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Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

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Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#51

Post by nextlevelwizard »

iso1210 wrote: post #23
k__ wrote: post #4

Sounds rather much for one person in one month.

24 cans of beer? Depending on the size that's between 8 and 14 litres a month, about 1.8-3.2 litres a week. At 4% that's at most 13 UK units per week (assuming you buy large cans) -- guidelines are 14 units per week. For say 330ml cans of Tiger it's 8 units a week, that's not a lot for one person.

Maybe you are confusing the word "guideline" here with actual recommendation. You are not suppose to be drinking 14 units per week. You are not suppose to even be drinking every week. In any case you still as much light wine as you can reasonably consume. 2 bottles of liquor and half a bottle of fortified wine on top of your beer. If you consume even that much everyone month I'd be calling you an alcoholic.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#52

Post by nextlevelwizard »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #42
k__ wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so common to drink alcohol every day?

Depends 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).

Light wine was specifically exempt from the rules

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#53

Post by giantg2 »

abujazar wrote: post #47

Norwegian 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 Nordpol…

Pennsylvania 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.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#54

Post by giantg2 »

kzrdude wrote: post #43
Quarrelsome wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same goes for Iceland, only place you can buy alcohol outside of a bar is from a government shop that closes at 18:00.

Iceland has their own breweries and i think you can get very reasonable beer, for example domestic ones

I can get very reasonable beer where I live... I make my own beer, wine, and mead.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#55

Post by pcl »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #27

> 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?

Throughout Norway, pretty much all sales of alcoholic beverages over 4.7% happens through state-run liquor stores (Vinmonopolet).

Their selection is pretty great, but obviously imposes limits vs. a totally open import arrangement. And if a local store doesn't have something in stock, you can order it for later pickup, much like at a library with multiple branches. I don't know how that works in Svalbard, since it's so remote, but I wouldn't be surprised if they follow more or less the same procedures.

Interestingly, since they are a single buyer for millions of people, the Vinmonopolet purchasers get some great deals. And, since it's state-owned and very regulated, there are rules about how much they can mark up a bottle vs. their purchase price. So, you see this weird phenomenon in which people from elsewhere in Europe will fly to Norway to buy a case of some vintage that turned out really well and as a result is super-expensive everywhere else.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#56

Post by giantg2 »

jhugo wrote: post #12
murrayhenson wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe 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 w…

> 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 t…

Can you just brew your own?

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#57

Post by tyingq »

rorykoehler wrote: post #48
tyingq wrote: post #6

Headline fooled me. To me quota usually means "you must do this much", this appears to be a limit.

I always understood a quota to be a limit. Only in sales have I heard it used as you describe. For example look at EU milk quotas.

There are lots of examples outside of sales. Diversity hiring quotas, citation quotas for police, gender quotas for board of directors, survey quotas, productivity quotas, recruiting quotas (military, MLM orgs, etc), electoral gender quotas, factory production quotas, Amazon delivery driver quotas, and so on.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#58

Post by Quarrelsome »

kzrdude wrote: post #43
Quarrelsome wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

same goes for Iceland, only place you can buy alcohol outside of a bar is from a government shop that closes at 18:00.

Iceland has their own breweries and i think you can get very reasonable beer, for example domestic ones

ye 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.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#59

Post by AdrianB1 »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #32

Anyone 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.

You 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.

Re: Svalbard's Alcohol Quotas

#60

Post by pmiller2 »

killtimeatwork wrote: post #33
tyingq wrote: post #6

Headline fooled me. To me quota usually means "you must do this much", this appears to be a limit.

Interestingly, 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 vodk…

Considering how the only other thing I can think of to do with buckets of vodka in 19th century Poland is burn it, I'd probably go with drinking it, too. I'm not even sure burning it would work out well, either.
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