Jose Cuervo is betting on the can. From 3 September, the world's best-selling tequila brand puts its name to a ready-to-drink Sparkling Margarita, rolling out through independent convenience stores nationwide at a recommended £2.55 — an accessible, mainstream price that plants the product firmly in the grab-and-go, at-home occasion rather than the premium end of the fridge.

The launch comes wrapped in an activation that is either very clever or very Soho, depending on your tolerance for a gimmick. On 10 and 11 September, Cuervo opens 'The Inconvenience Store' at 60-62 Broadwick Street: a pop-up dressed as a corner off-licence with no cash and only one currency.

Customers fill in a ticket describing their most recent everyday inconvenience — the delayed train, the dead wi-fi — take a chilled can from the fridge, hand the docket to a resident 'Bossman,' and leave with a free margarita. Up to 10,000 cans are going out over the two days.

Behind it sits the now-obligatory piece of commissioned research, the engine of most modern drinks PR. Cuervo's numbers — from a Censuswide poll of some 2,000 Britons — claim the average person loses six days a year to minor inconveniences, that one in five forfeits a fortnight, and that travel and commuting (35%) are the worst offenders, ahead of chores and queues (18%), the weather (15%) and tech gremlins (13%). It is tidy, quotable and precisely engineered to earn the brand a run of coverage — which, the presence of this article notwithstanding, it will.

The strategy is sound enough, because the category is real. Ready-to-drink cocktails have been one of the drinks trade's few reliable growth stories, driven by at-home premiumisation and a generation happy to swap the ceremony of the cocktail bar for a cold can and no washing-up. A credible margarita — Cuervo promises real tequila and 'bar-quality' flavour without the shaker — is an obvious play for the off-trade. Whether it troubles the on-trade is another question: a £2.55 can and a proper bar margarita are not, in the end, competing for the same evening, and most operators will read this as category-building rather than cannibalisation.

For the trade, then, little to fear and something to note: another major spirits owner treating the can as a serious format, and another reminder that experiential barter — swap a grievance for a drink — remains a cheap and effective way to buy an afternoon of goodwill in Soho. The cans are Proximo's; the queue, for at least two days, will be Broadwick Street's. Whether anyone still reaches for one at £2.55 once the free fridge is emptied is the only test that finally matters.