. . . . . I would go much further than minimum pricing and look into things like advertising, regulations on where it can be placed in shops and even try and rein back the number of shops that are allowed to sell alcohol and how much.
In my opinion, Marin's remarks are pretty much spot on.
Alcohol is more widely available than it was years ago and there is also much more choice than previously . . . and it's a lot cheaper now, in relative terms.
I remember that in the '70s, alcohol was sold almost entirely in pubs or off-licences. Off-licences had restricted opening hours - as did pubs actually. I can well remember closing at 10.30 pm in the week and 11pm on Fridays & Saturdays. It was only in the late 80s, that pubs were allowed to open on weekday afternoons and it wasn't until the mid 90s, that afternoon drinking was permitted on Sundays.
Back in the 70s, supermarkets sold very little in the way of alcohol and drinks such as Bacardi Breezers & WKD simply didn't exist. If you wanted a drink at home, you were pretty much limited to that cheap 'plonk' that you brought back from your holiday, or perhaps some homebrew.
If you did decide to go out for a drink, there was little choice, other than to go to your local - where most people would drink beer. In the late 70s, I can well remember a particular group of guys buying a round; 4 of the 5 had a beer, the 5th meekly asked if he could have a whisky - he was 'ribbed' mercilessly, 'cos a measure of whisky (any spirit) cost more than a pint . . . . . whereas in 90s and onwards, spirits have become much cheaper than beer. In mid 70s, bitter was 25 - 30p a pint, whisky was about 33 -35p a measure; it doesn't sound much, but back then, people certainly noticed the difference !
IMO, things changed in the mid/late 80s (& onwards), when supermarkets started to offer
much more choice and
much more cheap alcohol. Hard to believe, but a publican actually has to pay virtually the same wholesale prices for his bottled beers, spirits and soft drinks, as you would pay at a supermarket. For example, for a publican, the price of a small bottle of Coca Cola/Pepsi is a 'rip-off', so we stopped selling it. Like many others, we resorted to buying the huge bottles of Coca Cola from the supermarket and we'd then pour it into our own Coca Cola dispensing tanks - 'cos to buy the replacement tanks from Coca Cola was far more expensive. Fortunately, being a freehouse, we could buy from whom we wished and Coca Cola never 'twigged' to our scheme.
Another problem that arose around this time, was the rise in number of clubs & 'bottle bars'; people got wise to the fact, that you could get a 'late' license if you had a designated dance floor. The smallest places realised that if they made the bar smaller they'd have the room to put in a tiny dance floor and they could then serve till the early hours.
Drinks such as bottled Budweiser/Becks etc., became very popular. New drinks were invented, which had the optimum ratio of alcohol to volume. If you (anyone) want to get drunk quickly & cheaply, drinking beer is
not the best way - too much volume and not enough alcohol.
Nowadays, it is easy (
& cheap) to buy half pint bottles of booze ('alcopops' etc) which is (approx.) 5 -10% abv - many swig vast quantities of this kind of product. Add to this, the rise in popularity of drinks in the range of 15-18% abv - about the optimum strength to go straight into the bloodstream and make you intoxicated
very quickly. As I've already mentioned, such drinks just didn't exist previously.
So in a nutshell, alcohol is too widely available and too cheap.
Which is a very good thing. It's sad that so many pubs are closing because they can't compete with supermarkets, and bad that people get plastered at home when a good landlord might be a steadying influence.
I have to agree with Spire's comment
, 'cos I'm obviously biased towards publicans
. To put it another way though, too many places such as supermarkets & clubs, sell alcohol without any consideration towards the customer; for them, it is merely a transaction. A (good) publican
should be aware of a customer getting close to their limit. Some may find it hard to believe, but drunks are an absolute nuisance in a pub; most in my experience, have gotten 'tanked-up' at home,
before venturing out.
I've lost count of the number of customers that I've taken home, 'cos I've not wanted them to risk either their health or their licence - paid off though, 'cos they appreciate it and become good regulars.
IMO, the number of off-sales should be restricted and the sale of alcohol should solely provided by the responsible landlord in his pub.
