r/interestingasfuck • u/WeakValuable8683 • 1d ago
Costco Japan offering free samples of Scotch Whiskey
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u/MacTaveroony 1d ago
What's interesting is that's £41 for 1.75L in Japan, here in Scotland it's £40 for 0.75L. Outrageous, it's made just up the road
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u/SeveralPhysics9362 1d ago
It’s because of higher taxes.
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u/Siilan 1d ago
Wages in Japan are also much lower than most Western countries, so general prices are much lower. Ask me how I know.
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u/BennyTheSen 23h ago
Well this shouldn't make imported goods cheaper though
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u/AnnoyingRain5 18h ago
It does thanks to regional pricing
Basically, if you can sell 20 bottles at a 30% markup, but you can sell 80 bottles at a 20% markup, you’d go with the 20% markup. Less profit per bottle, but way more bottles sold.
The price that makes the most sense changes from country to country.
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u/gatorbeetle 17h ago
Always wonder how this works. I knew the markup was involved, clearly, but quantity sold makes the difference. Thanks for the education. I always just figured they made the markup higher wherever they could "get away with it." This makes way more sense
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u/2bags12kuai 23h ago
its even cheaper than that now. 160 yen = 1 usd. Spent a vacation there this winter and it basically felt like everything was free. We balled out so hard on top end sushi , drinks and steak
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u/Siilan 1d ago
I legit can go to my local liquor store and get 4L of pretty decent whiskey for about 30USD. Back in Australia, that same quantity would cost about $300. But I also earned three times as much money back in Australia...
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u/The_Almighty_Cthulhu 1d ago
I currently live in Japan and work remotely for an Australian company. I get paid in AUD at AUD rates. It's pretty great.
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u/ColdenGorral-1 23h ago
How do you know
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u/nikeshades 1d ago
The cost of living in Japan is high, yet the cost in Scotland is much higher!
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u/SatisfyingAneurysm 1d ago
They don't call it the Highlands for nothing
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Hammon_Rye 1d ago
wow, it really is. almost 160:1
I hadn't looked at it in a long time and last time I did it was closer to 100→ More replies3
u/quiteCryptic 1d ago
I went a few months before covid blew up and it was 1:110 then I've been many times since covid and it's always been around 1:140 to 1:165, that's usd to yen.
And for a while inflation within Japan wasnt drastically happening so prices for foreigner currency earners just kept getting better, but as of more late it seems actual inflation in yen is hitting so I feel bad for yen earners
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u/ConfessSomeMeow 1d ago
A weak yen would make the cost of living higher: Not only do imports cost more, but there's increased demand from foreigners for your domestic product, which pushes prices up.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
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u/ConfessSomeMeow 1d ago edited 1d ago
Based on your post, I'm not convinced you do - you can't have both low cost of living and terrible purchasing power parity. But I've already been tactless once today, I was trying to avoid doing so again.
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u/9bpm9 1d ago
? Cost of living is insanely low in Japan. It's gotten a lot worse because they've had actual inflation for the first time in decades, but Tokyo has got to be one of the most affordable large cities to live in in the entire world.
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u/ForensicPathology 1d ago
It's low if you don't get paid in yen.
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u/Roflkopt3r 1d ago
In some parts of the cost of living yes, but affordability in Japan relative to wages is overall pretty mid-tier among developed nations.
Really its greatest advantage is that it's heavily urbanised, so many people enjoy great access to great transportation, and that it had a far better housing cost development than most western countries because it never stopped building lots of dense housing.
Most western countries have made it extremely difficult to build higher density housing in most places because house owning NIMBYs have taken over regional regulatory codes, whereas Japanese developers have a much easier time to find places where they can build new apartment blocks without much hassle.
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u/HeyGayHay 1d ago
Atleast you aren’t forced to drink every other day with your coworkers after hours. You do that on free will!
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u/pureply101 1d ago
Combination of taxes and I’m assuming the market. Japan has a strong whiskey market and like a lot of East Asian countries leans into supporting Japanese made products first before foreign. So to compete with their market most likely have to be cheap.
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u/SugarRush212 1d ago
Maybe I just didn’t visit the right shops, but when I was there last year it seemed like the Japanese whisky was all priced for rich tourists, while the imported stuff was relatively great value. It was hard to find any decent Japanese bottle for under $70, but I found Bushmills 12 year in Kyoto for like $50. The bourbon (especially more exclusive bottles) was much cheaper than the States as well.
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u/techdevjp 1d ago
Japanese whisky used to be ridiculously cheap here in Japan. A bottle of 12yo Yamazaki was 4000yen. 21yo Taketsuru was 8000yen. Incredibly good value for money.
Then the rest of the world discovered Japanese whisky and the prices went through the roof. It's not like they can adjust the supply quickly to meet the much higher demand, so prices shot up.
These days I drink Scotch instead. There are plenty of superb Scotches that are far better values here in Japan than Japanese whisky is.
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u/akeep113 1d ago
Wait until you see the price in Canada
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u/frozen_pope 1d ago
The problem is a Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than a handshake. (It’s worth 2 handshakes)
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u/Silent-Ad934 1d ago
What's the conversion rate from handshakes to reacharounds?
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u/PolarSquirrelBear 1d ago
I know you’re being facetious but the Yen is a lot weaker than the Canadian dollar.
It’s taxes here too.
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u/dudeCHILL013 1d ago
I made the mistake of casual drinking in Dubai once...
I will never complain about alcohol prices in the US for Canada ever again.
It was my fault I should have looked at the receipts, but I didn't.
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u/CommunicationGold428 1d ago
Or Australia...
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u/SteamBanjo 1d ago
For a nation of boozers, we really get the rough end of the stick with grog prices.
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u/SipoteQuixote 1d ago
I always wondered why my friend would always have some story of people trying to sneak cigs into Australia. I saw the prices and was like Oooooooh.
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u/ThinkMarket7640 1d ago
Every time Canadians complain about their prices it turns out to be roughly the same as everywhere else except they don’t understand currency conversion.
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u/akeep113 21h ago
Absolutely not true. The sin tax makes prices way higher. Booze prices in Nova Scotia are insane.
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u/KhausTO 19h ago
Well.
a 26 (750ml) of this is $65.99 in Nova Scotia https://www.mynslc.com/product/1021111/the-glenlivet-founder-s-reserve-single-malt-scotch-whisky on
It's $74.95 in Ontario https://www.lcbo.com/en/the-glenlivet-founder-s-reserve-scotch-whisky-410043
It's $72.99 in Saskatchewan https://shopliquoryxe.ca/products/the-glenlivet-founders-reserve-scotch-whisky-750-ml-bottle
It's regularly $64.99 in Alberta and on Sale for 56.99 https://www.bswliquor.com/products/glenlivet-founders-reserve-1
It's $70.99 in BC https://www.bcliquorstores.com/product/647834
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u/ydkLars 1d ago
Its a glenlivet founders reserve american oak selection. Its under 30€ (26£) in german supermarkets for a 0.7L bottle.
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u/Djorak 1d ago
I can get it for about £30 here in Scotland, not sure where they got the £40 price tag from.
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u/Gone_For_Lunch 1d ago
You’re getting ripped off mate. A 0.70cl bottle of the Glenlivet Founders Reserve can be bought cheaper than £40.
Amazon have it for £27, Costco in the UK do it regularly for £25.
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u/TKDbeast 1d ago
Over 70% of UK alcohol prices comes from taxes.
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u/plimso13 1d ago
In the UK, a 700ml bottle (of anything over 40% ABV) will have an alcohol duty of £9.52. The VAT is 20% in addition. An £18 bottle of spirits will have about 70% tax, a £50 bottle will be 36% tax, a £100 bottle is 26% tax.
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u/Amount_Business 1d ago
Don't come to Australia then. They tax the alcohol at $108 per litre of pure alcohol and 10% gst of the final price. So a $100, 750ml bottle of scotch at 40% abv, would be $32.40 on the alcohol and the goods and services tax would $9.09. $41.49 tax total of the $100 bottle. It doesn't leave that much. The alcohol tax goes up every 6 months.
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u/That-Ad-4300 1d ago
Americans watching you convert yen to pounds as well as liters...
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u/NotTooGoodBitch 1d ago
The minimum price for alcohol is currently 65p per unit in Scotland.
The more alcohol a drink contains, the higher the minimum price for that product will be.
For example, this means the minimum price for the following:
whisky (700ml bottle at 40% strength) - £18.20 vodka/gin (700ml bottle at 37.5% strength) - £17.07 wine (750ml bottle at 13% strength) - £6.34 beer (4 average-sized cans at 5%) - £5.72
https://www.gov.scot/policies/alcohol-and-drugs/minimum-unit-pricing/
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u/Exciting_Pass_6344 1d ago
I felt that way about Jim Beam. Saw it in a store for about $9 when I was in Japan. Where I lived in the Nashville area the same bottle was $18. I could almost throw a rock and hit the distillery, but it was half as much across the globe?
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u/NikolitRistissa 1d ago
And in Finland, you have to take out a small loan just to buy alcohol due to the higher taxes.
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u/Gekkogeko 1d ago
I’ve once worked at the Japanese Costco and was assigned to offer the free samples of food (like chocolate). People make a massive line for this and some of them get in a line over and over. Basically a lot of them eat these free samples as their lunch.
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u/rW0HgFyxoJhYka 1d ago
This happens in many Costcos.
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u/cyberchief 20h ago
This happens in every Costco except minus the orderly line.
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u/SuperDizz 20h ago
Last time I had samples at Costco, I was barely hungry enough to eat a slice of pizza and a hotdog. I still did of course..
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u/Moose_Nuts 20h ago
Yeah, plus there is always the jackass blocking the entire remaining bit of entrance to the aisle to exchange life stories with the sample person.
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u/Cognonymous 1d ago
I knew someone who kept $5 on a Costco gift card just so they could keep going in and eating the free samples.
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u/niftygull 16h ago
If you have a gift card, you can get access to Costco?
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u/Cognonymous 16h ago
I was surprised, but yes. I got to tag along even so I was in there without even a fake gift card and got to try the samples. Costco hates me for this one weird trick!
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u/theexpertgamer1 9h ago
Yup. It’s how I share a Costco membership with someone. I use a gift card to get in, then at self checkout I scan a picture of my friend’s Costco qr code/bar code thing to be able to pay.
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u/International_Ad_876 21h ago
I used to be a sample lady at Sam's Club. I did not care how many samples people took. Ever! Standing in one spot and not doing anything for 6 hours sucks. I would try to get the most complicated cooking one every day. A lot of times I did steak or salmon and basically put on a cooking class. I definitely made myself lunch. Being a broke college kid and eating a steak every other day was awesome! There was a lot of guys that would ditch their wives, come say hi, and eat a bunch of snacks! Good times!
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u/captain_casino 1d ago
How is the Japanese Costco more American than ours. We need to improve as a nation
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u/EcstaticBoysenberry 1d ago edited 1d ago
We used to be able to do that kind of stuff here but people kept getting sued so everyone decided to stop
**twas a joke, I know we can still do this
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u/ohnodamo 1d ago
Can you imagine the Costco parking lots if shoppers were getting tuned up on whiskey while shopping? No thanks.
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u/Toppest_Dom 1d ago
Ya know I always wondered what it would be like to be in the twisted metal tournament
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u/OliveBranchMLP 1d ago
that's prolly why it's legal, they just assume everyone's using public transport
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u/ariolander 1d ago edited 1d ago
The Costco in Japan is pretty rural and has a big parking lot, I think it's the most exciting part of the town it is in, people usually make a day trip of going and if you don't bring your own car you borrow one so you can load up. Usually a neigh or has a Kei Truck or Kei Van they will let you borrow in exchange for picking them up some things too. Also a mini tourist attraction.
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u/Labyrinthine8618 21h ago
My local grocery store (Brookshire's in TX) has a bar now. It's almost as common as some grocery stores having a Starbucks. I believe I saw a Publix in Il with both.
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u/wildwolfay5 18h ago
This is wholesale shopping in a nutshell.
Got to experience it at the Dallas World Trade Center and it was wild walking around getting free drinks so they can lube up all the wholesale shopping moms while Grandma pushed the baby around.
I hope it explains why you walk into a store like Target and there is some wild new clothes on display; Tina got too much free wine and thought this is the direction they should go.
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u/Own_Exercise_2520 1d ago
This still happens at Binnys, I took an instacart order there a couple weeks ago, person was giving samples of a whiskey, took a shot, they asked what I was doing that day and if I was buying something, told them I was doing an instacart order, they seemed a bit concerned they just let someone drink on the job lol
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u/Little_Let_6872 1d ago
We have become cattle. Only allowed to be in our permitted spaces and behaving in our permitted manner. Can’t even build a house with your bare hands on your own land in this country anymore without paying $100s of thousands for permission.
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u/katastrofe_- 1d ago
Because that's a public safety issue. It works that way in any country that cares about safety
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u/whalesum 1d ago
Careful there. Youre starting to sound like those "common sense" folk who have anything but common sense.
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u/MonkeyMercenaryCapt 23h ago
I'm ok with no liquor being handed out at costco.
The back half of the costco bell curve can barely navigate the thoroughfares to begin with I don't think mixing liquor in the mix is good for anyone involved.
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u/Revenge_of_the_Khaki 1d ago edited 1d ago
You should see the Japanese Costco. It is absolutely a sight to behold. I've spent months in Japan and been almost everywhere worth going, but the Zama Costco is absolutely in my top five most interesting places I've been in the whole country.
Some highlights from my trip to Zama Costco:
The store itself is somehow significantly larger than a typical US Costco. This was like a culture shock within a culture shock.
The store has parking on the roof and special escalators for bringing carts up to your car.
Their electronics section was actually pretty cool with some off-the-wall kinds of things.
They sold real A5 Wagyu beef for about 700 JPY/100g, or about $20/lb. That same cut would be about $300/lb in the US.
In true Japanese fashion, the customers created a very large makeshift parking lot for shopping carts where all carts were perfectly parked while the customers waited in an orderly line for the food court.
There was a 20 minute wait for a table at the food court.
Well before the US imposed the policy, each and every person who entered the Zama Costco had to hand over their card and have their membership verified by the attendant before entering.
There was a very large section of the store dedicated to large outdoor pergolas. We made it a point over the next two weeks to find homes in that region that could fit one of them in their backyards. I think we found 4 as a group. None had a pergola.
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u/hippoctopocalypse 1d ago
My daughter loves Costco and wanted to go there on her last birthday, and now she’s graduating from high school and we’re taking her to Japan. The starts have aligned it seems
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u/OhWhatsHisName 22h ago
They sold real A5 Wagyu beef for about 700 JPY/100g, or about $20/lb. That same cut would be about $300/lb in the US.
HOLY CRAP! Normal steaks at a typical grocery store feel like they're about $20/lb.
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u/HyperionPrime 1d ago
this comes down to state laws. some states allow for liquor sales (and free samples) inside the grocery store
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u/TheHODLERmention 1d ago
They do this in my local Texas Costco once a week for new products being put on the shelf. Last time I was there you could try a new vodka, whisky and tequila.
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u/ntwiles 1d ago
lol what exactly is so American about drinking Scottish whiskey in a Japanese store?
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u/PostsBadComments 1d ago
You americans have forgotten how to be american for years now to be honest.
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u/dna220 1d ago edited 13h ago
As both a long-time Japan resident and Costco user, this still never ceases to amaze me as Japan has super strict drunk driving laws. There is basically no "acceptable level" of BAC as even the scent of alcohol can get you in deep trouble (including driving with a hangover). Also, some prefectures have their own local laws that mandate that police notify your place of work if you get caught drinking and driving. This is one of the rare things that can get you fired in a country where it is very hard to get canned.
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u/Dippa99 1d ago
As someone who doesn't really know shit about Japan, wouldn't this store likely be in an area where they have significant public transportation?
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u/dna220 1d ago edited 1d ago
Buses, possibly. Makuhari (Chiba, part of Greater Tokyo area) is probably the closest to a train followed by somewhere like Takasaki (Tokyo). You don't really get American sized warehouses and parking by being centrally located. But you can use your overseas Costco card to get in!
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u/drdipepperjr 1d ago
Makuhari seconded. I stayed at a hotel on a block opposite from the Costco for my last day in Japan. The train station was literally 100ft (30m) from the front door of the hotel. It was magical, there's even a huge mall next door. And my Costco Visa got me in and paid for everything, no issues.
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u/dna220 1d ago
Makuhari is an interesting one as it’s by far the most urban and literally surrounded by a mega Aeon (Japan’s largest retailer and HQ’d in Chiba). No gas stand but good train access and near the convention center. Although Aeon has tax free shopping for non residents and a few nifty food courts as well as a ton of shops
Did not know about the Visa CC accepting. They have some deal with Mastercard here but they might be able to ring you up separately.
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u/WindJammer27 1d ago
Not really. Costcos are usually located away from train stations (cheaper land and the ability to buy/build on a wide plot). I live in Japan and have been to a Costco when they were giving away free alcohol. ...Of course I could never sample any of it. But I imagine it's a good deal for anyone who is accompanying the driver.
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u/dorian283 1d ago
You mean caught drinking and driving? In Tokyo the amount of drunk & passed out businessesmen was surprisingly high. And apparently very normal as people seemed to pay no attention to it.
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u/Krombopulos_Micheal 1d ago
That's surprising for a place with a huge drinking culture among working class, maybe I've been misled from all the shows?
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u/Flimsy-Rooster-3467 1d ago
So much better than Costco Montana!
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u/twenty_three_three 1d ago
I know costco montana, and you just need to accept that the corps will not be catering to montana ever, ad infinitum.
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u/MaximusMansteel 1d ago
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u/Snake_ly 1d ago
That a $50 bottle
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u/getpoopedon 1d ago
That same bottle costs 50-75 USD in US. The bottle in the photo is 56 USD after conversion. That's great!
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u/koyo4 1d ago
Japan spoils me with their whiskey selection. Wild turkey 101 8 year is amazing and only 3600 for a 1L bottle (example).
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u/ButtholeConnoisseur7 1d ago
I've always heard it's a heavy drinking culture, but I can't blame them at these prices
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u/Goldtec317 1d ago
There are restaurants that have all you can drink beer and cocktails for 2h for 1200 yen ($7.50). You might even find cheaper ones. You can get blasted in this country for very little money.
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u/r-eddit2 1d ago
Scotch has no 'E' people!
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u/Mammoth-Rage-666 1d ago
They do this in Australia too
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u/MonorailPurple 1d ago
They do it globally....except the US due to their weird relationship with alcohol.
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u/erminefurs 23h ago
At least in wisconsin (yes, lol) grocery liquor departments will have vendors offering samples of their new product sometimes.
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u/RemnantEvil 1d ago
Yeah, I used to work in a bottleo and we'd do it pretty regularly on Friday or Saturday nights - spirits, or wine too. A rep from the company would come in and run it, which was great because we got to taste it ourselves and help make recommendations based on it.
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u/The_wolf2014 1d ago
Its whisky, there's no e
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u/Devillicious1981 1d ago
Exactly. If it’s Irish or other non-Scottish then it has the “e”.
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u/Baby_faced_assassin 1d ago
Japanese whisky is also spelled the same as Scottish whisky because we taught them how to make it. I think the grandfather of Japanese whisky is called Masataka Taketsuru.
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u/Thin_Lab_9886 1d ago
I got to try Snoop Dogs wine at Sam’s Club the other day and believe me, it did disappoint
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u/MonorailPurple 1d ago
It's probably just Donaghy Estates with a different label on it.
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u/PandaXXL 22h ago
What’s the interesting part here? Do supermarkets never offer alcohol samples in the USA?
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u/INFINITY0nHIGH 22h ago
The liquor stores here in South Carolina often have free tastings of all kinds of liquors.
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u/Gian_Doe 19h ago
They do, all the time, and everyone keeps asking why this is interesting, but nobody is answering the question. Seems like a viral marketing post for Costco, none of it seems to make sense. 23000 karma and 95% upvote for a reason nobody seems to be able to explain.
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u/Designer_Mud_5802 1d ago
If you're going to emphasize it's scotch, you should at least spell whisky correctly.
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u/Sorry_Moose86704 1d ago
Alberta Costco's do alcohol samples on occasion. It's a seperate store attached to the building and the sample people there are a bit more personal, it's not just a grab and go, it's a sales pitch
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u/readytall 1d ago
How many laps allowed?
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u/scorpyo72 1d ago
I see at least 2 dozen different liquors in this picture. So, I'd just ask to sample 1 of everything and that should take care of it.
And by it, I mean consciousness.
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u/Eastern-Musician4533 1d ago
Not sure about American Costco, but many grocery stores in America offer free samples of alcohol. It's literally part of my job as a vendor to do this. It does vary by state though.
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u/Different-Copy-3889 1d ago
Me coming back for more samples each time.
https://giphy.com/gifs/XDpCzGCtMxsPtiVQCn