5 ms·

There's no whiskey in mini bottles of Fireball, so customers are suing for fraud

23 points by fallowkevin 4y ago

mindcrime 4y ago
Huh. I remember seeing some of those little bottles at a covenience store a while back and wondering about that. Here in NC, liquor can normally only be sold at state controlled ABC stores. I guess now I know.
detaro 4y ago
> The 99-cent bottles are sold in 170,000 stores, including gas stations and grocery stores, prompting some customers to wonder what products they presumed to contain liquor were doing there Is it many US states where such places can't sell liquor? (I know there's some areas with quite strict rules, but was surprised that wasn't explicitly referenced in the article)
- fallowkevin 4y ago
  >Is it many US states where such places can't sell liquor? (I know there's some areas with quite strict rules, but was surprised that wasn't explicitly referenced in the article) [extremely Ron Swanson voice] Not everyplace can you buy a handle of hard liquor in the CVS like it's Bloomington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_the_United_Sta...
- wildzzz 4y ago
  My state only sells liquor at state-run stores. Imagine my surprise when I saw Fireball in airplane bottles at the grocery store. I probably would have bought some if I had been in the market for something awful without a second glance. Turns out its just like cinnamon whiskey flavored malt beverage, I guess like maddog but smaller? Good thing the liquor store is nextdoor.
- StanislavPetrov 4y ago
  Here in New York you can only buy liquor & wine (unless it is under a certain alcohol %) at a liquor store. Beer you can buy pretty much anywhere, except, ironically, at liquor stores, which aren't allowed to sell beer.
quitit 4y ago
They both contain alcohol. The one that is labelled "whiskey" contains whiskey, the one that is not labelled "whiskey" doesn't contain whiskey. Should a rational consumer find this to be deceptive?
- AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
  > malt beverage with natural whisky & other flavors and carmel color this is lexically ambiguous and I'm not going to blame anyone, especially someone buying 99c bottles of fake whiskey at a convenience store, for mis-understanding it and thinking it meant it contains whiskey. I do think the headline here is disingenuous to say "consumers" are suing. Some class-action-mill law firm is suing. This seems like yet another class action created by lawyers, purely for the benefit of lawyers where the vast majority of any benefit will go to the attorneys other professionals involved and a token amount will end up going to the consumers being "harmed" here.
  - DangitBobby 4y ago
    Not to mention, the full sized version of the product is "cinammon whiskey" and it's highly unusual that their tiny bottled version doesn't have any whiskey at all.
  - fuzzfactor 4y ago
    It is deceptive in its own way to have such a small amount of low-alcohol malt be tinted, spiced and packaged in the same kind of bottle with the same logo as the full-strength whisky original. Only the fine print is different and not everybody reads very well either. For the intoxicant lover, a little bottle of the whisky can provide the warmth they are seeking beyond the cinnamon itself, which a few spoonfuls of ale can not compare to. Even though you need to be of drinking age to buy either one. People could end up disappointed when they could have gotten a full-size beer at the convenient store for the same money.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- c4ptnjack 4y ago
h2odragon 4y ago
I saw a "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Gummy Candy". Can I sue someone for that? Not necessarily for fraud. that the product exists is an offense to human dignity. Then we can go after the people making "Fruity Pebbles flavor" $everything. I've seen pancake syrup, I expect floor wax and lighter fluid versions next.
- sneak 4y ago
  Fruity Pebbles flavor is really just citrus fruits. I found this "lemon and orange" tea that is spot-on (as a tea snob I hate that I love it): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BFNL2W/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BFNL2W/
- saurik 4y ago
  FWIW those gummies are fruit-flavored. They are really just designed as a gag, and that's certainly why I bought them for a friend of mine (someone who eats way too much macaroni and cheese). Do you also want to sue people for making whoopie cushions and fake vomit?
  - fallowkevin 4y ago
    Wait, under the logic of the article couldn't you sue because they're not macaroni and cheese flavored? Or like... at least not savory? Those Jelly Belly beans that they rebranded as Bertie Bott's have a "popcorn" flavor, so we definitely have the technology to do butter adjacent flavorings...
brailsafe 4y ago
On a perhaps unrelated note, I've been paying closer attention to ingredients as inflation continues rampaging. I don't know if I'm just noticing it more or not, but there seems to be an increases prevalence of clever package design that tries to obscure the fact that there is no chocolate in "Chocolatey Chip Cookies" or any Dark Chocolate in Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Protein Granola bars or w/e. But they're on sale for the sweet price of whatever the normal price was before! $5 for 4 bars totalling 148g! https://www.naturevalley.ca/products/peanut-butter-dark-chocolate-protein-bars/ https://www.naturevalley.ca/products/peanut-butter-dark-choc... They get around the latter example by putting "Flavour" in a tiny font size and color that blends in with the background, on a new line; you have to be looking for it. For something called "Nature Valley", they sure as hell don't give off that vibe
- Rebelgecko 4y ago
  This predates inflation, but i think it's fascinating to look at the "ice cream" aisle at my grocery store. Most of the items can't legally call themselves ice cream (not enough milk content or too much of ingredients like corn syrup) so the packaging often has some small text with a low contrast against the background color that uses some weird terminology like "frozen dairy dessert".
  - brailsafe 4y ago
    Ya that one for sure predates inflation. I've been seeing it for at least 8 years I feel like. But in that case there are at least options most of the time. Like I can just get haagen-daas or something and not feel screwed. It's also a dessert, so I can just not get it at all or seldomly if the higher cost option is the only one using actual cream. With more basic things from the shelf, I look at the ingredients and think "Nope, nope, nope, wow even that?, nope, oh this one... has no sugar but 1200mg of sodium wtf!?" Like if I want sugar, I want to know the thing is a thing I shouldn't be just carelessly eating. I'll get cookies, or a slice of cake, or ya some ice cream. I don't want it in my fucking tomato sauce, and I don't want the tomatoes to actually be tomato-flavoured chunks
- fallowkevin 4y ago
reeckoh 4y ago
Sounds like they should label it more clearly, but this story looks like a funny hack to me. Some states only allow the sale of beer and wine in places like gas stations and grocery stores. You can't sell whiskey there, but you can sell spiced malt beverages. Unrelated, I really like that NPR has a script-free "text.npr.org" subdomain.
- marklubi 4y ago
  I saw Fireball on the counter of a convenience store the other day and was somewhat confused. The state doesn't allow liquor sales in convenience stores, but does allow the sale of beer and malt liquor. That explains what was going on.
- anfilt 4y ago
  Yea, that's what I was thinking. Should have just added the word flavour or similar.

23 points by fallowkevin 4y ago

Huh. I remember seeing some of those little bottles at a covenience store a while back and wondering about that. Here in NC, liquor can normally only be sold at state controlled ABC stores. I guess now I know.

detaro 4y ago

> The 99-cent bottles are sold in 170,000 stores, including gas stations and grocery stores, prompting some customers to wonder what products they presumed to contain liquor were doing there Is it many US states where such places can't sell liquor? (I know there's some areas with quite strict rules, but was surprised that wasn't explicitly referenced in the article)

fallowkevin 4y ago
>Is it many US states where such places can't sell liquor? (I know there's some areas with quite strict rules, but was surprised that wasn't explicitly referenced in the article) [extremely Ron Swanson voice] Not everyplace can you buy a handle of hard liquor in the CVS like it's Bloomington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_laws_of_the_United_Sta...
wildzzz 4y ago
My state only sells liquor at state-run stores. Imagine my surprise when I saw Fireball in airplane bottles at the grocery store. I probably would have bought some if I had been in the market for something awful without a second glance. Turns out its just like cinnamon whiskey flavored malt beverage, I guess like maddog but smaller? Good thing the liquor store is nextdoor.
StanislavPetrov 4y ago
Here in New York you can only buy liquor & wine (unless it is under a certain alcohol %) at a liquor store. Beer you can buy pretty much anywhere, except, ironically, at liquor stores, which aren't allowed to sell beer.

quitit 4y ago

They both contain alcohol. The one that is labelled "whiskey" contains whiskey, the one that is not labelled "whiskey" doesn't contain whiskey. Should a rational consumer find this to be deceptive?

AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
> malt beverage with natural whisky & other flavors and carmel color this is lexically ambiguous and I'm not going to blame anyone, especially someone buying 99c bottles of fake whiskey at a convenience store, for mis-understanding it and thinking it meant it contains whiskey. I do think the headline here is disingenuous to say "consumers" are suing. Some class-action-mill law firm is suing. This seems like yet another class action created by lawyers, purely for the benefit of lawyers where the vast majority of any benefit will go to the attorneys other professionals involved and a token amount will end up going to the consumers being "harmed" here.
- DangitBobby 4y ago
  Not to mention, the full sized version of the product is "cinammon whiskey" and it's highly unusual that their tiny bottled version doesn't have any whiskey at all.
- fuzzfactor 4y ago
  It is deceptive in its own way to have such a small amount of low-alcohol malt be tinted, spiced and packaged in the same kind of bottle with the same logo as the full-strength whisky original. Only the fine print is different and not everybody reads very well either. For the intoxicant lover, a little bottle of the whisky can provide the warmth they are seeking beyond the cinnamon itself, which a few spoonfuls of ale can not compare to. Even though you need to be of drinking age to buy either one. People could end up disappointed when they could have gotten a full-size beer at the convenient store for the same money.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
c4ptnjack 4y ago

h2odragon 4y ago

I saw a "Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Gummy Candy". Can I sue someone for that? Not necessarily for fraud. that the product exists is an offense to human dignity. Then we can go after the people making "Fruity Pebbles flavor" $everything. I've seen pancake syrup, I expect floor wax and lighter fluid versions next.

sneak 4y ago
Fruity Pebbles flavor is really just citrus fruits. I found this "lemon and orange" tea that is spot-on (as a tea snob I hate that I love it): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BFNL2W/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001BFNL2W/
saurik 4y ago
FWIW those gummies are fruit-flavored. They are really just designed as a gag, and that's certainly why I bought them for a friend of mine (someone who eats way too much macaroni and cheese). Do you also want to sue people for making whoopie cushions and fake vomit?
- fallowkevin 4y ago
  Wait, under the logic of the article couldn't you sue because they're not macaroni and cheese flavored? Or like... at least not savory? Those Jelly Belly beans that they rebranded as Bertie Bott's have a "popcorn" flavor, so we definitely have the technology to do butter adjacent flavorings...

brailsafe 4y ago

On a perhaps unrelated note, I've been paying closer attention to ingredients as inflation continues rampaging. I don't know if I'm just noticing it more or not, but there seems to be an increases prevalence of clever package design that tries to obscure the fact that there is no chocolate in "Chocolatey Chip Cookies" or any Dark Chocolate in Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Protein Granola bars or w/e. But they're on sale for the sweet price of whatever the normal price was before! $5 for 4 bars totalling 148g! https://www.naturevalley.ca/products/peanut-butter-dark-chocolate-protein-bars/ https://www.naturevalley.ca/products/peanut-butter-dark-choc... They get around the latter example by putting "Flavour" in a tiny font size and color that blends in with the background, on a new line; you have to be looking for it. For something called "Nature Valley", they sure as hell don't give off that vibe

Rebelgecko 4y ago
This predates inflation, but i think it's fascinating to look at the "ice cream" aisle at my grocery store. Most of the items can't legally call themselves ice cream (not enough milk content or too much of ingredients like corn syrup) so the packaging often has some small text with a low contrast against the background color that uses some weird terminology like "frozen dairy dessert".
- brailsafe 4y ago
  Ya that one for sure predates inflation. I've been seeing it for at least 8 years I feel like. But in that case there are at least options most of the time. Like I can just get haagen-daas or something and not feel screwed. It's also a dessert, so I can just not get it at all or seldomly if the higher cost option is the only one using actual cream. With more basic things from the shelf, I look at the ingredients and think "Nope, nope, nope, wow even that?, nope, oh this one... has no sugar but 1200mg of sodium wtf!?" Like if I want sugar, I want to know the thing is a thing I shouldn't be just carelessly eating. I'll get cookies, or a slice of cake, or ya some ice cream. I don't want it in my fucking tomato sauce, and I don't want the tomatoes to actually be tomato-flavoured chunks
fallowkevin 4y ago

reeckoh 4y ago

Sounds like they should label it more clearly, but this story looks like a funny hack to me. Some states only allow the sale of beer and wine in places like gas stations and grocery stores. You can't sell whiskey there, but you can sell spiced malt beverages. Unrelated, I really like that NPR has a script-free "text.npr.org" subdomain.

marklubi 4y ago
I saw Fireball on the counter of a convenience store the other day and was somewhat confused. The state doesn't allow liquor sales in convenience stores, but does allow the sale of beer and malt liquor. That explains what was going on.
anfilt 4y ago
Yea, that's what I was thinking. Should have just added the word flavour or similar.