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Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas
- fouc 6y agoWhat's interesting about this?
- axlee 6y agoDo you know a lot of places with monthly alcohol purchase quotas?
- jhugo 6y agoWell, there are not that many tax-free places. If they didn't have quotas, there would no doubt be thriving businesses buying alcohol in Svalbard and selling it in the rest of Norway.
- progre 6y agoTransport costs might put a damper on that. Also, it sounds like it would also be subjected to import restrictions, even if it's the same country.
- jhugo 6y agoSmuggling is a thing, though. And transport costs tend to reduce as volume increases, and alcohol is a popular product...
- progre 6y agoWell, if we are talking illegal activities, Norway shares a long, marginally patrolled border with Sweden where alcohol is significantly cheaper. So if you are into smuggeling, I would try that first, before trying to arrange something up in the arctic sea.
- willowfine 6y agoPre-covid, this was a thriving and mostly legal industry. There are quotas on how much may be imported for personal consumption. Meanwhile, the Swedes go to Denmark for cheap alcohol, the Danes go to Germany, the Germans to Poland and the Poles to Ukraine. Thus Ukraine is the fixed point of the alcohol-flow function. This theorem was proven when I was a PhD student in a research group which contained a Norwegian, a Swede, a German, a Pole and a Ukrainian - we extrapolated the Danish connection point.
- vincnetas 6y agoQatar has "alcohol license" for residents. Not sure about that but what i heard your employer has to say how much you get to drink. https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/qatar/lifestyle/food-drink/liquor-licence https://www.angloinfo.com/how-to/qatar/lifestyle/food-drink/... EDIT: yes article mentions this The letter must be addressed to the Qatar Distribution Company, be stamped and signed by an authorised person within the company, and include the following information: The applicant's position within their company The applicant's basic salary. The word 'basic' must be used. To get a permit a minimum salary is needed (4,000 riyals or 1,100 US dollars) Whether the applicant receives an accommodation entitlement or has free accommodation Whether the applicant is married When applying for a permit an individual must fill in an application form, pay a returnable deposit and state their religion
- shrikant 6y agoI remember something like this in Oman as well, back when I lived there in the late 80s/early 90s. Looking at the situation now though, it looks like it might be a very tiny bit more liberal, in that you still need a "personal consumption licence", but the quota appears to have been done away with.
- murrayhenson 6y agoMaybe that the quotas are very low, or that there are quotas at all. Mainland Norway definitely doesn't have quotas like this; rather alcohol is simply made to be quite expensive. When I read this my first thought was something like, "I bet that those who don't drink are making a bit of profit on the side by selling their allowances." However, I'm guessing that for Svalbard's dedicated drinkers ...they're finding a way around the import restrictions. It would be interesting to hear how folks deal with the restrictions by someone that lives on Svalbard or has spent significant time there.
- jhugo 6y ago> Mainland Norway definitely doesn't have quotas like this; rather alcohol is simply made to be quite expensive. If you don't mind the higher price I'm sure you can still import it as long as you pay the duty. (The linked page merely says that you cannot import tax-free.) So ultimately it's the same situation as in (the rest of) Norway, but with some small allowance of cheaper tax-free alcohol. If they didn't have the quotas, people would arbitrage it.
- alistairSH 6y agoMaybe that the quotas are very low 24 bottles of liquor, 6 bottles of fortified wines, nearly 300 cans of beer, and unlimited wine annually is low? I'd hate to be the liver of anybody drinking that much.
- aequitas 6y agoI find the law that requires you to carry a firearm more interesting: https://www.sysselmannen.no/en/weapon/ https://www.sysselmannen.no/en/weapon/ Being a remote town in the far north with unusual day/nighy cycles does require some strange laws to keep everyone safe and sane I guess. Also, Tom has been there ofc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJ-ze2-SqU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJ-ze2-SqU
- k__ 6y agoGives me a bit of a Skyrim vibe, haha.
- paranoidrobot 6y ago> I find the law that requires you to carry a firearm more interesting That's not quite what it says. Firearms are only a recommendation. > Due to the polar bear threat in Svalbard, anyone travelling outside the settlements must be equipped with appropriate means of frightening and chasing off polar bears. > The Governor of Svalbard also recommends having firearms with you.
- bovermyer 6y agoThere are levels of risk I am not prepared to accept. I'll carry an assault shotgun, an assault rifle, and a dedicated ammunition-hauling dog with me if I go outside a town in Svalbard.
- throwawayfire 6y agoMaybe that there is a customs border internal to Norway?
- jonsen 6y agoWikipedia on Svalbard: “While part of the Kingdom of Norway since 1925, Svalbard is not part of geographical Norway; administratively, the archipelago is not part of any Norwegian county, but forms an unincorporated area administered by a governor appointed by the Norwegian government, and a special jurisdiction subject to the Svalbard Treaty that is outside of the Schengen Area, the Nordic Passport Union and the European Economic Area.”
- bbojan 6y agoDo you know of any other place that has quotas on alcohol consumption?
- k__ 6y agoSounds rather much for one person in one month.
- PaulHoule 6y ago2 cans a beer a day would not be excessive by most standards, that would add up to 60 cans a month. 24 cans of beer consumed in one sitting would be excessive.
- k__ 6y agoIs it really so common to drink alcohol every day?
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoDepends on culture, both national and local. In some it's very common (like my dad has a beer every day after work, or France / Italy where a glass of wine at lunch is not uncommon).
- nextlevelwizard 6y agoLight wine was specifically exempt from the rules
- sokoloff 6y agoI suspect it's not uncommon to find people who have wine nearly every day. Someone who is drinking two beers on many days is likely to have six on some days, making up for the odd day that they have zero. The actual quota is less than one can per day, though, which seem too strict to me (with respect to a government restriction, I mean).
- kzrdude 6y agoA glass of wine after work to wind down is pretty popular no? (Culture: scandinavia)
- dean177 6y ago
- tyingq 6y agoHeadline fooled me. To me quota usually means "you must do this much", this appears to be a limit.
- k__ 6y agoI only know this from AWS, where it means "limits".
- jhugo 6y agoIn some contexts it's a minimum - e.g. monthly sales quota for a salesperson, or monthly ticket quota for a traffic police officer.
- jonsen 6y agoWiktionary: “A prescribed number or percentage that may serve as, for example, a maximum, a minimum, or a goal.”
- pmiller2 6y agoDisk quotas are common in all sorts of multiuser systems.
- jmartrican 6y agoI think quotas work in both directions.... you have to do this many in certain time, or you only get this many in certain time. Here is the definition.... :a proportional part or share especially : the share or proportion assigned to each in a division or to each member of a body
- tyingq 6y agoYeah, perhaps my life experience just had a lot of the "have to do this many" quotas, and the others were presented to me as limits. TIL.
- killtimeatwork 6y agoInterestingly, XIX century Poland has exactly the "minimum amount consumed" kind of quotas of alcohol... It was legislated by nobles who were producing alcohol from their grain and figured they'd force peasants to but it from them, to periodically extract whatever monetary surplus the peasants (serfs) managed to build up. One of the result was of course rampant alcoholism, since the peasants now owned buckets of vodka and they figured they might as well drink it if they paid for it...
- robert_foss 6y agoThis sounds very much like the Swedish alcohol importation laws.
- jonsen 6y agoYou can bring a tax free quota into Sweden (and many other places for that matter) but you can’t buy tax free inside Sweden, can you?
- seanmcdirmid 6y agoAirports often have duty free shops just inside customs, so you technically might be able to on a return trip.
- willowfine 6y agoYes, this is possible and legal in Sweden. The other way to obtain cheap alcohol is to take a cruise via the island of Åland, which is not in the EU. If you plan to visit Åland, make sure to pick a ferry that actually stops there as opposed to just symbolically tossing out a mooring rope for a few minutes to satisfy the legal requirements.
- tricolon 6y agoÅland is in the EU, but the EU tax rules don't apply: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territories_and_the_European_Union#%C3%85land_Islands https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_member_state_territori...
- qwerty456127 6y ago> Private individuals resident in Svalbard must purchase their alcohol quota in Svalbard and are not able to import tax-free alcohol from the mainland to Svalbard. I doubt local shops have particularly good assortment to choose from, do they?
- Quarrelsome 6y agosame goes for Iceland, only place you can buy alcohol outside of a bar is from a government shop that closes at 18:00.
- kzrdude 6y agoIceland has their own breweries and i think you can get very reasonable beer, for example domestic ones
- giantg2 6y agoI can get very reasonable beer where I live... I make my own beer, wine, and mead.
- Quarrelsome 6y agoye but you have to buy them from the government shop don't you? They don't sell alcohol in corner shops like the rest of the anglosphere.
- dahart 6y agoI guess that’s just for hard alcohol? Iceland has beer in tourist shops at least, if not grocery stores. But in tourist shops it’s expensive enough that you wouldn’t want to stock up there. I saw individual bottles for $10 (cheap beer) and $20 US (nice beer), for example, at the Gullfoss store.
- rkjaran 6y agoIceland does not have beer in tourist shops or grocery stores. Alcohol is only sold at the state run monopoly, bars and restaurants. What they sell at grocery stores and tourist shops is non alcoholic or with a very low (<2.25%) alcohol content, and they're mostly produced to circumvent the ban on alcohol advertising.
- Quarrelsome 6y agoAnyone know the reasoning? I'm assuming its attempting to prevent alcoholism? I know Greenland and Iceland (to a lesser extent) suffer somewhat perhaps due to the light and isolation being contributing factors.
- AdrianB1 6y agoYou are mostly right, it is to prevent alcoholism like other attempts are still made in different countries to limit or ban soda and sweet drinks, cigarettes, some drugs, some or all guns. It is in general good for public health and bad for average IQ.
- C19is20 6y agoWhy would preventing alcoholism be bad for average iq?
- jonsen 6y agoCould mean users are mostly low IQ and will die early.
- AdrianB1 6y agoBrain needs challenges and stimulation to develop; when people are taken care of, average IQ of society decreased over time. If you check the numbers there are several metrics where we regressed in the past hundreds of years, including reaction time, testosterones production, fertility etc. Good times create mediocre people and the times were better and better in the past centuries, while people got more and more mediocre.
- byproxy 6y agoWhat’s wrong with being mediocre?
- throwaway98797 6y ago
- abujazar 6y agoNorwegian here. The reason for the quotas is historical and were put in place to limit miners' consumption of beer and liquor. Interestingly there's practically no quota on wine, presumably because miners didn't care much for that. You can't buy wine and liquor at local stores in Norway Svalbard, but there is a great selection in the state run monopoly stores (Vinmonopolet). In Longyearbyen there's one called Nordpolet (The North Pole, a pun on "pol" meaning both pole and being an abbrevation for monopoly).
- giantg2 6y agoPennsylvania has monopoly state stores for liquor too. When weddings used to last for days, the mine bosses here would go to the beer and liquor stores and tell them to stop selling to that group of people. Then when the drinks ran out, the wedding would end and the miners would go back to work.
- chrissnell 6y agoMore recently, the PA state-run liquor stores shut down for weeks during the covid scare and when they did open up, they only took a very limited number of orders online and over the phone. It was basically impossible to buy hard alcohol here for over a month. People were driving to other states to get it.
- giantg2 6y agoI could see it coming. I rarely buy anything, but picked up a bottle or two about 2 days before they announced the closure. I guess technically it's not a full monopoly since they do allow distillers in the state to sell thier own product on premise. The place near me was selling some premixed handles for $60-80. Talk about price gouging.
- TecoAndJix 6y ago[PA Resident] You could (and still can) order liquor from PA distillers and have it shipped to your home! I remember not having to sign for anything and thinking sub-21 year old me would have loved this information. A nice workaround during the shutdowns
- benbristow 6y agoGlad I don't live there, sod that.
- mortenjorck 6y agoFor a sense of scale, the Svalbard archipelago has a population of about 3,000. Antarctica's seasonal peak is around 5,000.
- hardtke 6y agoWhen I was in McMurdo station in Antarctica on the way to the South Pole I happened to be there at the same time as the Navy cargo unloading crew. McMurdo banned all alcohol sales while the Navy was in town.
- GekkePrutser 6y agoFor another sense of scale, Svalbard has 61,022 km^2 and Antarctica 14,200,000 km^2. So even when Antarctica might have more people at times, its population density is still way lower.
- cozzyd 6y agoIn Kangerlussuaq (Greenland), the price of booze goes way up after 6 pm.
- r_singh 6y agoInteresting... how exactly does this work? Like Happy Hours? Or do shop owners also have to pay more to distributors?
- cozzyd 6y agoI was talking about bars/restaurants. I think it's banned at shops after 6 pm completely. Also, from what I remember, there is a weekly quota at the store at McMurdo station in Antarctica, but I think that probably has more to do with limited supply than rampant alcoholism (there is also a quota for soda and LaCroix...).
- aaron695 6y agoI don't get it. I read it as - You have to pay tax on what you drink in Svalbard like the rest of the world. You also get a small tax free quota.
- httpsterio 6y agoIn case anyone is interested in Finland, a neighboring country's alcohol policies: Alcohol has 1.2 to 80% ABV, anything less is classified as low in alcohol and different rules apply. Anything above isn't meant for consumption. 5.5% ABV drinks are the strongest you can buy in a normal grocery store. It used to be 4.5% and the drinks had to be fermented, no liquor blends for example were allowed. These days they're allowed. Anything above 5.5% can only be bought from the state run monopoly, Alko, or ordered, which in itself is a complex issue and Finland is breaking the EU directives currently when it comes to that. Anyone over the age of 18 can buy alcohol up to 22% ABV, you have to be over the age of 20 to buy stronger. Selling >22% stuff to an 18 year old is illegal.
- dehrmann 6y agoOne of the first Swedish words I learned was Systembolaget, the state run liquor store. I you want something with more than 3.5% alcohol, they're you're store, as long as you have the foresight to show up before they close at 6 PM (1 PM on Saturdays). The booze cruise to Finland was the other place people get alcohol.