Wine boxes - a danger to society!?

As anyone who has travelled to Norway knows, alcohol here is very expensive. A bottle of wine at the Wine Monopoly Store (Vinmonopol) will set you back at least NOK100 (approximately £12) and one can of beer in the supermarket costs NOK24 (approximately £3). Why is it so expensive?

Well Norway has a love hate relationship with alcohol, fuelled by a very strong temperance movement based within the Norwegian church. Drinking in some places and families is almost a taboo subject, and some parts of Norway were ‘dry’ i.e. you couldn’t buy alcohol there until ten years or so ago. The thing is though most Norwegians do like to drink, but only at the weekends, and then many, especially the younger ones ‘go to town’.

As foreigners living here, we have noticed a tendency among our Norwegian friends and colleagues that when there is free booze on the table (i.e. company dinner) most people get absolutely trolleyed! Another thing is when you go to a private party, you bring your own bottle(s). You don’t just give your bottle to the host and hostess and then drink whatever is going! No you drink your own bottle that you have bought along, and that is it! No-one blinks an eyelid if you take it back home with you part drunk!

Wine and spirits are only sold by the Wine Monopoly, a state owned chain of stores which have shops in most main towns – not helpful if you live in a small village 100lm away! You can get a home delivery if you are well organised, but I guess if you started doing that each week the word would soon get around that 'someone has a problem', as you have to pick up the packages at your local postoffice. It says on the Monopoly website that you can get deliveries direct to your door, but I would imagine that is limited to larger towns rather than small villages in the middle of nowhere! Also you have to be over 20 to buy spirits, and over 18 to buy wine and beer. Beer up to 4.7% (lager) can be bought in the supermarket, but not after 9pm on a week day or 6 pm on a Saturday (Sunday closed). The Wine Monopoly is also only open for ‘short hours’ i.e. 10-5 on a week day and 10-3 on Saturday!

So what do most people do? Well Friday is the busiest day of the week for alcohol sales and people tend to buy more than they would actually consume, and yet still manage to have nothing left by the end of the weekend!

There is a Norwegian association, Actis, which supports people who have dependency problems (drugs, alcohol, gambling) and they fear that things are getting worse, as figures show that Norwegians are buying more and more alcohol, especially wine in boxes. Actis thinks, possibly correctly that selling wine in boxes is the worst thing for developing a dependency on alcohol. Why? Well because the covering of the box means that you cannot judge how much you are actually drinking!

You might open the box on Friday evening when you get home from work and have a glass, then have a glass while cooking dinner, then a glass or two while you eat, and maybe a nightcap glass before you go to bed? Before you know it you will have consumed the equivalent of a whole bottle of wine – maybe two bottles if there are two of you! So, with a 3 litre box containing the equivalent of 4 bottles of wine you can see where this is going. Your weekend needs to be a two boxer not a one boxer if you have a partner in crime to assist you with the drinking! Hence the increase in wine box sales!

I cannot imagine that they would stop selling wine in boxes here, but I bet you Norway will be the first country to introduce boxes with a clear measure on the side, so you can see exactly how much you are taking out of the box each time you open the tap. Or maybe they will develop a little alarm LED if you pour more than 2 glasses, loud enough to alert the neighbours and shame you into drinking less!

Link to the Wine Monopoly website if you are interested is www.vinmonopolet.no