As per title. I very, very rarely drink, and I generally just want to buy a single of something for a rare treat, however most beers/ciders/etc are sold in multipacks.
The pricing on the shelf is usually per-pack only, yet sometimes I see random products with single cans/bottles missing, and sometimes random products will have a little section of unpackaged singles, despite not having a separate price showing.
Is it generally OK to split an unopened 4- or 6-pack, or is that as weird and inappropriate as doing the equivalent in a supermarket? What even are the rules around this?
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Dude. This is 2023. I’m sure they’ve already got a translator app that flips the words for them.
Well OP posted it so I could understand, I thought it was only fair that I put in the same effort so they could understand.
Ha, I have rotation lock on so Mlem doesn’t accidentally refresh. I just flipped my phone upside down!
Thanks for the answer!
I used to work at Dan Murphy’s and you can definitely just buy one can or bottle, and they won’t mind you breaking up the pack. Smaller bottle-o’s may prefer you didn’t though, so I would ask before breaking apart a pack.
In Germany this is common as well at the grocery store. However I did this in France once at a Lidl, and they couldn’t scan the individual bottles, so in the EU it may vary country to country
In the US, it’s usually clear which you can split if you’re at a beer distributor. There’s usually a 6-pack price and a per bottle price (sometimes you do have to look around for the tags).
Many grocery stores have a section specifically for singles, often with a “make your own 6 pack” that is cheaper than 6 singles.
Often you can get larger cans (24ish oz) that are explicitly sold as singles (pounders, tall boys, lots of slang for these). These are typically the cheap stuff like Bud light or Foster’s
These items are usually marked “not for individual sale“. I’m pretty sure what you are witnessing is people just stealing things. (At least some of the time, But smaller stores do break those “not for individual sell” rules too).
If you’re not sure, just asking an employee.
I once tried to do this in some country on vacation and was told that’s not how it works. I’m german. It definitely works like this here. You just rip out one bottle or can and put it in your shopping cart. It will say so very clearly on the packaging if you’re not allowed to do it. But it’s not like this in every country. Maybe just ask staff.
It’s often like this in Canada but not always. Usually depends on if the individual cans or bottles have barcodes and are labelled for individual sale.
I’ve never had a cashier get mad for attempting to buy an invididual can/bottle not marked properly though
An employee probably dropped or otherwise damaged one or more from a multi-pack. Rather than mark off a whole six pack, they’ll write off just the damaged ones and sell the rest individually. This is also why there’s no label on the shelf.
Source: used to work in a liquor store.
I learned this when I was buying beer, walked into a free-standing display, and somehow exploded one of the cans I was carrying. The cashier put the remaining three in a box to clean up and sell later.
The loose cans they sell come from the pre packed boxes anyway, I’ve had them tell me to grab one out of the box when I’ve been short one for a 6 pack, usually they take the box off so either a customer has grabbed one to buy or someone’s stolen one or both.
That’s going to vary by jurisdiction.
Where I am, retail can only sell in the package sizes provided from manufacturer due to various labeling (and other) regulations.
The cans in a 6 pack are labelled differently from the ones intended to be sold as singles.
I’ve had mixed luck buying from split packs, admittedly not of alcohol but yes of mixers or long life milk. Sometimes they pass at the checkout without issues, sometimes it bounces which means you need to leave it or buy the full pack. I’m talking about Sydney btw
