WAITERS’ CORK MONEY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21600, 22 March 1932, Page 11

WAITERS’ CORK MONEY

PLAN TO END CUSTOM. “ Away with corkage ” has lately been the rallying cry of hotel and restaurant proprietors in London and throughout Britain. They have launched a joint canipaign to abolish the system under which line waiters draw a money commission on the old corks from the bottles of certain wines purchased by customers. Travellers from the wine merchants go round to hotels and restaurants, collect from the waiters the corks of their firms particular brand of wine, and pay out the cork money. The rate of pay is now from Is to 2s for champagne corks, and 6,1 to Is for still wine corks. Formerly champagne corks were Bd, and there ivas nothing on white and red wine corks. The idea of the cork money is simply to push the sale of particular brands “It is a pernicious system in every way,” said Mr R. C. Vaughan, head of the House of Lords refreshment department, and chairman of a number of large hotels, “ and we mean to stop it. There is a suggestion that the chief hotels and restaurants should only stock the wines from merchants who refuse to pay cork money.”