Tuesday, December 6/2016

Approaching Christmas for supermarkets, and also, of course the rest of us. Traditionally there are quite good liquor and wine sales in the Christmas/New Year's period. And this in a country where liquor taxes are low to begin with. Carrefour has slightly high prices to begin with, the exception being some sale products and, until this year, Carrefour's own brand, e.g. crisps, yoghurt, evaporated milk, etc. The latter are conspicuous this year by their absence, although we haven't been able to confirm rumours that the Cyprus franchise has been sold. One tradition remains - that of running out almost immediately of highly desirable sale products only to have them cheerfully reappeat at a higher price immediately the sale is over. Impossible to prove they were in the warehouse all along, but....So a week or two left to keep track of sales as we try to estimate our liquor requirements from now until the end of March, as discounts can be as much as 45% or even higher, significant even on originally overpriced bottles.