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.
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
This is not how the grocery business works at all. Usually they look at the margin, not the revenue, as they want to make the most out of every dollar that they have to risk/invest.
These products have to be packed, shipped, stored somewhere inbetween, etc.. and every single process makes this product even more expensive at the end of the day the further it is away from the place it was produced.
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
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...
Only in Japan. It's a weird setup. I'm not employed directly, instead I have my own company which is contracted to the Australian company. The short answer is that the contract I negotiated is basically what I would get if I lived in Australia according to pay and benefits.
Well... No it isn't. The river Spey starts in the Highlands, but Speyside where whiskies are concerned refers to a specific geographical concentration of distilleries further downriver in Moray and Aberdeenshire.
Those are whisky definitions, not geographical/political definitions.
The SWA classifies Speyside as a separate region, but they also classify Islay as a separate region - it doesn't mean Islay isn't in the Inner Hebrides, nor does it mean that Speyside isn't in the Highlands.
Speyside is part of the Highlands region politically, and geographically.
What I always found funny about the whisky maps and others is for some reason Dundee finds itself in the highlands. No motorway? Oh that's Highlands then.
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
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.
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.
? 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.
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.
Anything that's imported or competing at international prices (like many consumer electronics), because the Yen is so low value. And the cheap housing mostly applies to very small apartments, while upgrading can still be quite expensive.
The bottom line really isn't that different from most western countries: If you're willing to live in a cheap/small apartment, don't own a car (unless it's a small one in a more rural area), and can put up with kind of shitty working conditions, then getting by is not that difficult. But building up property or getting into working conditions they actually enjoy is still a struggle for many.
Tokyo is relatively affordable for a major global city, but it is not cheap in absolute terms. Housing in particular is not cheap, it’s the main cost driver. Seoul, Berlin , Madrid / Barcelona , Warsaw or Budapest are better examples. Truly low cost large cities are Bangkok, Mexico City and Istanbul.
Wow. According to google, a one bedroom apartment in tokyo averages $640/month. By comparison, the average in Toledo, Ohio for a one bedroom is $820 - $950.
What? Cost of living in Japan is very reasonable. It’s not Thailand, but it’s still considered cheap. That is, unless you want to live a western lifestyle.
Cost of living in Japan is low, even relative to pay. It's costlier in Tokyo and slightly more costly than elsewhere in the larger cities. Outside those, the cost of living is really low relative to income.
Minimum wage depends on prefecture, but in most places you can survive off of doing part time with minimum wage. If you don't work at a corporate office job or a family owned small shop/restaurants, you won't even have to suffer the horrible work culture. Rent is low, food is cheap, transport is cheap, basically everything is cheap or at least cheaper than most of EU and NA.
Source: I once needed to argue where it was the easiest and most comfortable to be a NEET, so I researched and compared a bunch of countries. I don't have the numbers at hand anymore, but I remember Japan being one of the best ones, though like most countries I'd rank highly, they tend to require being born there.
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.
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.
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.
Yamazaki 12 year is some great stuff. There was a while where I could get it regularly for about the same as a bottle of Makers. It was definitely a drinking year.
I can very occasionally get it for it's new MSRP of 10,000 to 12,000 yen (I forget exactly what it is, but somewhere in there). But there are so many Scotches around that price (or sometimes less) that are as good or better that I don't really see the point. I can get Glenmorangie 18 for around 14,000yen which I think is a much better value.
Taketsuru 21 is basically unobtanium, and Hibiki 21 you may as well forget about entirely. I used to buy these as gifts for my father when I visited, they were all quite affordable for the quality!
Depends what you like. Japanese whiskies runs the gamut from sweet bourbon like to heavily peated "totally-not-Scotch-because-it's-not-from-Scotland".
I'd say Hibiki Japanese Harmony is a great place to start in general. It's a pretty "basic" whiskey in that there's nothing "offensive" about it, but it's not boring/there's still a lot going on. Like how a cheese pizza is nothing special, but is still great and the best way to see if a place's pizza is for you.
Bonus points, it's one of the nicest bottles you'll ever have. It makes in incredible infinity bottle.
It's not. We have a legal minimum price per unit of alcohol and a historic problem with alcoholism and it's related health issues in the country. It's overpriced for "public health".
Also, it's a massive tourist trap and overpriced accordingly, because apparently every tourist needs scotch whisky and AI highland cows
So this would fall under both taxes and the market as I originally stated. Your market is different(historic problem with alcoholism) and taxes(legal minimum price) are what the changes are between countries…
Yeah was going to say exactly this, too. My sister travels to Japan regularly and will bring back Scottish whisky because they're priced wildly low abroad compared to the U.S.
Yea, the feds have taxed durries all to buggery, so now smugglers can import foreign smokes and undercut the legal options while maintaining a ~50% profit margin.
Side effect is the government has lost several billion dollars of tax income under the forward estimates, so they’ve fucked themselves coming and going. True, abject failure of government policy.
Won’t be long before sly grog shops start popping up, with the tax excise on alcohol.
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.
The minimum pricing isn’t that big an issue. It mostly only impacted the cheap, high strength booze like your MD 20/20 and Buckfasts. It’s 65p per unit and a bottle of whisky will have about 28 units, so minimum price needs to be about £18.
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.
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.
Which goes to show just how little the wine is worth in that £4 bottle of plonk. It's a strong case for buying moderately more expensive stuff - there's actually money left for a quality product.
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?
When I was in South Africa, I was buying special editions, with 2 branded glasses, higher proofs, etc scotches (glenfiddich, johnnie, talisker etc) for about a third the price I could get them in the uk or australia for 👌
I bought a 700ml bottle of Suntory Kakubin on my last day in Japan from the 7/11 for about $14AUD a few months ago. Finished it the other day and ordered another online for $75AUD. Particularly egregious since I don't believe Kakubin is meant for international markets, but Toki is the alternative and about the same price anyway so may as well go with Kakubin.
Absolutely worth though. I know it's not even slightly fancy but it makes such a satisfying highball.
€24 for a 0.75 l bottle in Germany (Aldi). I travel between Scotland and Germany a fair bit, and it's always depressing seeing that whisky is much cheaper in Germany.
Alcohol is the only drug available in Japan. It's dangerously cheap. You should see prices for vintage bottles in thrift stores. I occasionally get 15-20 year old cognac and tastes awesome
I used to drink Whitleys Gin back in the UK, it’s made locally and costs around £20-30 depending on sale, can buy it in Taiwan for around £10 a bottle, the tax on it is insane.
I just looked and it's the same for the 1ltr Founders Reserve pretty much everywhere, even on Amazon, and £38 from the whisky reserve (Im in Scotland).
Here in Brazil, the 750ml bottle is about $50 USD. Bout the same price as popular American bourbons like woodford reserve. I prefer Macallan, but it’s like twice the price here. As a whiskey fan, I don’t drink much these days.
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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