For those not in the know, Systembolaget is the Swedish alcohol shop. If you want to buy a beer over 3.5% you need to go there. You need to be over 20 to buy and in smaller towns there is often just one or two (in Borås, a city of 100,000 there is just two).
They have certain opening times - and this is to control how much and when the Swedes drink, because of course we cannot be trusted otherwise. In their own words:
"Systembolaget exists for one reason: To minimize alcohol-related problems by selling alcohol in a responsible way, without profit motive".
In the UK at 18 years old you can go into almost any store at any time and buy a bottle of whiskey, or a 6-pack. The difference?
I have never in the UK seen a park or bus stop etc filled with old alcoholics.
Does Sweden need a big brother to tell it when it can and cannot drink? Discuss. On a Saturday the shop closes at 14.00, (sometimes 15.00) that means at 13.45 on a Saturday you can't move in the store because of all the people rushing in at the last minute to buy up as much as they can.
It also means that if you are like me and sometimes fancy a nice cold can of beer on a summer night, maybe on a Wednesday - if you don't plan it in advance then you need to go down to a bar and pay 5, maybe 6 times as much for a beer - I don't like this! It's not that I HAVE to have a beer, it's just that I like the choice to decide and to be sporadic with it too.
The system obviously doesn't work as in any suburb you can find armies of alcoholics at almost any given time, you can also see armies of way to drunk people roaming the streets at any weekend. My theory is it's like if you hide the candy from the kid - as soon as he finds it, he's off, stuffing himself until he's sick or until he gets caught. Give him the choice and yeah, maybe he eats a bit too much sometimes but he'll soon learn that he can get sick!
Also, without the choice (and this is something that I know is my own problem) if the "beer hungry" like myself can't just go buy a beer now and again, we end up at the bars, and the bars suck our money out of our pockets - it's the reason why a beer in a bar in Sweden costs to fucking much! Because they can only make a profit on a weekend.
In short - Systembolaget, I don't like you. But you're my only choice.
2 comments:
Haha, a British friend of mine who moved here 4 years ago was quite fascinated by Systemet and the whole cult around it. He said it was almost like we worshipped our captor, which he might have been right about...
Anyways, just found your blog, very entertaining. Keep it up, despite the lack of comments. :)
Yes, over 5000 views a month and almost zero comments ha ha, I thank you for that =)
Worship our captors...ha ha, you're very right! No wonder they call it "Stockholm Syndrome".
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