As many, if not all of you know, Sweden has a strict monopoly on its alcohol sales. It is only \u201cSystembolaget\u201d, the name of the organization, that is allowed to sell alcohol over 3,5% in all of Sweden.<\/p>\n
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There are a total of 416 stores and 508 agents who are allowed to sell alcohol.<\/p>\n
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When talking about alcohol in Sweden many people believe that, were the monopoly to be taken away, the consumption of alcohol would increase enormously and would be a huge cost to society. Others counter and say that the only reason we still have a monopoly on products such as alcohol is for the government to have a big source of income. And that it wouldn\u2019t really matter at all if people were able to buy alcoholic beverages in supermarkets as they do with other products.<\/p>\n
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Many people who have immigrated to Sweden find it completely ridiculous that there is only one or two stores in a whole city where you can purchase alcohol. Not to mention that on red days Systembolaget is closed. During Halloween for example, all of Systembolaget\u2019s stores in Sweden were closed. People who were planning on partying were extremely frustrated that they had forgotten to buy a lot of spirits the day before and had to settle for low percentage drinks from grocery stores instead.<\/p>\n
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On Systembolagets homepage they have published a short video on their stance on what were to happen if the monopoly was removed. The video is only about 1,5 minutes and in english so it is well worth a look.<\/p>\n
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http:\/\/www.systembolagetkampanj.se\/forskarrapport_en\/<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is also a Swedish version for those of you who want to practice you swedish. The two versions are almost identical apart from the fact that they are in different languages. There is also the possibility of subtitles so you can hang along a little more.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n