BEFORE YOU GO
RETAIL RANDOMS
ROULETTE N IA RUSS There was a time when some vodka brands couldn’t shout loud enough about how Russian they were. Given that brands are now retreating from Moscow faster than Napoleon in 1812, it’s hard to believe Russian Standard once sued “the mother of all vodkas from the motherland of vodka” Stolichnaya for false advertising over its provenance. At the time, Stolichnaya said it was truly Russian, was made in Russia, and was made from Russian ingredients. What a difference a “special military operation” makes. Now Stolichnaya (produced in Latvia these days) has rebranded as the less Russian-sounding Stoli and its website is decked out in blue and yellow in an act of solidarity with Ukraine. Don’t expect to see Russian Standard, which is more Russian than a bear in a Cossack hat, following suit. Its
homepage could easily be mistaken for the Russian Tourist Board’s. However, the company will probably ride out all the sanctions and boycotts, like the one imposed by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. When the board blocked the sale of Russian spirits across the state, the only brands affected were Russian Standard and Ustianochka.
Never heard of Ustianochka? That’s because its exclusively sold in Pennsylvania. So, spare a thought for Pennsylvanian resident Margaret Bayuk, a 74-year-old Slovakian immigrant and sole proprietor of Ustianochka. She’s been left with 30,000 bottles of vodka she can’t offload. And the mother of all headaches.
NATIONAL FLOCKDOWN FLOCKDOWN
break, free range eggs have been
If you’re wandering the supermarket
temporarily reclassified as barn
aisles wondering if free range eggs
eggs until hens are allowed back
have become the latest product to
outside.
So, because of the current out-
fall victim to the supply chain crisis,
And it’s not just poultry that's
then don’t worry, they haven’t.
affected by the so-called ‘flock-
Worry instead about Britain’s
down’. The UK-wide Avian Influenza
biggest-ever outbreak of bird flu,
Prevention Zone makes it a legal
which has led to nation’s hens lit-
requirement for all bird keepers
erally getting cooped-up to prevent the disease spreading.
– not just farmers – to keep them as the result of a global pandemic
indoors and follow strict biosecurity
Back in 2008, a bird flu outbreak
leading to “massive disruption” and
measures.
killed 243 people, mostly in Asia,
caused by a flu virus jumping from
Which explains why you hav-
and a House of Lords report warned
animals to people. Yeah right, as if
en’t seen many people taking their
that up to 75,000 Britons could die
that could ever happen.
budgie for a walk recently.
WEDNESDAY 23RD MARCH 2022 / ISSUE 97 / SLRMAG.CO.UK I 37
