George Verberne, owner of a Jumbo supermarket in the student city of Wageningen, shrugs a little about the new law: “In any case, the law applies to all supermarkets, so we are all confronted with it. It is of course a responsibility that we all together,” he says in the NOS Radio 1 News.
‘Cyclist jumpers’
Beer is an important product for supermarkets. According to Verberne it is “a customer puller, a ‘bicycle jumper’ as we call it. People are willing to take a detour on a bicycle for such an offer. Beer, but also wine of course. Whether it will cost turnover after 1 July? I do not know. The marketing guys are very creative and will come up with things that will bring extra people to the store.”
Will the bike jumper end? “That sounds very dramatic, at least when it comes to beer. Then we have to think of other bicycle jumpers. Delicious fruit and vegetables, bread promotions, for example. Plenty of options.”
Free glasses, cinema tickets
Wim van Dalen of STAP, the Netherlands Institute for Alcohol Policy, already sees the mood coming: that supermarkets or beverage manufacturers such as Heineken, Grolsch or Bavaria will give away free beer glasses or cinema tickets. Just to keep up sales. “Don’t underestimate the industry, neither do the supers. They know very well how to seduce alcohol lovers – and especially people who drink heavy – in other ways.”
STAP is happy with the new Alcohol Act, but according to Van Dalen it is only a first step. “In fact, the sellers and manufacturers can haggle with those prices. That maximum discount of 25 percent will soon be allowed on the formal price. But that is a price that the seller can determine himself. So a case of beer now formally costs 16 euros, then they – the supermarket or manufacturer – will soon be able to make 12 euros of this. And they will cut it. And then the consumer will ultimately pay a much lower price again.”
–
