Leftover alcohol & soft drink from Wedding

[sparks85]

Evening all,

We have a significant amount of soft drink and alcohol (spirits and beer) from our wedding a few weeks ago, where we ran our own bar.

We've too much to hang on to and too much money tied up in it to be able to just give/gift bottles away.

Gumtree and eBay don't permit sale of alcohol.

Any ideas where we might advertise it, aside to friends on facebook..

Cheers
Ben

[sparks85]

Jag_NE said:

if you had enough to buy it in the first place surely you can afford to give it away?

Not sure if you're being serious but what we have left is from Sale or Return from the soft drink and beer (packets/boxes opened).

There's 40 bottles of spirits we bought outright, massively overestimated how much we'd need - there's probably £800 tied up in them.

So no, giving it away isn't really an option, as I did mention in my original post.

The raffle idea will be a lot of hassle, we just want to shift it all on in one go or a couple of large lots.

[sparks85]

8003px said:

Sure you will drink that over your lifetime, but if you want to sell as previous poster has requested list what you have and start an auction for someone to collect from your designated place, cant be that difficult.

Yes, we might drink it over a lifetime, but in the meantime where exactly are we supposed to store 40 bottles of spirits, 50 bottles of fizzy drink, 30 cartons of juice, 150 bottles of lager etc?

Where would you suggest starting an auction?

birdcage said:

You never expected any return so drink it In a week or a year.....odd

Again, not really helpful - we did expect return on the beer and soft drink, and the spirits we expected to be drunk, except we overestimated. As I said. Above.

Does anyone actually have any suggestions (auction aside) or does anyone else want to suggest the exact opposite of what we are after?

Just to be crystal clear:

- We don't want to keep it
- We don't want to give it away for free
- We want to sell it

[sparks85]

And our own auction is a lot of hassle - marketing it to enough people, selling tickets, collecting the money etc.

[sparks85]

Facebook group is a good shout, normally I would steer clear of these (except for car parts!) But this should help us advertise locally. Giving it away isn't an option as we would rather have a chunk of the £1200ish in total back in our pockets.

And as stated (again) we don't have the space to hang on to it.

We're located in SE London but easy reach of the M25 for those who have asked.

[sparks85]

condor said:

You say you bought soft drinks/beers 'sale or return' then go back to the suppliers and return what you bought from them. Used to be that you could only return 25% of original order but that might not be the case now.
The issue with trying to sell spirits is that they might have been bought duty-free and would be illegal to resell in a shop/pub. Do you still have the receipts from your purchase? Try and return them to the supplier.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but I clearly said "what we have left is from Sale or Return from the soft drink and beer (packets/boxes opened)." You can't return SoR items that aren't in resalable condition, do you not think we might have thought of this?!

I have original proof of purchase (Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Majestics) but AFAIK I can't just return them as they're not faulty, they'll be outside any goodwill period (if they even allow you return alcohol?).

Sports clubs are a good shout, will give the local ones a call.

[sparks85]

Hoofy said:

With the amount of times you've had to repeat your answers on here, I'm surprised you haven't resorted to drinking all 40 bottles of spirits yourself.

It's enough to turn a man to alcoholism!

foreverme said:

What do you have? Might be interested in some as we have a large party at the end of the month...

PM'ed you a list

Europa1 said:

Your wedding guests were clearly amateurs.

They certainly didn't drink as much tequila as I'd like!!

sc0tt said:

Sparks - Where abouts are you located? Near j29? I am having an engagement party in 3 weeks and could do with some bottles.

PM'ed you a list. We're either J3 (A20) or J2 (A2) on the south side of Dartford tunnel/bridge.

ambuletz said:

keep it? you're going to need it whenever you remind yourself that you're in it FOREVERRRRRR

dun dun dunnn!

<Sobs>

[sparks85]

condor said:

I hadn't realised you couldn't return single items ( rather than cases of items), so presumably you bought from a cash and carry outlet rather than supermarket/off licence. I used to run off licences and often had people wanting free glass hire ( which we provided) for their partys and buying alcohol/soft drinks on sale or return. We used to take single items back so just presumed there wouldn't be a problem.
If you have the receipts and had originally said it was for a wedding reception/party and sale or return - then Majestic should refund you quite happily - not sure about Waitrose/Sainsburys, but you can always ask at their customer service desk. If you had the free glass hire that goes with the alcohol purchase that would be good as must of mentioned you were having a party.

The stuff from Majestic was SoR, we returned it all and they (understandably) refused to accept back the items we still have, as they weren't in saleable condition - bottles of soft drinks were loose instead of in the plastic 6 pack wrapping, beer bottles were in cases that didn't match the brand etc. They took back £900 of drinks and hired glasses.

I don't think Waitrose and Sainsburys will take it back given the time elapsed and the fact it's not defective but I will check.

[sparks85]

It all came from one Majestic store. The £900 was made up of £500 glass hire and £400ish soft drink and beer. We didn't use any of the Majestic glassware, our caterers brought just enough - the Majestic stuff was free to hire and I dreaded running out. Majestic order was £2k in total, no limit on SoR, Majestic were great about it.

For whatever reason, we got through a lot more wine, Prosecco and Pimms - which practially all went (plus a lot of beer) than spirits. I just over estimated the spirits. People seemed to be ordering the former rather than the latter whenever I was near the bar.

[sparks85]

Dazed and Confused said:

Car booty.

Nooooooope

Did one of these a few months back, most horrific experience for a long time.

[sparks85]

Squiggs said:

If you manage to sell it on you're only likely to get about a third of what you think it's worth.

If you were willing for guests to get through all that you ordered, were willing to write it all off for the sake of everybody having good time - then the time/trouble v's money back would suggest that although it might go against the grain you either pour it away, pass it on to friends/family foc or build a cellar to store it in.

Should I be shocked when I hear reports that weddings cost £30k++ when this is an example of the wastage on the cost of the drinks

And the catering .........
Do you know the value of the food that got thrown away - that you had no opportunity to get your money back on????

Edited by Squiggs on Tuesday 8th August 22:32

I have literally said about 4 times that I don't want to give it away and don't have space to store it. Honestly, I think I was pretty clear. For the avoidance of doubt I don't need any more suggestions to do the exact opposite of what I'm trying to do!!

[sparks85]

woody2846 said:

Can you PM me a list please. Maybe able to do a deal with you?

Done!