From AOL Fanhouse:
AOL blogger Enrico Campitelli Jr. has engaged in fine piece of hands-on investigative journalism.
Campitelli was able to buy SIX cups of Budweiser and two ice creams at the Olympic track and field events last night for a total of $5.75 (that’s right: all that for under six bucks.)
Prices are supposedly incredibly reasonable in China. NBC recently ran a story that an Olympic package including a roundtrip flight and week’s hotel stay cost about $950.
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Beer giants Miller and Coors are merging.
Miller, based in Milwaukee, and Molson Coors, based in Golden, Colo., announced they would form MillerCoors to market and distribute their beers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico.
THIS BUD’S FOR EU
Belgian brewer InBev has made a $46 billion buyout offer to Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewery in America. The makers of Budweiser are not commenting on the CASH offer (which may be too good for the company to pass up) other than to say,
“The board will pursue the course of action that is in the best interests of Anheuser-Busch’s stockholders.”
Uh oh.
Local politicians are panicking over the possible sale and a website called www.savebudweiser.com has been set up to stop the sale.
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A South Chicago man has taken his love of beer to new heights. Like six feet under.
Bill Bramanti, 67, has designed a special coffin for himself shaped like a beer can. The coffin has the logo of his favorite beer-Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Bramanti even threw a party Saturday for friends and filled his silver coffin — designed in Pabst’s colors of red, white and blue — with ice and his favorite brew.
“I actually fit, because I got in here,” said Bramanti.
With 60’s styles chants of, “No Taxation on Intoxication!” a group of about 50 college students protested outside the office of California Assemblyman, Jim Beall, yesterday. The students were protesting Beall’s proposed tax on California’s beer.
The tax would add almost $2 to the price of a six pack. A San Francisco State University student leading the protest, says the tax unfairly burdens poor college students, who often drink beer to relax at the end of a long day of school and work.
The San Diego Union Tribune ran a groundbreaking article this weekend.
Turns out that not only is the beer being sold at ballparks a ripoff (20 oz. beers at Petco park sell for $ 8.50) but THE BEER IS INTENTIONALLY DILUTED. The paper discovered the Padres are selling low alcohol 3.2 beer to its customers. (Most beer is 4 percent alcohol by weight.) 3.2 beer was actually developed before the Depression as a means of appeasing prohibitionists.
The Padres are not required to divulge the alcohol content of the beer they sell.
When confronted by the newspaper, the Padres not only admitted the ripoff but concede THEY’VE BEEN DOING IT FOR YEARS. The San Diego paper found out:
Padres officials say lower-alcohol beer, like higher prices, is part of an “alcohol management plan,” meant to keep fans from overindulging. They also say it’s common practice in the sports industry and hardly limited to Petco.
GREAT! I’d feel lots better if EVERY ballpark was ripping off fans.
And while the Padres are sticking to the “public safety” argument, MONEY is probably the bottom line. The difference in cost for the low alcohol beer is 32 percent. A keg of Budweiser Select goes for $76, according to California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control records. The 3.2 percent version of Bud Select runs $52.
The Union Tribune interviewed a couple of consumer advocates for the story. The first COMPARED BASEBALL TO OIL COMPANIES in its efforts to gouge the public. The second from a Santa Monica based consumer watchdog group said,
“It’s just another example of companies fleecing the public,” Consumers are facing higher prices not only for necessities such as gasoline and food, but also while enjoying a simple baseball game, he said. “Where does it end?”
The consumer advocate recommended fans lodge complaints with any team that is selling the watered down beer.
A San Jose Democrat yesterday proposed raising the tax on beer by $1.80 per six-pack, or 30 cents per can or bottle. The current tax is 2 cents per can. That’s an increase of about 1,500 percent
Jim Beall said the tax would generate $2 billion a year to fund health care services, crime prevention and programs to prevent underage drinking and addiction.
And, if you think that’s bad for Joe Sixpack, think of the cost to bar owners. Estimates are the proposed new tax would raise the tax on a barrel of beer from $ 6.40 to over $ 89.
