Drink giants' plans to fuel binge Britain

[mr blur]

<snip>
£20,000 bonuses for pub managers who exceed targets
· Staff race to sell more shots

Gaby Hinsliff and Anushka Asthana
Sunday October 23, 2005
The Observer

The drinks industry is planning a ruthless campaign of economic incentives and psychological tricks to get customers to drink as much as possible when licensing laws are relaxed, The Observer can reveal.

Managers of massive 'vertical drinking' pubs are being offered bonuses worth up to £20,000 a year if they beat targets as the industry moves to exploit Britain's binge drinking culture.

Managers are so concerned about the consequences of the pressure to sell that they have laid bare a litany of tricks and sharp practices that will be used to maximise profits once 24-hour opening is legalised next month. </snip>

Great. Who needs a gun culture? We can just encourage them all to get even more drunk and beat each other to death.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1598732,00.html

[non sociopath skin]

1. Depressing ...

... but not surprising. The Northern European penchant for using alcohol as heavy drug rather than a mild stimulant taken with meals continues to depress me.

I do believe that the liberalisation of UK drinking laws was a genuine attempt by a government, most of whose members are not the brightest lights on the Christmas tree, to cut back on the binge drinking mentality. But it's going to need thinking that's a lot further outside the box to crack this particular problem.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. A bit of honesty from the managers' association

The industry was within its rights to make a profit, Daley said, but the big chains must recognise they could not treat alcohol like any other product: 'The difference between us and other selling operations is that we are selling a drug,' he said.

Now, if the manufacturers and chains would approach it like that, there might not be so much of a problem.