Talk:Systembolaget

Market

"Serving a market of 9 million Swedes, Systembolaget is the world's largest buyer of wine and spirits from producers around the world. This has, ironically, led to the result that while Swedes from the southern part of the country often travel to Germany and other parts of Scandinavia to buy cheap beer and liquor, Germans and even people from France travel to the southernmost parts of Sweden to buy expensive bottles of wine at a price that would sometimes be considered a bargain at home. This results from the discounts that Systembolaget gets from its position in the global market, the fact that the Swedish tax on alcohol is based solely on the amount of alcohol (and not as a percentage of the sales price) which greatly reduces the tax impact for expensive wine, and also the fact that Systembolaget has an identical markup (17% added) on every sold item."

There's a lot of unsubstantiated (and erroneous) information about the market in the article. E.g. Systembolaget is not the world's largest buyer.

And to say that it being the largest buyer has ironically led to Swedes travelling to Germany to buy makes no sense at all.

Nor is it true that some wines are cheap because of large discounts. It is more likely that it is due to the pricing model taking no account of international market prices or international or domestic demand. The pricing is solely based on a mechanic formula which sometimes makes some wines in high demand internationally comparatively "cheap" in Sweden.

I'm removing the majority of this section until a more accurate text is written. It is far too much based on "received wisdom" and what is generally (and falsely) believed to be true. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.204.167.206 (talk) 09:18, 8 April 2008 (UTC)

Not loss making

I'm removing this sentence from the article:

Despite the monopoly, the enterprise is heavily loss making, and is considered part of the government's attempts to combat alcoholism by minimizing commercial influences.

In fact, Systembolaget has had a return on equity of around 10 percent. / Alarm 11:16, 12 Mar 2005 (UTC)

--

I'm removing the link www.systembojkott.se from the page, since the link appears to have the purpose of promoting a political campain and thus not the purpose of providing us a link of encyclopedical interest. SzymonSpengler, 6/11/2005, 0930 am (CET)

I removed this section, because it distracted the flow and didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the article. If you feel like it, rewrite it in better prose.

It is not possible to buy crates or six packs 
(This is not exactly true. Yes there is no option of buying a six pack per se, 
meaning 6 cans of beer wrapped in carton. 
But buying 6 beer cans is effectively the same thing as buying a 6 pack. 
Same thing aplies to buying crates. You can simply pick up a crate of beer. 
Also the price for buying 6 separate beer cans will be the same as a six pack).

惑乱 分からん 13:34, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Bargain?

The following commonplace can be found in the introduction:

Germans and even folks from France travel to the southernmost parts of Sweden to buy expensive bottles of wine to a price that sometimes would be considered a bargain back home

How accurate is that? Are there any evidence supporting this fact? I have heard that hundreds of times in Sweden but actually never came across anyone who would've done so. Moreover the style seems inappropriate. What 'expensive' means in that context? And 'folks from France'? If nobody objects i will delete this excerpt from the article. Chtito 18:42, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

In fact, the whole paragraph is perhaps to be deleted. Why would the systembolaget get discounts since it is a monopoly? Any reference for those 17% margin? And what does it mean exactly? The author of that paragraph is 130.243.185.247 Chtito 18:49, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

The profit margin is mentioned in this article, see sidebar, [1] (Swedish), and the trading margin is of course available in the annual report (2004 being the latest one published in English, see page 30) [2]. Bufflo 00:51, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

And the article doesn't claim Systembolaget gets discounts because it's a monopoly, but because it's the world's largest buyer. JöG 07:56, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Anonymous on Bargain: Once a year the Systembolaget, releases a few rare wines and other spirits at very low prices, this is done at their two largest stores, the one in Malmö and the one in Stockholm at NK's (the swedish rough equivalent to harrods). We also hold a Rare liqour and spirits auction every now and then, whre anyone can come and hand in thier bottles for evaluation and possible sale.

The illustration

The photo subtitled Inside a typical Systembolaget ... is, AFAIK, rather untypical today. It shows a layout where the customers cannot access the shelves, and has to talk to a clerk who fetches the goods. At some point a few years back, Systembolaget opened up access to the shelves, and now employ a normal "supermarket" layout. I haven't seen any of the old-style stores in years; can somebody find a more recent image and upload it? JöG 08:05, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

... But now that I look at their site, it appears that less than half of the stores have been converted so far. So I retract my statement — the illustration is still typical, although maybe not for the larger stores in cities and larger towns. JöG 08:38, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

Even larger cities usually have at least one store that isn't fully converted yet, but even those usually have a selfservice section for beer. I'd say it's still a good typical picture. Bufflo 19:03, 5 August 2006 (UTC)

At least the Systembolaget stores in Skanör and Vellinge are still clerk managed, 30 minutes waiting time for the win! /Grillo 06:03, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Please to be making with the references

I've tagged the article {{OR}} and {{unref}} as there is a paucity of references, meaning that this could all be made up. - Tiswas^(t) 12:43, 6 June 2007 (UTC)