February Blog
An ad in Systembolagets campaign with the headline "We Swedes invented the smartest way in the world to sell alcohol. (Perhaps because we needed it more than others.)"
I dislike monopolies out of principle, but there is one monopoly I really like. In my opinion the Swedish Systembolaget wine and spirits monopoly is a great institution that I hope will prevail in some form, even though the European Union would love to crush it. In response to the nagging from Brussels, Systemet has launched an advertising campaign touting the virtues of the Swedish way of dealing with alcohol.
It wasn't the politicians who created the Swedish alcohol distribution monopoly, it was the miners. The mining authorities in the city of Falun formed the world's first alcohol dispensing monopoly in 1850 to reduce accidents in the mine. By getting rid of the private profit motive they could stem the consumption which then was four times what it is today. Gradually more cities adopted the idea and in 1955 all the local mono-polies were rolled into one - Systembolaget.
Many countries have experimented with alcohol retail monopolies including the United States that, in 1930, realized it was a bad idea to forbid consumption in view of the prevailing attitude towards alcohol.
The billionaire John D Rockefeller sponsored a gigantic study to find the best way to sell alcohol and the answer was the "Swedish method". To this day many US states and Canadian provinces maintain alcohol monopolies.
In Sweden a new study details the probable effects of closing down the alcohol monopoly. According to experts, if strong beer, wine and alcohol would be freely available in all grocery stores, consumption would rise by 30 percent. This would lead to 16 million more sick days and 1 600 alcohol-related deaths. Not to speak of about 14 000 more cases of common assault.
There are no special offers in the boring Systembolaget stores that often dispense their wares across old-fashioned counters. The choice is limited, but the prices are the same wherever you go and you can rely on the value of what they sell. Being the world’s biggest buyer of wine, Systemet often offers great wines at very reasonable prices.
In the olden days British wine merchants used to take the ferry to Göteborg to buy up the grand brands like Lafite Rothschild, because of the relatively low prices for more expensive wines at Systemet stores.
Systembolaget buyers were the first to discover Australian and Chilean wines and they regularly buy some of the best wines from entire regions in Italy, France and Spain.
Have a nice February
Anders
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posted by Nordicway at 8:27 PM
1 Comments:
Amazing.
How a journalist / newspaper editor can been so totally taken in by what is nothing but propaganda!? Propaganda from the monopoly who fights to keep it privileged status.
Most of what you write is not true or very questionable.
In spite of (or thanks to?) the monopoly Swedish alcohol consumption has been steadily rising since the 40s. A successful public health program?
The "new" study you refer to is not really new. It's an old one that's been dusted off. And to call it "study" is stretching the description to the limits. It is a group of anti-alcohol people who have sat down and guessed (ops, sorry, "estimated") what the effects will be.
The monopoly is not at all the world's biggest buyer. That's a myth too. It might have been once but no longer. And if the prices are so favorable on wines and spirits in Sweden why do people drive in droves to Denmark and Germany to shop?
Not to mention the mediocre selection that Systembolaget offers to its customers. And rarely do they buy the best wines from producers in Italy, Spain or France. Those producers are generally small scale and a monopoly buyer wants big volumes. Like bag-in-box from South Africa. Millions of liters.
You can read a more thorough analysis of that incredibly smug, self-congratulating ad (how can you be so presumptuous?) here in the Monopolbloggen.
Where you also can read about how alcohol consumption in Canada rose *less* in a province that abolished the alcohol monopoly than in the province that *kept* the monopoly.
Or perhaps your post was really a joke?
-P
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