Word: premiums
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
There has been a dramatic improvement in table wines throughout the price spectrum. It is a truism that today's "jug" wines -bottles containing 1.75 liters at prices ranging from $3.50 to $5-are superior to the more expensive premium wines of a decade ago and right-years better than the vin ordinaire that gurgles by the gallon down French gullets. A major step in the de-Colanization process has been marked by vintage labeling, meaning that at least 95% of the wine in the bottle was grown in the stated year rather than blended with other vintages. (While...
...into research, grants for young artists or gifts to museums. Says he: "They are simply dealing in commodities." There is a gavel-size black cloud over the Big Two, however. Christie's, closely followed in London by Sotheby's, in 1975 tacked a 10% buyer's premium on all sales (in addition to the average 10% commission charged the seller). English dealers with American backing sued the two firms for collusion and restraint of trade. The case will not even come to trial for an other year; in the U.S., where the same surcharge has been levied...
...ripped-up and lined with drainpipes. Songs of war, songs of peace--songs of love, all. Look at the kids pour down the stairs into the cooker. Before the show, they buy cheap wine and beer at the package store and get pissed before they have to pay premium at the bar. And they sit at the door, exchanging reds and frothy laughter, when the show time nears...
Value-conscious consumers, of course, are not the only people paying premium prices. Some upmarket shopping is strictly self-indulgent and "Me Generation" snobbery. Candy consumption is down, but status-hungry consumers are still gobbling up items like Godiva, chocolates at $12 per lb. L'Oréal hair-care products push the message to shoppers: "L'Oréal is more expensive, and I'm worth it." Still, says Lord & Taylor Chairman Joseph E. Brooks, "I do not think there will be promiscuous luxury buying of gifts...
Under the MIC program, an 18-year-old Hartford fellow just getting a license to drive his new Chevy Citation, for example, pays exactly the same as a 35-year-old Hartford housewife climbing behind the wheel of the same model car for the first time. Drivers will receive premium reductions for each year of accident-free motoring, up to a maximum of five consecutive years. MIC estimates that people under 25 will pay an average of 55% less than they have been paying...