Our Manchester shop in the snow

We’ve been snowed in since yesterday in Manchester where we’ve had at least 8″. We haven’t been able to ship online orders and we’ve had to shut our Manchester shop too.

Conditions have worsened overnight and the roads are treacherous.

There’s nothing worse for a shop than not being able to sell, so we thought we’d have a bit of fun and hopefully encourage you to do a bit of shopping.

We want you to get outside with a rule or tape measure and take a picture of yourself showing us just how deep your snow is. Then we’ll give you a discount on the cost of an order you place this week based on the depth of the snow in your area.

We’ll give you the number of inches you can measure as a percentage of your order – up to a total of 10%!

For instance, send us a snap showing 3 inches of snow, and we’ll send you a voucher for 3% off your order, send us one of 8 inches, and we’ll send you a voucher worth 8% off! To keep it simple, there’s no minimum spend required. All we ask is you use the voucher this week.

We’ll put the photos up on our blog and our facebook page and we’ll throw in a few random prizes too for the most imaginative and fun photos!

Then we hope to have lots of orders to pack when the snow starts to clear and we can get back into the warehouse – hopefully tomorrow.

To get things going, here’s a photograph of me measuring the snow here in Manchester. It was 7 inches deep!

John measuring the snow in Manchester

So, what are you waiting for? Get your hat and gloves on, get a rule or tape measure, and get snapping! Send your photos to info@alcoholfree.co.uk with the subject line How Deep Is Your Snow.

If you haven’t got a digital camera, or don’t know how to email photos, don’t worry, you won’t be left out. Just send us an email telling us how we can improve The Alcohol-Free Shop and we’ll send you a voucher worth 5% off your next order placed this week.

Stay safe, keep warm and have fun!

• Emma Cella, Eaton Bray
• Andrew Dommett, Tividale
• Bella Smyth, Swindon
• Natalie Henderson, Gravesend
• Margaret Farmer, Warrington

More blog competitions soon but for now why not enter our competition to win a case of Goose Island Root Beer?

Drinks Without Alcohol by Jane Brandt contains over 200 non-alcoholic drinks recipes. The book is decidedly US-focused, not surprisingly as it’s written by an American, and some of the drinks can seem a bit strange to people on this side of the pond although most drinks are universal.

From the jacket – “Luscious, non-alcoholic drinks – 200 of them – that are literally for the whole family, including the designated driver. Featuring fresh fruits and low-fat yoghurt, coffee and chocolate, berries and beets. Plus an imaginative bevy of beverages just for children’s parties.”

We have 5 copies to give away. To enter, simply follow @alcoholfree on twitter and send us a message with the correct answer to the following multiple-choice question (or alternatively email us at info@alcoholfree.co.uk).

Q) What is the main ingredient in a non-alcoholic Pina Colada?

A) Coconut cream

B) Strawberry juice

C) Coca Cola

ps. you can follow my own personal tweets (ie, mainly not shop related) at @j_alcoholfree, but if you only want to receive information on the shop, then @alcoholfree will be more suitable.

If you haven’t started using Twitter yet, it really is worth looking at. If you’ve looked at it and just “don’t get it”, this sums it up well:

Fancy an alcohol-free cocktail?

Check out our own recipes for non-alcoholic cocktails which use the Finest Call range of cocktail mixes.

Closing date: Midnight 31st March 2009

Terms and Conditions

1. Entry to the competition is restricted to one entry per person.
2. Multiple entries will be disqualified.
3. Excessive multiple entries from the same email account pertaining to be representative of friends and family will also be disqualified at the judge’s discretion.
4. No automated entries or third party are permitted!
5. The Competition is open UK residents only
6. Prizes can only be sent to a valid UK address
7. Winners will be chosen at random, by computer, from all correct and valid entries to the competition
8. Winners will be contacted via email
9. Padimax Limited, the organiser of the competition, is compliant with the Data Protection Act. Our policy is such that we will not pass on your details to any third party without your prior consent.
10. We reserve the right to publish the details of the winners on our website and/or in our email newsletter.
11. The Judge’s decision is final and no correspondance will be entered in to.