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Systembolaget to bring booze to Swedes’ offices

After its home delivery trials failed to created a stir, Sweden’s state-run liquor store monopoly Systembolaget announced on Friday that it would be trialing delivery to customers’ work places.

Published: 7 December 2012 12:49 CET

Systembolaget to bring booze to Swedes' offices

“It’s no surprise to see there’s been quite a lot of interest so far,” said Lennart Agén, spokesman of Systembolaget to the Metro newspaper.

The chain has been running home delivery services since November in Sollentuna, north of Stockholm, but the idea has been yet to take off.

In fact, there have only been 100 requests for home delivery since the concept was launched, despite a recent expansion into nearby suburbs Bromma and Johanneshov.

Undeterred, the chain is expanding into working life and planning to bring alocholic drinks to Swedes on the job.

However, the details are yet to be finalized.

“There are still no decisions as to how many areas in each county will be included,” Agén told the paper.

The idea is that office-bound Swedes will be able to make an order for their drinks from the comfort of their workplace for only a small surcharge.

If the chain suspects any foul play with people re-selling their booze, Systembolaget is also prepared to take action.

“If we suspect illicit alcohol sales we have the right to take back the goods,” Agén said.

TT/The Local/og

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Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU

Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Thirteen percent of people in Spain drink alcohol every day, a similar rate to Italy, where 12 percent enjoy a tipple on a daily basis, and only behind Portugal, where 20 percent of people have an alcoholic drink seven days a week.

That puts Spaniards above the EU average of 8.4 percent daily drinkers, data published by Eurostat in July 2021 reveals.

This consistent alcoholic intake among Spaniards is far higher than in countries such as Sweden (1.8 percent daily drinkers), Poland (1.6 percent), Norway (1.4 percent), Estonia (1.3 percent) and Latvia (1.2 percent).

However, the survey that looked at the frequency of alcohol consumption in people aged 15 and over shows that weekly and monthly drinking habits among Spaniards are more in line with European averages.

A total of 22.9 percent of respondents from Spain said they drunk booze on a weekly basis, 18.3 percent every month, 12.5 percent less than once a month, and 33 percent haven’t had a drink ever or in the last year.

Furthermore, another part of the study which looked at heavy episodic drinking found that Spaniards are the third least likely to get blind drunk, after Cypriots and Italians.

The Europeans who ingested more than 60 grammes of pure ethanol on a single occasion at least once a month in 2019 were Danes (37.8 percent), Romanians (35 percent), Luxembourgers (34.3 percent) and Germans (30.4 percent).

The UK did not form part of the study but Ireland is included.

Overall, Eurostat’s findings reflect how the Spanish habit of enjoying a glass of wine with a meal or a small beer (caña) outdoors with friends continues to be common daily practice, even though 13 percent does not make it prevalent.

Spaniards’ tendency to drink in moderation also continues to prevail, even though a 2016 study by Danish pharmaceuticals company Lundbeck found that one in six people in the country still drinks too much.

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