Sabena332 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 12196 times:
Last year I have been to Stockholm with my girlfriend, we arrived in our hotel in the evening and decided to drink something at the hotel bar. I can't remember exactly how much we drunk (it was moderate) but I remember very well that my girlfriend had to pay the bill with her credit card because she didn't have enough cash in her wallet (I left my wallet in our room so I drunk for free ).
Since that day I am asking myself why alcohol is so friggin expensive in all Scandinavian countries? Did these countries have problems with excessive alcohol consume in the past so that they introduced astronomic taxes on beer, wine, and booze?
Can anyone enlighten me?
Furthermore, which of the Scandinavian countries is the most expensive when it comes to alcohol?
How much money do you have to spend on drinks on a "normal" Saturday night?
TheSorcerer From United Kingdom, joined Oct 2005, 1047 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 12175 times:
Pretty much everything in Scandinavia is expensive. I don't know why.
The Sorcerer
ALITALIA,All Landings In Torino, All Luggage In Athens ;)
RJ100 From Russia, joined Nov 2000, 4107 posts, RR: 33 Reply 6, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 12141 times:
Last year in Norway I spent 10 Euros on a 0.4lt beer. That was in Oslo city center. A little bit outside of Oslo you can get low cost beer for only 8 Euros or so ...
Bofredrik From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 7, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 12112 times:
The answer is: large tax on all alcohol.
Why? Because the gvmt want to reduce the damage that alcohol makes on peoples health.
Alcohol in Sweden can only be found at SYSTEMBOLAGET:
"This is Systembolaget
Systembolaget is a modern, efficient retail enterprise consisting of 420 stores and about 590 local agencies, serving about 2 million customers every week. We supply customers in Sweden with alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine and spirits. Our business is a state owned monopoly, and from the very outset its retailing activities have been separated from any private profit.
The wide product range, the employees knowledge, and freedom of choice that we offer are difficult to find in countries where sales are organized differently."
Doona From Sweden, joined Feb 2005, 3706 posts, RR: 14 Reply 10, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 12056 times:
Quoting Logan22L (Reply 8): Simple rule of supply and demand. When you got things like this going on, there's not much left for the rest of you:
It's not that simple. Sweden has the highes tax on alcohol in Europe (save for maybe Norway, but I'm not sure about that). 40% of the price of a bottle of wine are taxes. That's why it's expensive.
The government wants to lower that, and pay for it by raising taxes on tobacco, which is fine with me, but guess who got in the way? Yes, as always, the Green Party, which has lost so many supporters over the years, that if we had an election today, they wouldn't be let into the parliament!
Cheers
Mats
Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.
Logan22L From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 11, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 12044 times:
Quoting Doona (Reply 10): It's not that simple. Sweden has the highes tax on alcohol in Europe (save for maybe Norway, but I'm not sure about that). 40% of the price of a bottle of wine are taxes. That's why it's expensive.
Doona - you don't know me, but unless I'm talking about religion or politics, I'm usually just busting balls. That's OYRJA deep-throating a Carlsberg with many more to follow (seriously - that's him).
TPAnx From United States of America, joined Aug 2005, 1021 posts, RR: 1 Reply 13, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 12021 times:
Try Russia sometime. Took a cruise from St. Petersburg to Moscow..vodka one dollar, wine two dollars, beer three dollars. Stayed at Armand Hammer's big hotel on our last night. A coke and two vodka-bitter lemons cost
35 dollars.
TPAnx
Swisskloten From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 11992 times:
Not stereotyping anyone but the Swedes in my college drank quite a lot of alcohol. They put the Germans to shame! There was one Swedish woman who could drink anyone under the table even though she was skinny as hell. I KNOW she weighs only 45 or 47 kilograms! I wished I could have put together a drinking contest: the Germans vs the Swedes. Leave us damn Yanks out. We'd never get past the first case!
LTBEWR From United States of America, joined Jan 2004, 12329 posts, RR: 12 Reply 17, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 11971 times:
I would also add that the taxes on alcohol help to pay the high levels of social services there. If you want those social benefits, then why not tax the 'sins', like alcohol.
Doona From Sweden, joined Feb 2005, 3706 posts, RR: 14 Reply 18, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 11943 times:
Quoting Swisskloten (Reply 15): Not stereotyping anyone but the Swedes in my college drank quite a lot of alcohol.
Well, we get plenty of training, most people start drinking around the age of 14 nowadays. If you don't have a story from your early teens that involves at least 6 different kinds of booze, projectile vomiting, and being ashamedly picked up by your parents, you're not a real Swede!
Cheers
Mats
Sure, we're concerned for our lives. Just not as concerned as saving 9 bucks on a roundtrip to Ft. Myers.
TheSonntag From Germany, joined Jun 2005, 3347 posts, RR: 30 Reply 21, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 11925 times:
Denmark is not that bad, actually, as all Danes drive to Flensburg to buy Danish Ceres Royal (elendig lort ). As far as I know, 10% of all Danish beers or so are bought Flensburg, a quite large number.
Anyway, you often get a box of Tuborg Grøn (10 litres, 30 bottles à 0,33l) for 85 DKK, which is around 11€, so that is not that bad (normal price is higher, but usually you get these discounts).
Going downtown, however, is another story. In Aarhus you pay 45kr for a beer most places, but this is also due to high wages. I personally almost never went to places like that when I lived in Denmark, we always went to private Erasmus partys or a place called Social Club where you got beer for free for one hour.
In general, everything is expensive in Denmark, however. This is due to high taxes and high wages. Another reason for alcohol being expensive is, though, that people are really drinking too much. This is a problem all over the world, of course, but in Scandinavia people drink way too much I think (a generalisation, but it is true nevertheless)
Jap From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 23, posted (7 years 6 months 2 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 11905 times:
EVERYTHING is expensive in Scandinavia- London pales in comparison! Why? Because our taxes are sky high. VAT in Denmark is 25% and they take up to 50% of your wage for taxes. It's just utterly insane. I don't know about Norway, but it IS more expensive...
after I did the fault I thought also Iceland is a part of Scandinavia I searched in the internet with the result that only Sweden, Denmark and Norway are part of Scandinavia
Colombia es el Mundo Y el Mundo es Colombia
25 Doona: True. Saying Finland is a part of Scandinavia is like saying that Germany is one of the BeNeLux countries... Cheers Mats
26 Eilennaei: Sorry guys, it just is, in the English usage of today. Need to come to terms with it.
28 OYRJA: Denmark isn't that expensive anymore actually. LAst year they cut the alcohol tax with 40%. So if you buy alcohol in a supermarket its very cheap. But
29 OYRJA: Sorry but Finland isn't a part of Scandinavia. Finland is a Russian Republic
30 Jap: sorry then... only excuse I have is being drugged at the mo- such posts won't happen again
32 Doona: He misspoke. As Finland is still the eastern half of Sweden, I guess you could say that it is a part of Scandinvia... Cheers Mats
33 PMN: I'm a little worried about the price of alcohol in Scandinavia. I've never been, but on Thursday I fly to Sweden for two gigs, then we go down to Denm
34 Kaddyuk: I remember how expensive denmark is... 75kr for a Corona w/lime and a Smirnoff Ice... I thought you guys INVENTED vodka... i couldnt belive my ears..
35 Avianca: Scandinavia incl. Finland is called Fennoscandinavia. (Fennoscandia) cheers[Edited 2005-11-08 01:12:25]
36 Doona: Sounds like a sexually transmitted disease... Cheers Mats
37 Avianca: you should know it, you are from there [Edited 2005-11-08 01:13:08][Edited 2005-11-08 01:13:37]
38 Doona: Well, I can't argue with that... Cheers Mats
39 Prebennorholm: "Fennoscandinavia", that's probably correct, but I never heard that word. Scandinavia = Denmark, Norway and Sweden. But we have to accept that it bec
40 Eilennaei: Minus the inland of Finland as well. The Vikings never conquered that what is now Finland, only some coastal areas. A report of an attempt from aroun
41 JCS17: Taxes in Sweden are ridiculous. Not only that, but all alcohol in the country is sold through a government agency, Systembolaget, which sets ridiculou
42 Milan320: everything is expensive in Sweden but alcohol is stupidly expensive. I paid 118SEK yesterday for two pints of beer (o.k. it was an import - London Pri
43 AMSGOT: On the other hand: See what they get back for it! High quality in everything. Sure. Alcohol is quite expensive, but we're catching up here. Their car
44 Doona: That's 59 SEK per pint, which is pretty expensive, but not unusual. Higher-end bars will charge those prices for better beers, but at most pubs a pin
45 Pyrex: Have you ever seen Swedes on vacation in the Algarve? Doesn't the E.U. have some sort of problem with that? Doesn't it violate some anti-trust laws o
46 Solnabo: The Vodka Belt goes from Iceland via Norway Denmark Poland, up to Sweden over the pond to Finland and the Baltic States into Russia....... SKÅÅÅL M
47 AMSGOT: Have you ever seen Swedes on holiday at charter destinations? The Swedish government tends to forget the Swedes don't learn to control their alcohol
48 Pyrex: And that is precisely the problem with this type of measures, in my opinion. The same thing happens with the U.S. underage drinking laws. If people a
49 Andaman: ...and the Beer Zone goes from Ireland via GB, Holland, Northen Germany, Denmark (Sweden so and so?) to Finland...
50 Andaman: ...what Comes to "expensive Scandinavia" I would like to invite Norway to join the European Union finally and open the markets for free competition, t
51 CPH757: Spirits are no more expensive in Denmark, not in retail at least. The prices are almost comparable to Germany, and definetely cheaper than UK or Irela
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That was in Oslo city center. A little bit outside of Oslo you can get low cost beer for only 8 Euros or so 
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