“There is no point in bothering with moonshine”: Russians were told about the pre-New Year situation with alcohol

Although the New Year is still two months away, alcohol retailers are already signaling a shortage of popular foreign brands that may not be on the holiday table. The reason is Western sanctions on the supply of certain types of alcohol to Russia. What to do and how to be? Is it really worth it for lovers of elite varieties of strong spirits to urgently run to alcohol stores in order to stock up on French cognac and Jamaican rum for the future, without waiting for the last bottles?

Wholesale and retail are already sounding the alarm. And there is a reason. Stocks of elite hard alcohol in Russian retailers (whiskey, rum, gin, French cognac) have almost run out.

But this is only one side of the problem. Another: demand for sparkling wines and Scotch whiskey has increased in restaurants and retail. There’s nothing you can do – you can’t forbid living beautifully.

Yes, that’s the trouble: under the influence of anti-Russian sanctions, many popular brands left our market purely in English, without saying goodbye. Although, most likely, they lost a lot on this demarche. After all, their products were bought up literally “from the wheels.” They didn’t have time to clear it through customs and stick excise stamps on it, as it was immediately transported to shops.

Domestic suppliers, understanding the importance of the moment, do not sit idly by. During these hot pre-holiday days, champagne was ordered four times more than usual volumes, and whiskey was ordered 70% more than the “average”.

However, there is practically no hope that these orders will be fulfilled. Some brands of champagne, especially loved by the people, will not be at all. Already now we need to think about how they can be replaced. Only small French winegrowers are left as suppliers to Russia, who cooperate with us in spite of all the sanctions. But their production is not able to quench the New Year’s thirst of Russians.

And that’s what’s strange about all this pre-New Year’s fever. Today, the official’s most fashionable word is import substitution. We are pushing out Western products here and there. And if something does not work out for someone in this direction, then he is provided with big troubles.

However, in terms of overseas booze, we are terribly dependent, throwing tantrums in the open information space, as if we ourselves can’t oppose anything.

It is we who gave the world vodka and moonshine!

How long will this continue?

– Have you ever seen a crying citizen on the corner of a restaurant or store who couldn’t buy a premium bottle of champagne or whiskey? – asks me Vadim Drobiz – director of the research center for federal and regional alcohol markets. – Did not see. This applies only to 10-15% of the population. The shortage, the lack of such products is stressful for this business, marketers, retailers and restaurants. Which can make a markup of 250-300 percent on all sorts of tequilas and bourbons. And make huge profits. In this case, this business protects the interests of not even 10-15%, but its own commercial interests. The remaining 85% of Russians will not notice if it completely disappears from the shelves.

Therefore, nothing terrible will happen if there are sparkling wines or strong drinks of Russian production on the New Year’s table. We have good analogues for both whiskey and other alcohol, which are not much inferior to well-known brands. By the way, there are not so many people in Russia who are able to distinguish such brands.

The brand is stuck in the head of those who have large bank accounts, who, as they think, do not have the status to drink Russian wines. But somehow they will survive, cope with this disaster.

– Will Russian producers be able to saturate the alcohol market in the pre-holiday period?

– There is no need to worry about this, there is plenty of everything in the cheap and medium price segment. It makes no sense to bother with moonshine.

– How much will Russian alcohol rise in price by the New Year? After all, by the end of December, everything always rises in price with us …

– Why? Never, I repeat, never did Russian alcohol rise in price for the New Year holidays. For one simple reason. The profit of the company is not due to price increases, but due to increasing demand, turnover.

According to the inner conviction of many of our fellow citizens, something extravagant, expensive must certainly be put on the New Year’s table. It seems to me that this is redundant. The current price of a good bottle of, say, vodka is 300-400 rubles. Why buy more?

– After the holidays, hospitals are filled with poisoned patients. Including because of the low quality of alcohol. Can a fake be pierced?

– Authoritatively I declare: it is impossible! If you buy not through the Internet and not somewhere in the gateway. Purchase goods in stores that are licensed, where counterfeit products are excluded by definition.