Supermarket own brand cider is cheaper than water!

Supermarkets are selling beer and cider cheaper than water, their own label cider is so cheap a man can breach his recommended daily alcohol limit for £1 and a woman for 75p

Asda and Tesco have been selling 2 litre bottles of their own-label cider at £2.25, meaning a man could drink more than their recommended daily limit of alcohol for £1 and a woman for 75p.

Asda’s own label cider is cheap, but there is cheaper, Hawksridge cider is just £2.00 for 2 litres = 56p per pint

A Channel 4 Dispatches investigation into cheap alcohol found the cheapest lager was being sold by Tesco, which is selling multipacks of Fosters, Carlsberg and Carling for the equivalent of 69p a pint. Tesco’s 750ml bottle of Perrier was on sale at 73p a pint – as of noon 23rd June.

Recent government figures said alcohol related harm is costing the country more than £21bn a year through crime, accidents and disease.

Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester,Garry Sherwan, told the programme:

“I would encourage supermarkets to think very closely about how we balance their commitment and their ability to trade freely with an understanding that alcohol, particularly cheap, strong alcohol… is misused in this country leads to significant levels of disorder and violence.”

Dr Nick Sheron, one of the countries’ leading hepatologists said:

“People’s personalities haven’t changed in the last 30 years, you know, human nature hasn’t changed, what’s changed is their environment. What’s changed is that they’re having cheap booze pushed at them by retailers… and their priority is to increase their profitability.”

Two weeks before the World Cup, the government brought in a scheme aimed at curbing cheap alcohol before the finals in Rio.

The new scheme which bans alcohol being sold below cost demands retailers use a complex formula based on alcohol duty and VAT to work out a floor price.

It means that a typical can of 4% lager can’t be sold for less than 40p, a bottle of wine for under £2.24 or a standard bottle of vodka for less than £8.87.

However campaigners argue that this measure is ineffective as hardly any drinks are sold below this price.

The Cost of Cheap Alcohol: Channel 4 Dispatches airs tonight Monday 30 June at 8:00pm on Channel 4.