Amazon ‘is fuelling addiction to alcohol’

Bottles arrive regularly in ‘subscribe and save’ offer

AMAzOn is fuelling alcohol addiction by offering customers a discount if they subscribe to regular deliveries of their favourite tipple, experts warn.

The online retailer knocks up to 10 per cent off some high-strength spirits if customers commit to receiving a new bottle as regularly as every fortnight.

And the savings can rise to 15 per cent if they take five or more at a time. A typical five-bottle delivery would contain enough units of alcohol to last one person at least ten weeks, according to Whitehall guidelines.

Critics claim the combination of a subscription and discount is a ‘recipe for disaster’ that encourages people to buy more than they need and drink to a deadline.

Professor Tony Rao, an expert in alcohol harm at King’s College London, said: ‘People may be persuaded to subscribe to benefit from the discount. But having bottles of alcohol delivered at regular intervals effectively sets a target for finishing the previous order.

‘ That pressure to meet the “deadline” may encourage people to drink faster and more than they usually would. This pattern of drinking can lead to addictive behaviour. It is a recipe for disaster.’ A 700ml bottle of Sipsmith London Dry Gin can be bought for £27.89 on the site, with next-day Amazon Prime delivery.

But it costs just £25.10 with the ‘ subscribe and save’ scheme, which offers repeated deliveries at intervals from two weeks to six months. The price falls further to £23.71 if customers order five or more eligible bottles.

Similar deals are available on other big-name brands, including Bacardi rum, Talisker whisky and Grey Goose vodka. A typical 700ml bottle of spirits, at 40 per cent volume, contains 28 units of alcohol, meaning there would be 140 units in five bottles.

The UK’s chief medical officers suggest adults consume no more than 14 units each week.

Professor John Britton, from the University of nottingham, said: ‘A subscribe and save scheme like this is bad for public health.

‘If people are having bottles of spirits delivered at regular intervals there is a risk they will get into a habitual rhythm of drinking that may lead to addiction. They could then go from a sustained to increasing level of consumption.’

More than 2.5million people in England drink at ‘severely dangerous’ levels, a Public Health England survey revealed this week.

The number downing more than 50 units a week – equal to five bottles of wine – has risen by 1million during lockdown, the poll found.

Andrew Misell, from Alcohol Change UK, said: ‘Discounts for buying alcohol in bulk are common in supermarkets and, it seems now, online.

‘Retailers often claim that they are simply offering customers a good deal and that people consume these bulk purchases moderately over an extended period.

We have yet to see any evidence from them that that is the case. However, there is quite a bit of evidence showing that having a large stock of alcohol in the house is an incentive to drinking to excess.

‘With recent figures showing real and concerning increases in drinking among heavier drinkers during the pandemic, promotions such as this should be discouraged to avoid a further escalation of the serious mental health and physical problems caused by drinking too much and too often.’

Amazon said the maximum frequency of a subscribe and save alcohol order is every two weeks.