They even had a court dispute about the name. 🍺
Shoutout to u/simb33 on Reddit
this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
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this is completely normal in the nordic countries. norway, sweden and finland all have state alcohol monopolies and laws against consuming alcohol in public spaces.
Ah dang. I loved being able to walk up to a cart in Rome to grab a cold one (although I guess you can’t buy shit on Sundays).
A lot of states also do have laws on the books that define “public” in such a way that they count inside bars. When you think about things like Stonewall, there has been a long history of those laws being used to just go inside gay bars and arrest people for drinking. (Laws are still on the books in Texas I think, and the way the current administration is…)
i think that's where the difference lies. the letter of the law is subservient to the spirit of it, rather than the other way around. whenever there's even talk of using a law in another way than it was intended, there's consequences for whoever suggests it.
i'm quite fond of the alcohol monopoly to be honest. it means even small towns have a large and interesting selection, it means the staff all have to be able to give wine tips, and it means everything they sell is centrally tested so you get a little note on each shelf with the characteristics of every beverage, how it ranks compared to its peers, and what food if any it pairs well with. also the monopolies are some of the worlds largest wholesale purchasers of alcohol so the cost is kept at a pretty okay level, at least for things below 10%.
It seems that at least someone managed to get a cool job out of the whole thing.
Once I understood how the "Vinmonopolet" worked in Norway it made a lot of sense.
As a side note, one of my favorite things in Copenhagen (besides the curbed bike lanes) was openly drinking mead in a public park with no issue. Denmark might be super flat but it's also super cool