Gullibility and Hoodwinkery

I was shopping on the whisky exchange for Caol Ila Cask strength, as my cousin will be stopping in London in December, and when I opened my 200 cc bottlein august I just had to get another, it's THAT good.

There were two different batches. The one I had tasted came in 200 cc bottles for GBP 20.00, and the other batch was 700 cc for GBP 80. Now they only have 2 different catches at 700 cc for 90 GBP.

Ok, I get that it's expensive for a NAS malt, even at CS, but the point was that I could get 800 cc (4 bottles) for the price of the larger bottle, that's 100 cc more. And the convenience of opening the bottles separately so the contents remain fresh over time.

@Jonesz, imbalances and distortions are common in the whisky world. I've posted this story before:

At 0630 hrs on a Sunday morning (2 years ago) I was amazed to see Talisker 57 Degrees North at the auto duty free in Niagara Falls, Ontario. I bought 3 of the 8 bottles on display at Can $ 67 per Litre. A few weeks later Talisker 57 Degrees North was being sold by the LCBO in their stores for $ 175 for 700 ml.

$67/Litre vs $ 250/Litre in the same province.

@Nozinan The 200 ml size is one I think perfect for sampling as well. Smaller sizes than that sometimes leave me trying to figure a whisky out. Too bad the only dram we have here in Manitoba in that size is a pack of Glenlivet 12,15 & 18. But I get your point on the price you paid for 4 X 200 ml bottles vs the 700 ml size.

@Victor I get the imbalance thing and am not trying to say that all retailers should be obliged to sell at a fair price. The LCBO appears to be notorious for overcharging but the Tali example you quote is way out of whack. I have been pricing Balvenie 21 Portwood lately and found that while it was $229. here in Manitoba it is almost $120. higher in Ontario (one province away) What I don't get is ex. a retailer having the cajones to price a half bottle higher than a full bottle. I am assuming these bottles are displayed in the same area of the store. The full bottles are regular not sale or clearance items. Must make the cashier smile when someone plunks down a half bottle at the till. We really must have become a society that relies on our electronic devices instead of our brains. BTW I will take one of those Tali 57s off your hands at the purchase price if you have too many in your bunker! Terrific buy. Jonesz

@Jonesz

I agree the 200 cc is a good size. In fact I wish more expressions came that way. While I like full size for my favourites, I prefer smaller to maximize my exploration of whisky.

Aside from being a better price, because I was able to get a few, they might make good gifts...

I think the most out-of-whack (or "least in whack," if you like) pricing I've seen within a single store was Redbreast at the good bottle shop in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. I believe the regular 12 YO was $65, while the 12 YO Cask Strength was over the special shelf and priced all of $1 higher.

I think this is a case of just having a stupid high price on the standard 12, but come on—$1 more for the CS? No contest.

@OlJas Yes the Redbreast 12 is $43.35 Cdn here that equates to just over $38 US. Maybe we do get the odd bargain in the hinterlands.

@OlJas I see the RB 12 is $49 in Arizona, have never seen the CS in our parts. Would gladly pay an Xtra dollar for it though.

@Jonesz, yeah, I think you've got a good price on the Redbreast there. The shop I alluded to was pricing it high, but not crazy-high for my area (southern Wisconsin). I don't think anyone around here sells it for anything under (or even that close to) $50 US.

Redbreast 12 in the UK is 38 pds, or 69 cdn. We get get great deal here on that product. Meanwhile other great products are cheap there for instance Tali10 can be had for 29 pds, here $85. BTW Jonesz Redbreast is back in stock!

Here is one more story of price anomaly. I assume this situation was due to some sort of bureacratic error which occurs when governments get into the whisky business...like maybe discovering old stock in a warehouse and then selling it at the old acquisition prices, rather than the current market prices. Three years ago Talisker 10 yo was being listed and sold for $ 49 and change, plus tax, here. At the same time Talisker 18 yo appeared in stock listed at $ 48 and change.

I marched down to my closest store and bought 8 bottles of Talisker 18. Two of the store clerks, seeing the Talisker 18 disappearing, set aside for themselves the two remaining bottles which I had not purchased. One of my 8 bottles went to @thecyclingyogi, a couple I swapped, and the rest I am drinking.

With 8 (non-sale price) bottles I needed 4 more to get the "case price", an 8 % discount, almost nullifying the 9% sales tax here. I quickly spotted 3 bottles of Elijah Craig 18 yo at about $ 33 each and threw in a Kentucky Gentleman for 8 bucks to round out the dozen.

Overall, after tax, those Talisker 18s cost me a few cents less than $ 50 each.

Since then Talisker 18 is more than double those prices here. Elijah Craig 18 yo (from the old distillery) is now a collector's item.

@Victor I recently picked up a Talisker 18 in Fargo, my jaw actually dropped because they had it. I believe I paid in the neighborhood of $140 for it. A bargain I felt as that's about the same price I pay for it in the UK. So in short I am very jealous of your Talisker 18 purchase. If we could only go back in Time.

THe Talisker 57 cost me BP 74 at World of Whiskies at Heathrow. I think they mispalces the 1 in front of the 67 !

Remember that the price a retailer has something for sale at isn't a declaration of what that thing is "worth". There can be any number of reasons why prices of any items vary in a way that seems illogical to the consumer.

Retailers can calculate a margin based on their cost price, and they can re-price periodically based on market rates (e.g. pricing retail bottles based on auction prices), or pass on a cost price increase from their wholesaler (even though the cost price of the stock in inventory was lower than that of a new delivery).

Manufacturers can set an RRP based on where they want their product positioned, and that'll include some margin for the retailer, but outside of that it's more or less in the retailer's hands what they want to do - and short of asking them it's often hard to understand why they've done something.

Sometimes they'll cut the retail price to run out the last stock of an item, if that's the way they operate, because the shelf space is worth more to them than something that didn't sell at a particular margin.

There's economies of scale for a manufacturer doing a larger or smaller production run, retail chains or consortiums can have their own bulk buying discounts, there's promotional rates from suppliers, there's local taxes & import duties, there's different distribution costs based on where the retailer's located and what relationships the wholesaler's formed in that region... and then there's straight-out pricing mistakes that can happen at any link in the chain and affect everything forward of that.

Little wonder you get weird price variations, eh?

All adding up to the conclusion that without operating in an environment where all prices are centrally controlled, it's little wonder that the price of anything resembles the price of the same thing at any other point on the Earth.

My attitude is that if I see a ridiculously low price for something, rather than assume that all of the other prices are an attempt to deceive the consumer I just gleefully grab my bargain and walk home whistling happily.