CHENNAI: If you’re hoping that the all-new beer outlet opened by TASMAC would be your gateway to imported beer brands like Foster and Heineken, then you’d have to wait for a while.
When City Express paid a visit to the 500 sq ft sparkling new store at the basement of Parsons complex at Nungambakkam, we found that quite a few patrons had to be turned away because imported brands were ‘out of stock’.
This turned out to be a dampener for some customers like Sourabh, a PG student on vacation. “Without brands like Hieneken, Budweiser and Fosters at the store, there is no point coming here. We can go to any other shop,” he said.
At the moment, the shop has only the usual brands —Kingfisher, Corona, Vorion and a few other ones that may be available in a regular wine shop.
Though foreign beer brands lined the many coolers in the shop on the launch day, none of them remains now as “It will take a few days for the stocks to arrive and even that depends on the orders which will be placed after observing the demand,” according a store employee. All that isn’t affecting the volume of sales though, with clientele varying from college students to working professionals aching for a beer after work. TASMAC officials said people billed at least a minimum of two bottles to a maximum of one crate of chilled beer at the shop.
“Most of the products are sold here at Maximum Retail Price (MRP) with a pint available for `65. That is why we are getting steady patronage,” he added.