The decision by Independent Liquor to actively pursue the draught beer trade could be the next significant step on the steady change in New Zealand culture from European outpost to Pacific participant. The possibility that Independent could make that great Pacific beer brand Asahi a feature of our cafés and bars is one that supporters of our Pacific identity are salivating over.
For 150 years beer has been determinedly European in its focus, more so since the profit takers, who became rich on political patronage, sold out as soon as the beer market became noticeably freer. True to the Eurocentric characters of both DB and Lion, they aligned their ‘sophisticated’ brand development to beer cultures on the furthest side of the world, Belgium and the Netherlands. Neither has a particularly strong local link with beer, but as champions of the foreign brands, which had been one of their licenses to print cash throughout the twentieth century, both Heineken and Stella Artois were given domestic status here.
Not that Asahi is any more domestic than those two international brands, its just that the great Japanese brand is decidedly more Pacific than those other two, or than Independent’s currently favoured lager, Carlsberg. Short of actually making something special out of a local beer brand, or beginning a tradition of being proud of our own beer, Asahi is a more comfortable ‘international’ option.
The incursion of Independent into the local tap trade could also be the step that puts pressure for change on the implicit bribery that liquor companies have used as their principal sales tool for more than a century. The tactic of securing pouring rights through set-up loans and the provision of draught beer service systems is something that would be illegal in an open economy, but New Zealand seems to have accepted that fair trade is not something that applies to alcohol peddlers.
Given the money that changes hands to ensure supermarket deals, menu listings and beer pouring rights, it is not surprising that a significant chunk of the local community considers those who sell alcohol as crooks by definition, and so are liable to any social or bureaucratic harassment they can muster. With three well funded players fighting for bribery rights in the hospo sector, the level of commercial abuse may be enough to make even our inherently bent politicians reconsider the liquor business’ rules of engagement.
Now that would be something to see; cafés and bars who sell certain brands of beer and wine because they believe them to be the best quality for their customers, NOT because they have been paid to stock them by suppliers.
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