybe about 25-50 percent off the original price.

I can’t really speak to the legality, however, the beer we drink can be $18.99 at our grocery store. At the liquor store we sometimes use, it’s usually $14.99. At another liquor store they sometimes have it on sale for $11.99. We just bought another ten cases from another liquor store for $10 - yeah, we bought ten at a time. It was worth the drive and the savings.

So all I can tell you is that the price can vary widely - I have NO idea what the liquor stores pay for it - and as another data point, the bar we go to has it priced at $3 normally - however, there’s $1 Old Style day every day - 1/3 of the normal price seems like a pretty heavy discount to me.

But I’m not a lawyer, nor am I all that bright - so take of that what you will. :smiley:

I meant to use a loss leader as an example. Milk for a $1 or 12 packs of Coke $2.50 just to get you in the store. Why not 12 pack of beer for $8.50 as a loss leader?

I never see specials like that. You never see coupons for beer discounts either.

I know this isn’t quite the same and the bar hasn’t existed for a long time, but one bar here used to have ‘nickel night’ where tap beer was only a nickel a glass. The owner wanted to have free beer night, but the city apparently told him he had to charge something.

Again a long time ago, but not so far back that it was a normal price, we used to be able to buy Schaeffer’s for $2 a 12-pack at the truck stop back home.

In the UK there are loads of sales on beer. Quite often some beers (and other alcohols) are loss leaders.

However - they either are making it illegal in Scotland or are really trying to, I forget exactly what the status is (under the devolved powers and the paternalistic loony left who are in charge of the Scottish government mostly due to everyone in Scotland hating tories, but this is a discussion for another time) . What they are doing is not so much outlawing offers, but introducing minimum pricing depending upon the alcohol strength. It’s a crazy idea but they are pushing ahead with it anyway. In practice, especially since this is Scotland, it’s just meaning that poor people are going to have to give more money to retailers to get drunk (it’s certainly not going to effect drinking much!) and btw this isn’t a tax, it’s an enforced minimum price.

You would have to ask a Scottish doper to tell you the exact rules, I only know what I read in the paper and then ignore because it’s not going to affect me :smiley:

In a previous life, I lived in Utah. There it was illegal to sell beer at a loss. Stores couldn’t sell it for less than they paid for it. Because it was Utah, this law for for the consumers protection. Too many happy people is a bad thing.

One of my local liquor stores has a discount bin for beer and spirits. I’ve seen spirits at 50% off, but beer probably no more than a third off. Binny’s, for example, is having a sale where a 24-can case of Old Style is $10.99 (regular price $15.99). Is that a heavy discount by your metric?

That’s a very good discount. Wish I saw sales like that in Arkansas. But, I never actually walk into a liquor store. I normally buy beer at the grocery or very rarely the drive thru at the liquor store.

I gave up Rum and other hard liquors 20 years ago. Just beer now. A 12 pack lasts me two weeks.

I’ve seen beer on sale in Wisconsin. Not often, but I’ve seen it.

I believe that some jurisdictions, Virginia for one, set minimum prices for cigarettes. Selling addictive vice substances at too low a price can be seen as antisocial. Wouldn’t want to allow stores to hook kids on cigarettes by telling them, “The first pack’s only 50 cents! Give it a try!” There may be a similar attitude toward alcohol.

I think you just hit two critical points out of the ballpark in one at-bat.

[ol]
[li]In any question about whether any aspect of manufacturing, transporting, selling, and consuming alcohol, jurisdiction is critical. Without naming the jurisdiction of interest, the blanket question “Is <aspect of alcohol commerce> illegal?” has to be answered “Yes… someplace. Maybe not where you are, wherever that is.”[/li]
[li]The fact that some bluer-nosed jurisdictions may judge the wicked attraction of vices like demon rum too powerful without high prices to take the edge off is well established. “Sin tax” is a cliche for a good reason.[/li][/ol]

Found this for Arkansas. No rebates or coupons.
So far, I haven’t seen a rule saying you can’t sell below wholesale cost as a loss leader.

http://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/OFFICES/ABC/RULES/Pages/title3SubtitleD.aspx

In SoCal, Ralphs will give you 30% off when you buy 4 6-packs. I’ve also seen it marked down much more on the markdown rack (but it is pretty rare).

Yep. It’s a state by state thing.

For instance-I live in OHIO.

It the whole state, you have to mark up wine and beer 33% over your wholesale cost to sell it, period.

Any sales are instituted by the distributor. They lower your wholesale cost, you can lower the final consumer price.

In WA, you can’t sell alcohol below cost, take coupons, or do “2 for 1” or “Buy 3 get 1 free” type deals.

Mail-in rebates are OK, but all the ones I see are so ridiculous that I doubt anyone ever mails them in. I don’t know the person who buys a 12-pack of Mike’s and a 12-pack of domestic lager in the same shopping trip just to save $2.

There is a liquor store in the plaza near 60th and Silver Spring in Milwaukee that has deep discounts on beer. $2.99 for a sixer of Sam Adams, $5.99 for a 12 pack of Schlitz bottles. $1.99 for a 6 pack of Strohs in cans.

But it’s in somewhat of a shitty neighborhood and across from the public housing projects. So I only go up there every few weeks at the most and get a months supply of brew for under $20!

I bought Moosehead Beer at $2.99 a 12 pack for a week at Albertsons once…About 6 years ago…I was between paydays, otherwise I’d buy all on hand at that price. :eek:

( I only have enough for around 3 cases :frowning: )

Beer (and other alcoholic beverages) pricing is controlled by the states.

I sometimes see cheap beer. Of course, I’ve never seen milk for $1 a gallon around here.