Whaaaa??? [mind almost explodiating!] I've never seen a gallon of vodka for 79 cents. I must be shopping at the wrong stores.

Maybe for "brand name mineral water" but surely there's a free tap water fountain in there?

I have to say though this summer I did go to a town event locally by me (in IL) where there was cheeeeeeap, cheeeeeap beer (a good thing!), no water spigots in the venue (outside), and bottled water costing more than the beer, that did surprise me. Usually here in the US there has to be water available in the venue cheaper than the beer.

Solution? Free water truck like they have at other local events. Keep the cheap beer just as it is :)

That's it. I'm moving to the UK!

I get half drunk every time I go through Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport for this very reason. .5L bottle of Coke: 4+ euros, .5L bottle of water: 3+ euros, big-ass can of Heineken or Amstel: 2.50 euros. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying.

Who buys all of their drinking water from a super market?

/Don't even tell me...

The problem isn't cheap beer, it's expensive water fer chrissakes. Lower the price of the water rather than raise the price of beer.

I have a water filter at home. Once a month, I splurge and buy a six pack of Diet Coke or Diet Dr Pepper and save the bottles to be refilled.

The people who dreamed up bottled water - and got away with it - are geniuses. Or people are just idiots ;)

Water? Like out of the toilet?

I have to p now.

So the cheap beer is less than the expensive water? BFD. Talk about manufactured outrage.

OMG! You can buy liquor ^ for less than air ^! Think of the children!

NewportBarGuy: SpinStopper: Once a month, I splurge and buy a six pack of Diet Coke or Diet Dr Pepper and save the bottles to be refilled.

Try Gatorade bottles, they work for me.

YMMV

My wife likes Diet Coke and Diet Dr Pepper. Gotta keep the wife happy ;)

8 pints for 5 quid? That doesn't look like a steal to me.

SpinStopper: The problem isn't cheap beer, it's expensive water fer chrissakes. Lower the price of the water rather than raise the price of beer.

Bottled water turned into a multi-billion dollar business over the last 10 years.
I seriously doubt we're going to see the price of it go down.
It's also an incredible waste to burn fuel moving water around.

Today I was at a family Christmas party. It was myself and my wife, dad and step mom, step sister and her future husband, my niece and several friends.

My step-sister's boyfriend and I were drinking a Shiner Bock each when my niece (who is 8) told us that we shouldn't be drinking because alcohol is a drug and it's wrong to do drugs.

They are so cute at that age.

I wonder what she says to her parents. My sister and that asshole she married. Given that they drink like a fish, spend more on Virginia Slims than they do on food and buy and sell weed from their home, I wonder how often my niece has told them that doing 'drugs' is wrong. Or maybe she looks at her mother/my sister and sees just how farked up that woman is and is trying to make sure we don't go down that path.

"Alcohol now costs less than water in British supermarkets"

I don't see a problem here...

More like a "bloody Mary" huge problem to me...

If bottled water costs more than beer, obviously the problem is that the water is too damn expensive. Not the other way around. I mean, it's water for christ sake. What kind of moron thinks that the problem with that pricing scenario is with the beer?

Speaking for myself though, I get quality water for practically free (run tap water into the Brita pitcher), and usually am willing to put up a few extra bucks for a local craft brew. The problem with cheap beer isn't that it's cheap, it's just that it isn't usually very good.

After reading TFA, it seems that supermarkets are selling beer at a loss.
Good for them.

Doc Daneeka: If bottled water costs more than beer, obviously the problem is that the water is too damn expensive. Not the other way around. I mean, it's water for christ sake. What kind of moron thinks that the problem with that pricing scenario is with the beer?

Came here to say this.

/Bottled water selling for more than a dollar is a sham
//Correction; bottled water itself is a sham
///And Lewis Black agrees

Maybe they should start selling the water for less. Maybe that would make people healthier.

All is right in the world.

It is impossible to find ice in Britain. They either hoard it, or don't know how to make it.

"Nanny State" still beats Pennsylvania, even with the Prohibitionist campaigning. The cost of buying things like a simple sixpack were ridiculous in that state.

Of course, PA's rednecks were less annoying than yobs, chavs, and the like appear from every other story that emerges from Britain

/hated "beer distributors" and the headaches of scaling beer purchases
//rednecks don't beat up non-rednecks nearly as often as the brit-tribes, anecdotally

Fish do naughty, naughty things in water, but ethanol is just yeast poop. I try not to think about these things too deeply.

meth > alcohol

When I was in France it was cheaper to buy alcoholic cider than water by a decent amount

signaljammer: Fish do naughty, naughty things in water, but ethanol is just yeast poop. I try not to think about these things too deeply.

So do people but I still drink the water. And the beer. It's almost like I'm making my immune system stronger by exposing it to fish splooge

ps: CHEAP PISS FOR THE WIN!

Great Janitor: My step-sister's boyfriend and I were drinking a Shiner Bock each when my niece (who is 8) told us that we shouldn't be drinking because alcohol is a drug and it's wrong to do drugs.

Proszit!

itazurakko: Maybe for "brand name mineral water" but surely there's a free tap water fountain in there?

I have to say though this summer I did go to a town event locally by me (in IL) where there was cheeeeeeap, cheeeeeap beer (a good thing!), no water spigots in the venue (outside), and bottled water costing more than the beer, that did surprise me. Usually here in the US there has to be water available in the venue cheaper than the beer.

Solution? Free water truck like they have at other local events. Keep the cheap beer just as it is :)

You sound like you live downstate. Just teasing you. I wish Chicago had the similar "problem" with their events. But the CPD doesn't really care if you BYOB as long as you aren't blatent about it. A gallon thermos full of vodka lemonade at a free concert at the Taste? Not a problem.

Lligeret: But the problem is the alcohol.

Well, if the alcohol were sold for a loss similar to gasoline being sold below in order to entice customers this can be an issue. I wonder, too, if the ability to keep alcohol, and understand we are speaking about the cheapest of booze, outweighs the resources placed in its manufacture compared to water. Not to say water companies do not gouge for what is effectively metal-tinged tap.

Is this a recent development, or was I at the wrong stores?

/lived on their bottled water for over a month
//wouldn't have drank water at all if I saw cheaper booze

Whats with all the fugly british money amounts in the article, didn't they switch to the euro?

What is conveniently ignored from these scare stories is that if you look at the back of the supermarket "value" brands of lager they are moaning about, the alcoholic strength is something like 2%. Yes its cheap but it's also piss water. Most stores would do quite drinkable own brand premium beers with normal alcohol levels but then again they cost more.

kidsizedcoffin: Whats with all the fugly british money amounts in the article, didn't they switch to the euro?

not so much... nor Sweden, nor Denmark

Link (new window)

/yes, it's wiki, but it's a graphix

Alcoholic beverages cheaper than plain water? Oh, don't tease me!

I remember the gas shortage during the seventies that bottled water was catching on and selling for more a gallon than gas. Nobody was complaining about the price of the water.

Actually my beef about the gas wasn't so much the price but more in the getting it.

Sidi Slimane, Morrocco 1955.

NCO mess hall sign, To conserve water beer shall be served with the friday and weekend meals.

Laje AFB, Azores, Portugal NCO mess, For the convenience of members the package store shall remain open 24 hours a day.

Pucker was being a passenger on a C54 doing a night GCa into Lajes in the fog.

I'm sure this is cheaper than water:



/doesn't buy bottled water so he wouldn't know

It is very difficult to argue that human consumption of alcohol hasn't tributes to human's ability to make alcohol. Wars are made of trading. Not wars and or peace.

brigid_fitch: //And still have to figure out how to dig out from 10" of snow tomorrow

Scoop and lift with the knees and shoulders with a straight back. Take a 10 minute break every 20 minutes, wear appropriate clothing and wait for the plow to clear the street before you bother with the bottom of the driveway (and mailbox if you are rural). The plow drivers seem to get an unusually sadistic pleasure in covering over freshly shoveled driveways and mailboxes.

Alternatively, go in with your neighbors and buy a snowblower together.

RamblinReck89: I'm sure this is cheaper than water:



/doesn't buy bottled water so he wouldn't know

water tastes better too