New 284ml Stella Artois bottles

[goods01]

Who doesn't like the new 284ml Stella Artois bottles?

We bought three boxes of Stella recently and didn't realise they were the smaller bottles, until I started drinking them.

Very annoyed, feel like we've been ripped off. Don't like the bottles either, just too small.

Does anybody know where or who we can complain to?

[Hammer Head]

Surely, the only reason you would have to complain would be if there was something wrong with the product. It is stretching the imagination to think that you would complain about the size of the bottles, as this would have been clearly marked on the external packaging.

Personally, I never buy small bottles because I think they are too gassy. I always buy the bigger 660ml or Grolsch now do 710ml. I have even seen SA in 1 litre bottles. Bigger bottles are less gassy and you don't need to go to the fridge so often.

[whiffey]

I agree with HammerHead about the complaining thing, although I sympathise. I bought three 20-bottle boxes of Budweiser at the weekend thinking they were the normal 330ml, infact they were 300ml - your eye sees the '3' and assumes. So now we have 275, 284, 300, 330 ml sizes....

re: gassiness, I maintain that one of the great joys of very cold bottled lager is the hugely satisfying belches it produces. As to trips to the fridge, just get 2 at a time.

[mrrobbo15]

im afraid its the norm now.....to hold the price at say �5.99 or �9.99....the supermarkets demand the price, so smaller cans are produced

[Xollob]

It's all part of the Great British Beer Ripoff. I live in Germany and come back to the UK on a regular basis. I'm always amazed at what the retailers get away with. The duty may be higher than "on the continent", but that does not explain the egregious price fixing for what is in most cases an inferior product. Then there is all the "buy-seven-and-get-two-at-one-third-off" nonsense which makes any comparison impossible unless you take Carol Vorderman with you to the supermarket. The 284ml bottles - what were they on when they came up with this number? - is just one more turn of the screw.

In Germany, beer has always come in 500ml and 333ml bottles. Life was simple. Now one or two of the big breweries are trying to push 250ml bottles - a complete waste of everybody's time. Obviously I ignore them in the shops, and if I'm offered one by a host at a party I always ask for two. I can only suggest you do the same, and perhaps organise a beer run to France or Belgium.

I think it's probably a case of caveat emptor with the boxes you bought - I'm sure the contents were on the label. But you could still complain to your retailer. It may be an unequal struggle, but you do have some power as a consumer.

[Hammer Head]

284ml is exactly 1/2 a pint.

[waimarie]

Just another example of the British horror of all things metric. What is 284ml for goodness sake (yes, I know it's half a pint) it's almost as bad as jars of jam at 484g (1lb). So, we end up with all these strange numbers which are quite ludicrous. Can't somebody just bite the bullet and start getting sensible about the whole thing and have 500g (roughly a pound), 250g (roughly half a pound). Same thing with liquids, make them 250ml, 500ml, 750ml and 1000ml (1 litre) and then we can all go back to sleep.

[Hammer Head]

Or better still if they are going to give you 284ml, then label it as 1/2 a pint, and label 454g as 1lb because that is what you are getting.