"Sir John Howard" wrote in message
news:2370ebbe-1c1f-4605-b723-f71551cea3c7@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...
> Alcopop thefts soar since tax jump
>
> http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/alcopop-thefts-soar-since-tax-jump/2008/05/07/1210131068841.html
>
> LESS than two weeks after the Government ramped up the tax to curb
> binge-drinking, "alcopops" are walking off the shelves - illegally.
>
> Some bottle shop owners in Sydney's south-west are reporting a surge
> in theft, not only of the so-called "ready-to-drink" mixes, which are
> small and easy to conceal, but also the 700-millilitre bottles of
> spirits that many young people appear to be switching to as an
> alternative.
>
> Vel Tanaskoski, the co-owner of Glenfield Cellars, calculated that
> thefts of individual alcopops had run into several cases over the past
> few days, not including some cans that were recovered from individuals
> as they tried to leave the store.
>
> "As soon as the price went up the stealing went up dramatically," he
> said. "It's pointless to report it to the police. It's like the law's
> on their side."
>
> Ready-to-drink products account for as much as 30 per cent of Mr
> Tanaskoski's total sales, and he estimated that the 70 per cent
> increase in tax, sprung by the Federal Government with little warning
> two weekends ago, would force him to raise alcohol prices across the
> board to cover costs.
>
> At Guildford Cellars, the proprietor, Bobby Singh, said storing all
> the ready-to-drink products in refrigerators clearly visible from the
> front counter had not been a deterrent to theft. He had, however,
> caught two young people trying to shoplift the products in the past
> week.
>
> "I talk to them out the back and say, 'Give them back, and please
> don't come here any more'," said Mr Singh, who has also noticed an
> increase in purchases of 700 millilitre bottles of Scotch and two-
> litre bottles of Coke by his younger clientele.
>
> Rex Newaz, of Prestons Village Liquor, said he too had noticed a
> sudden change in his younger customers' buying patterns.
>
> "The [ready-to-drink products] have slowed down a bit, but they're
> just buying more spirits," he said.
>
> Terry Mott, the chief executive of the Liquor Stores Association, said
> that while his office had yet to receive any figures indicating
> increased income loss through theft, there was evidence that sales of
> full-strength spirits were rising among the under-25s.
>
> "What the Government has done has encouraged young people to mix
> without measuring, and they can be quite reckless in their measuring.
> At least the number of standard drinks were on the side of the [ready-
> to-drink] bottle. It's pushing the trend back the other way, and it's
> not in the interests of curbing excessive alcohol consumption," he
> said.
>
> ----------------------------------
>
> You'd have to be a typical labour-voting leftie retard not to have
> seen this coming! Ha ha ha!
Another leftie retard is the Health Minister Nicola Rocks-Off. Talk about an
L-plater.
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