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A kerfuffle at Morrisons checkout
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January 14th, 2010Beer ShopsI hadn’t really taken much note of the beer aisle in Morrison’s for a while, writing it off as a bit dull and uninteresting. We’re unusually blessed with Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and ASDA within a 4-minute radius in the car, not to mention Leeds’ finer beery retailers, so I can happily avoid Morrison’s BWS department for months on end.
Badger Golden Glory, Thwaites Wainwright, Everard's Tiger and Black Sheep - 4 great beers for £5.50
On Sarah’s request I popped in straight off the bus on Tuesday night for some naan bread and as I headed from checkout to door I couldn’t help but be drawn towards the beer and wines section (our Morrison’s is one of those odd divisive ones with a separate alcohol area fenced off from the main supermarket floor).
First off I was impressed with their range and I was overcome with an urge to try old favourites and classic British beers. Thai green chicken curry was on the menu which called for something a little exotic, plus I needed a pick me up after an arduous day at the office: a refreshing and zingy Golden Champion would do just the trick.
Castle Rock's Harvest Ale nestled next two of the beers Alan and I grew up with
Castle Rock Harvest Pale almost leapt off the shelf so that too went in the basket. Two down, might as well take Morrison’s up on the 4 for £5.50 offer, so after my usual beer aisle procrastination a Titanic Stout and JW Lees Brewer’s Dark joined the party.
Morrison’s has had a long term beer offer for a long while now and 4 for £5.50 isn’t too shabby (although you can grab twice as many tins of Carlsberg for 50p less most of the time). These days our local store has 3 large shelves of beers priced at £1.67, all of which are on the offer. These are dominated by Hall & Woodhouse, Marston’s, Wychwood and Greene King. It seems over the last year a few more regional beers are popping up – Castle Rock, White Horse, Hook Norton and JW Lees this week – which I’d like to see more of.
The top two shelves belong to beers outside the offer, priced almost exclusively at £1.85 or £1.99 and include the likes of Fullers ESB and Vintage Ale, Old Crafty Hen and a handful of regional beers that I guess either command a higher price or would represent lower margins as part of the offer.
Unfortunately I picked up the only beer on the offer shelves that was unmarked, the Brewer’s Dark. I shouldn’t complain – it scanned through the till at a wallet-pleasing M&S-rounded £1 – super. Except that I didn’t notice until I read the ill-printed receipt and only realised I’d made no additional savings on my way to the lottery kiosk (of course the cheaper bottle wasn’t part of the offer).
Cue increasingly exasperated conversation with not one, not two but three of the checkout women who eventually managed to work out that I wanted to grab another beer for an extra £0.49 (an Everard’s Tiger at a nice price!) but that I wasn’t going to pass on the opportunity to try the Brewer’s Gold for less a fraction of the price of a half pint in the city centre.
So despite the kerfuffle it was worth popping my head in the beer aisle, 5.99 for 5 bottles in the end and some inspiration for catching up with some of the beers that got me blogging in the first place (but not until the bank balance looks a bit healthier!)
Tags: Badger, castle rock, everards, harvest pale, Hook Norton, Hooky, jw lees, morrisons, offers, supermarket, thwaites, tiger, wainwright
RULE #3: You must drink at least two servings of a beer before you pass judgment on it (Appellation Beer) - as such Ringwood's Old Thumper will be getting a second chance! Plus going to try Moonraker and refamiliarise with some of the London classics
4 responses to “A kerfuffle at Morrisons checkout” 
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Cool post! The only large supermarket in Ormskirk is morrisons hence my monthly blog posts on their latest offers:
http://theormskirkbaron.blogspot.com/search/label/morrisons
Their selection is quite good but it’s a shame it doesn’t cycle that much, was pleased to see the Hook Norton stuff a few months ago as you had mentioned it so I had to try it.
I’ll be interested to what you think of the brewer’s dark as I gave it a 2/5 – bit too thin and bland for my liking.
Not sure about your “Rule #3″ – don’t think I want to drink Old Thumper again…
The Ormskirk Baron
http://theormskirkbaron.blogspot.com[Reply]
FletchtheMonkey Reply:
January 14th, 2010 at 3:11 pmAll beers should be given a second go, particularly if you’ve only tried in bottle or on cask. It’s only fair (even to Old Thumper!). I’ve had it twice now, going for my third time. It opened up near the end of the second bottle, I’m intrigued as to why it divides opinion so much.
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Nice one Mark, my local supermarkets are getting better and better, as are the local cheap shops, i just wish they would sell a few more local ales and a few more from micros…
still there are some bargains and bloody good beers to be had.
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To my mind, Morrisons have the widest and best-presented selection of British bottled ales of all the “Big Four”, although I take the point that it maybe doesn’t change often enough. The regular 4 for £5.50 offer (which also covers bottled premium ciders) isn’t matched by any of their competitors and includes a wide range of good beers.
Their foreign selection is a bit more limited and unimaginative, though.
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FletchtheMonkey Reply:
January 15th, 2010 at 8:25 amThe Morrison’s range was very well presented, much better so than the others (although I can’t speak much for Tesco, it’s the one supermarket that’s over 2 miles away). ASDA do have a few more local beers but they tend to keep them hidden on end plinths rather than in the middle of the beer aisle. Actually M&S is pretty good for a change (that’s at Ikea about 5 minutes away!) if limited in numbers.
I think Sainsbury’s possible have the widest range in term of beer styles though, with a plinth for Belgian beers, one for continentals, a section for stouts and porters (of which to be fair there are only 3 or 4 plus Guinness) and then the British beer aisle which covers you from Pedigree through to Punk IPA.
I’m guessing it’s different in each store of course though dependent on size, location and staff. The one I’ve never checked out is Waitrose, and I somehow think it’ll be a while before they open up in South Leeds (go house prices if they do!)
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4 for £5.50 is great and the selection is pretty good although it could do with mixing up occasionally. Musn’t grumble, though, as it’s a 5 minute stroll from my place to the Morley store and I’d rather get Morrisons take out than suffer Morley’s dire pubs
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FletchtheMonkey Reply:
May 16th, 2011 at 8:53 amHey Sean
I agree on the selection, it seems to change very little. That said, it has changed since I wrote this post – they’ve now 2 shelves of premium beers not included within the offer and 3 shelves of 4 for £5.50. The only change to the bottom shelves seems to be the increased number of York beers – perhaps a local thing?
PS. Just found out recently that Thwaites Wainwright is permanently on cask at Morley RFC and they have Sky Sports too. A few evenings there have confirmed it as better than most of the pubs (although Stump Cross has had a lick of paint and now has Leeds Pale on).
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The author
Name: Mark
Web Site: http://twitter.com/fletchthemonkey
Bio: Mark is better known as @fletchthemonkey and started writing about beer in 2009. Mark is editor of Real Ale Reviews and blogs at beeralewhatever.co.uk. When not content with spending all day on the internet working for a digital marketing agency, Mark waxes lyrical at digitalmediamonkey.co.uk and types up match reports for Leeds Guide magazine.
Baron Orm January 14th, 2010 at 14:50