The law of the land is that anybody over the age of 18 can buy and consume alcohol. But there are disturbing signs that some police officers want to enforce a different piece of legislation – one that was never endorsed by Parliament but which is the product of their own imaginations. We’re hearing worrying reports that some drinks retailers are being told they must…

they right to be so upbeat? I think so. They are not going to defeat the supermarkets at their own game, but they can probably beat them in other ways. Sainsbury’s, for example, has an admirable fine wine collection but it has scaled back its range from well over 100 to a target of 60, and admits small parcels just don’t work. Independents who…

Or, to put it more accurately, good ideas. Who was the idiot who came up with the wheeze of re branding 22 ­Oddbins stores under the Nicolas fascia? Nicolas may work in urban Paris, where there is little or no competition from supermarkets and a substantial percentage of the population shops locally, but has it been a success in London? To me and, I suspect,…

Leafing back through the endless archive of paperwork we keep , I’ve come across the first staff hours report with my name on it. On Nov 30 2000, I did my first hours for this company . A copy of my timesheet is still tucked in the back, and I can see that I’ve managed to double my wage , although, to be fair, it…

T he 2007 SOLTrack study from HIM – which works with retailers and suppliers to grow category sales based on moment-of-truth customer feedback – interviewed 2,500 customers across more than 150 branches of Threshers, Bargain Booze, Wine Cellar and Oddbins. Customer satisfaction ratings are high – more than eight out of 10 across all criteria, including friendly service, fast service, product range, promotions, availability and…

The Home Office is putting £1.2 million of your money into a 10-week test purchasing crackdown on drinks retailers who are unfortunate enough to have been labelled “problematic”. These stings are going to hurt more than most, because this time the police are fortified by the Violent Crime Reduction Act. You would think, given the scale of this campaign (which could involve 16,600 test purchase…

American comedian Jack Handey asks: “What is it about a beautiful sunny afternoon, with the birds singing and the wind rustling through the leaves, that makes you want to get drunk?” With the recent good weather, this seems to be a question that many people are acting on; taking a few cold tinnies and hitting the park for the afternoon. The incident below is reported…