Minimum Pricing Will Likely Raise All Prices Quite A Bit

They say a rising tide lifts all boats, and this may be a saying that will apply to minimum unit pricing in the near future.

Minimum unit pricing will mean that you'll be hard pushed to find a can of beer for less than €2, and a bottle of spirits for less than €25, based on their percentages of alcohol. Even when buying bulk offers, the price won't dip much below the mentioned prices.

Already, just days after the introduction of MUP, prices are exceeding the mandatory minimum, unsurprisingly. While in a supermarket doing some shopping, I took a detour into the segregated alcohol section, only to find 6,8, and 12 packs quite a bit above the MUP. The only value I found, and I use that term lightly, was with full slabs and boxes of 20 bottles.

Then I took a turn into the spirits section, cheaper own brands had disappeared, and as a regular whiskey drinker, I noticed that the prices had risen sharply over the past week. A bottle of my beloved Jameson now just shy of €30.

It was the same situation in the wine section, cheaper brands gone (great for a spritzer or Kalimoxho), and hard pushed to find a bottle for a single digit price, despite the MUP being roughly €7 for a bottle of wine.

If this is what is happening in the first week of Minimum Unit Pricing, what will things look like in 2023, or even by the end of the year? If Dutch Gold costs €2 per can, will a Heineken cost the same price, or will they use MUP to their advantage and charge €2.50 or more? If own brand whiskeys are €22, will a bottle of Crested Ten all of a sudden become €40? As I said, a rising tide lifts all boats.

And while the Government have interfered with the market to sucker-punch the working class once again, they dare not interfere with the freedoms afforded to the rental market, with loose, weak rent-caps, or the ever spiralling cost of fuel, or the creeping privatisation of our health service.