A Steal of a Deal ?!

Today, me and my BIL had to do a double take at the liquor shelf...Laphroaig 10 YO for the amazing "steal" of $24.99 (750ml). Also a 750 ml bottle of Knob Creek 9 YO for $17.50...and both bottles bought with no tax! Oh baby! These bottles usually are seen in our area for nothing less than $50 and $29 respectively.

well a couple of months ago in a supermarket I found a bottle of Macallan 7 yo Armando Giovinetti selection for the ridicolous price of 16 euro and bought it without even knowing it had been bottled in the 80s and worthy 80 euro...

@ HP12 - where did you get those deals? Certainly not in Williamsburg I imagine. I live just 40 miles down the interstate in Norfolk and would love to get deals like those.

Duty Free shops always have great deals on blended whiskies. Right now at the Niagara Duty Free you can get three 1 litre bottles of Seagram's VO for $39. Compare that to the $25 that a 750ml bottle costs at the LCBO.

Beware "duty free deals." Purchasing your whisky at a duty free store does not guarantee that you won't in fact pay duty on it. Duty is determined by the local government's allowance, and if you bring back more than your allowance, you will be paying duty, irrespective of whether the bottles were bought at a duty free shop.

Duty free shops know this, and are often happy to discount a product a few dollars to make it seem worthwhile buying it there rather than in the "home" country, but the consumer can wind up paying considerably more for the privilege. Consumers returning to Ontario, for instance, can expect to pay almost double the sticker price after exceeding their allowance, so the "deal" would have to be a savings of at least 50% for it to be an actual deal. This does sometimes happen, but it pays to consider things carefully.

@onebourbon These were certainly not deals one would find in our ABC stores in VA, you are correct 1B. We found them on the Little Creek Navy Base as my BIL is retired military. I think they were unloading stock from the holiday's as the KC was in the wooden gift box and the Laphroaig, well, not sure if it was a mis-mark or what because at other bases it goes for about $50.

@dbk Yeah, I found that lesson out the hard way a few years ago on a bottle of johnnie walker blue label. It was such a good deal at $70 a bottle. I knew I would be taxed extra but didn't figure that the tax could be much more than the cost of the bottle With the tax it came out to be exactly the same as it would have been if I bought it at the local LCBO ($240).

@michaelschout, well even that's shocking. I've never seen customs agents apply more than 90% in tariffs at the Ontario border... Are you sure you have those numbers right??

@dbk Yeah, those are the correct numbers cause I remember debating whether i should just leave the bottle or not. I decided to take it and not loose the $70 because either way I was going to buy a bottle of Blue Label. What I think they might have done is tax me at the full duty free price of the bottle, and not their special deal price, cause I think that normally they're around $150 at duty free. So if they taxed me considering the bottle at $150 cost, that would be a 60% tax fee.

Last year me and my wife were doing a bit of shopping on a sunday in asda in coventry, while i was browsing threw the whiskies i found they were discontinuing to sell glenmorangie nector d'or. I bought the last four bottles for £12.58 a bottle , i sold three bottles to my mates before id tasted it , god what a mistake lol.

HP12, those are great deals. I've found a close price on sale in Montgomery County,MD for the Knob Creek. The best deals I've seen domestically are at Trader Joes and Costco in California. I picked up a bottle of Laphroaig 10 at Trader Joes for close to that price a few months ago. Montgomery County sale prices are a close second.

The U.S. duty free shops don't seem like such a good deal to me. Although I don't travel much internationally any more, I was looking around at San Francisco airport during a delay a few months ago and the prices were about the same retail in Washington DC. Of course the convenience factor cannot be beat.

Well buying things at cost makes everything quite a bit cheaper for me. Exclusive liquor stores know how to treat their employees. A bottle of Port Ellen 8th release will come out to about 200 dollars for me (plans on purchasing within the next week or so).

@ HP12. Ahhh that makes sense. Any idea if there are similar deals to be had at Norfolk Navy Base or are the deals especially good at Little Creek?

@onebourbon Not sure about the price diff between all bases other than up in DC, the Marine base had Laproaig 10 for $50 in early Feb. Fort Eustis didn't carry it and we haven't scouted out Norfolk yet (maybe next month). Fort Eustis had a sad selection to choose from...only about 3-4 SMSW.

@HP12 - I'm hopefully going to Norfolk Navy Base on Friday with a coworker to scope out the exchange there. I'll let you know if I find any good deals.

@onebourbon Great 1B...I'll be interested in what you find. Plz send me a direct message so I'm sure to see your comment.

@HP12 - Will do.

@HP12, Sigh, I remember it well, $ 2.00 for a bottle of rum at the Class VI store---- in 1979!!!

The Green Jug in the L.A. area sells MacAllan 18 for $119.99 which is the lowest price I've seen anywhere.

Got a Glenmorangie 10 Yr 1.75L bottle for $43 + tax in my local Costco in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Picked up a bottle of Glenfiddich 21 Gran Reserva as a bin end in Duty Free at Heathrow once on the way back in for £35.

Brora 1982, Jewels of Scotland (Lombard). I grabbed it in the store for ~$160 and it seems to go for £300 online.

The best everyday deal on rye is Rittenhouse Rye 100. Under $20 anywhere you can find it. Its a fantastic, full bodied and very complex rye.

@michaelschout I am not sure I understood you deal on blended whiskies in duty free. You are comparing a 750ml bottle of Seagram's VO sold 25$ in stores with a one liter bottle sold 39$ in duty free. I my calculations are correct, the 750ml is cheaper. You add 1/3 more liquid for more than 1/3 of the price.

Anyway, here are some of my best deals.

I bought an Ardbeg Arigh Nam Beist for 70$ in New Jersey. It was sold out everywhere or above 120$

A 1 liter of Balvenie Double Wood for 40$ in Cancun duty free. It is sold in Quebec above 60$ for the 750ml. That's a deal !

A Kilchoman Summer release at LCBO (Ontario) for 35$ (this is unbeatable as I suspect it was a 50% error by the LCBO).

My friend got a Laphroaig 18 years old for 90$ in NJ

@Kutter, @michaelschout was saying that you can get THREE 1 L bottles for $39 at the duty free. That's $0.013 per ml at the Duty Free versus $0.033 per ml at the LCBO. Even with duty (which you'd have to pay, given that you're only allowed 1.14 L duty free, and then only if you've been out of Canada for 48 hours or more), this is still much better than the LCBO price.

@dbk Thanks for clearing that up. Sometimes it's a bloody hassle going through duty free, but I think the payoff in most cases is worth it. Also when I was crossing the border last month, I asked one of the employees and she said that you're charged $1 for every ounce of booze you are over the limit. I also bought a bottle of Laphroaig 18 year old for $90 in Florida.

@michaelschout, are you referring to Canadian tariffs? If so, the duty free employee was sadly misinformed. Duty is a function of the alcohol by volume (the higher the ABV, the higher the cost), the amount, and the price of the bottle. Effectively, they apply about 80-90% of the cost of the bottle in Ontario for anything over your duty free allowance.

@dbk Ah, that makes sense. I wasn't so sure I believed her and thankfully didn't declare more than I was allowed. I never had any idea that it had to do with the ABV though, that's very useful to know, thanks.

Just picked up a bottle of Black Bull 40 for $209usd. My Black Bull 30 was $199usd. Sadly, the 30 tasted better.

Got some Talisker 18 for around $45. It was very tasty and such a good deal that I bought 14 bottles of it.