The end of the booze cruise?In June 2010 there were many articles announcing the end of the booze cruise in the British press. We responded on our blog at the time and archive our comments here, they remain valid. 20th June - More cr*p from the British Grocery trade. It's rubbish, believe me, I know. As regular as clockwork the British Grocery trade tries to suggest the booze cruise is over. Their "stories" appear before the summer and Xmas peak times, no doubt designed to put people off shopping where it is still very much cheaper. Last year they used John Smith Beer as an example of how it is now cheaper to shop at home. John Smiths is not widely available in France, and on top of that they were comparing it with a limited period offer at home. Before Xmas we had stories about buying champagne at home. Just three weeks later when I compared the same promotions it was 20% cheaper in France! Now they are rehashing news that is old. Sainsbury's announced it was going to close some months ago as did Tesco. Oddbins closed before Xmas, but that's because the owners wanted more independence, and have now opened a new store. The loss of Sainsbury's is marginal as this was a joint operation with Auchan Supermarket anyway. Seems British companies were there when they could make loads of money, and now want to pull out, just as the better exchange rate brings people back into Calais. Readers may wish to know that the most profitable stores Tesco and Sainsbury's had were in ... Calais! We are working on a detailed response to the nonsense they peddle. 21st June - Why do the media just reprint press releases without doing any research? Lots of articles in many newspapers and radio about the end of the booze cruise. We are amazed people don't bother checking things out. We have just one request for an interview. Daily Mail. www.dailymail.co.uk The Sun. www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3021378/End-of-Calais-booze-cruise.html The Grocer. www.thegrocer.co.uk The BBC - news.bbc.co.uk Did they close too soon? With the exchange rate and budget we think did. www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink www.thegrocer.co.uk 22nd June - Our response to the "end of the booze cruise" stories Cheap does not mean good value - the end result is pricing which fuels binge drinking not wine appreciation. A bottle of reasonable wine in France costs as much as a small glass in a U.K. pub. Pound for pound you get an awful lot more wine in France per bottle than in the U.K. according to wine writer Keith Reeves (www.keithreeveswinewriter.co.uk/wine-writing/budget - he calculated that a bottle of wine costing £3.99 would, after all the costs involved deducted, contain just 30 pence worth of wine). In France you would get about £1.90 worth of wine at least. Spend £7.98 in the U.K. and you get £3 worth of wine, in France £4.60 (53% more wine). Choice is severely restricted in the U.K. as supermarkets oblige shoppers to buy what they want to sell you (i.e. what they get cheap). The average price of a bottle of wine in the U.K. is falling, despite increases in duty. With a week pound and rising costs, quality suffers as a result. Excise duty on wine in the U.K. has increased by 20% in the last year. The weak pound has added about 17% to the cost of a bottle of wine imported (compared with November 2007). The range available is considerably greater in France. The choice of wines, especially French, is very considerably larger in French supermarkets and independent wine shops. To save money, draw up a list of what you want, check the U.K. prices, you can still save massive amounts of money. Make sure you get the best value daytrip ticket. Buying wine in a French supermarket generally means buying something local. In the U.K. it usually means something from the other side of the world. Independent wine shops in France are likely to have tasted the wines they sell and you will most likely find something worthwhile. An offer is an opportunity to try something new in France, in the U.K. it is price driven in a way which denigrates both the brand and the market, and forces shoppers to buy the latest deal, with little or no brand loyalty and no scope for developing their interest in wine. (Earlier this month E and J Gallo Winery, which makes wines including Carlo Rossi and Turning Leaf, said that it will continue trimming back its range in the U.K. in 2010, as high levels of promotions and the "savage" tax regime make the U.K. a tough place to do business.) Deals in the U.K. are short term, prices rebound quickly shortly afterwards. Half price offers are often marketing ploys not real offers. British consumer law allows a company to offer a product at a high price in a remote shop, and then market that product as a 50% off offer based on that high price in one store. (Guy Woodward, editor of Decanter magazine, says: "Don't buy discounted wine in supermarkets. If it says "£4.99 reduced from £7.99" you can be pretty certain it never would have sold at £7.99.") Lower alcohol prices (mostly time limited offers) in the U.K. have more to do with a lowering of quality than anything else. Taking into account rising costs, a considerably weaker pound and higher than inflation tax increase, British shoppers are worse off. The trade off involved in cheaper prices is a lower quality. Cheap British wines marketed to compete with the Booze cruise, are lower in alcohol content and more likely to be thin and astringent. If people want to cross the channel to buy booze that has been exported from the U.K. what do you expect in terms of price? The perception that because the savings are not as great it is not worth going is self damaging. If the savings on wine for example, are still 30 to 60% on U.K. prices, even at current exchange rates, it is still worth going. Only a Customs Officer or British Grocery trade representative would argue that because the savings have fallen, it is not worth travelling even though considerable sums can still be saved. Articles sometimes talk of higher ferry fares, quoting a foot passenger fare from years ago against the current car fare price. Historically fares are low compared with ten years ago, and considerably so. When Day-tripper.net started in 1999 a daytrip costs £64. Today it can be had from £25 and sometimes even lower. The British media talk of cost when value is more important when it comes to wine. The outlook is good news for booze cruisers. Alcohol taxes are already planned to go up by inflation plus 2% for the next 5 years. In real terms wine prices will increase by at least 10% over the next five years. Many shops in Calais offer good exchange rates, offering further savings if you pay with sterling cash. To make it financially worthwhile though, you may need to buy more, and be more selective than in previous years. A recent survey (May 2010) by Daytripper.net showed than comparing 22 wines, average savings of 44% could be made by shopping in Calais. 24th June - Beer prices France vs U.K. More articles in the press about the "end of the booze" cruise. Trouble is whenever we check we find the savings are still huge. www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1289919/Tesco-sells-lager-cost.html The Daily Mail article suggested Tesco were selling 24 cans of Stella for £10. Checking the website today, we see the offer is £10 per 12 cans, not 24. The offer is "buy two cases of 12 for £16". Even at this price, which is on only for one week, Calais is cheaper. At Pidou in Calais, Stella is on offer at £7.02 for a case of 24 x 25cl bottles. This works out at 23% cheaper per litre than Tesco offer, and their offer has been on for over six weeks. *** UPDATE *** We e-mailed Tesco to ask if they ever had a £10 for 24 cans offer, and they told us they did not. Interestingly Sainsbury's U.K. have 24 x 44cl cans for sale at £23.01. If you are a Sainsbury shopper you will therefore save 46% per litre just by crossing the channel on a day trip. Interestingly, many of the offers in the U.K. are cheap because they are lower strength. We notice that many of the offers are for 4% alcohol not the usual 5.2%. As with all too good to be true offers, we advise shoppers to check the "use by date". 27th June - More sloppy journalism? Our blood boils when we read articles about booze cruising. It seems clear that most journalists do a google search and write an article based on that information. Quotes from Eastenders, which are very old, are currently being used. Eastenders is a shadow of it previous self and does not represent Calais booze cruise shops anymore. Talk of the weak pound (25% down on a few years ago apparently) crop up, even though at current rates it is 13% down. Selective, limited period offers are quoted as if they represent the whole situation in the U.K., when prices vary considerably, and once the "special offer" is over (usually after a week or so), prices rocket. Readers of this blog will know about the Champagnes prices issue before Xmas (articles suggested it was cheaper in the U.K. but just three weeks later we found you would save 20 - 40% in France). | 
- Andros premium fruit Juices. 
- Le Creuset in particular is cheaper in France. 
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- Ooshop, for French prices (this is Carrefours online delivery service and useful for a rough guide to French prices. Use postcode 95830 to gain access. In French). 
- Telemarket, mostly for around Paris but comprehensive. 
- France to your Door. French food and goods delivered to your United Kingdom address.