Display bottle contents?

[Acksboy]

Hope I’m ok to post this here as I’m not really sure what category it falls in to.
I heard from a friend the other day that he knows of someone who had just started working in a reputable whisky retail shop and after a couple weeks training he had been left by his supervisor to man the whisky counter on his own. When his supervisor returned, the young man was beaming ear to ear as he had just sold someone a whisky that cost over £10000. Naturally the supervisor was delighted up until the point that he checked the display cabinet for the more expensive bottles and found that the bottle in question had gone. Why you may ask? Well according to him the display bottles do not contain whisky and are actually filled with sugar water. Naturally, panic ensued as the realisation that a wealthy Japanese gentleman had just bought the worlds most expensive bottle of sugar syrup began to sink in.
I’m not sure how the story ended but it gave me a chuckle. However what really got me was the notion that expensive display bottles do not actually contain whisky. Can this be true?! I hope that my friend’s story was just a bit of old bull as I feel it takes away from the romanticism of gazing at a bottle in a shop that is beyond your financial reach but not beyond your physical grasp. I’ve never noticed any problem with the seals on the bottle and the colour obviously varies with each bottle so it just seems a bit too unlikely.

[Brummie]

It is always possible but I haven't come across it to my knowledge but then you would never know.

[webdunk]

Given that there are recently documented cases of theives wandering into shops and simply walking out with bottles then I think this is wholly plausible.

I know of some display bottles in a shop I frequent which are filled with tea. And many of the bottles (on general display rather than behind the bar) at a famous pub in the Highlands are filled with a facsimile.
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Inverness Whisky
@in5tadram

[davidbe]

This reminds me of my first job in an airport cafe. Someone ordered a croissant and I got one out of the fridge and served it.

Later on the boss was asking which one of had 'sold the display croissant" that had apparently been in there a good few months.

Nobody complained though...

[Drame Blanche]

If I have a display bottle of a 10k whisky with tea inside it, it still means I have an empty bottle of a 10k whisky with its label on it.

Here's a stupid question: how does that work? Do I print a fake label and stick it on a cheaper expression? What if the bottle isn't of a standard shape? There must be a better way than spending another 10k for another bottle, empty it and put the just-emptied one on display. And even finding empty bottles of expensive whisky ain't easy - rightly so, given how much scamming is already happening.

[Alexppp]

[lincoln imp]

If it is a display bottle it should states on the bottle somewhere exactly that and also sometimes 'contents not for re sale'
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Pour me a glass please.