How much do you pay for a bottle of average kind of wine?

@ninalanyon why don't the supermarkets sell it?

@meggie Probably the same reason supermarkets in many US states don't sell liquor - either a state monopoly like in Oregon, or special licensing like in Georgia.

@meggie Only the Vinmonopol is allowed to sell anything stronger than 5% (I think) alcohol in Norway. It was set up in 1922 instead of prohibition as a way of reducing or at least controlling alcohol consumption in Norway. It might even have achieved that aim. But now it is staffed by people who are interested in alcoholic drinks and uses its buying power to keep standards reasonably high.

It's a wholly state owned limited company that is under the control of the Ministry of Health.

I think it was probably a sensible decision at the time. Prohibition would not have worked, the country is too big, the population too spread out, and the tradition of home distilling too strong. When we moved here in 1986 we lived a hundred metres from a brewing supplies shop that sold stainless steel stills with thermostatic heaters, proper condensers. I was told that probably one in four families had access to a still of some kind and that any Norwegian home distiller who could not achieve 95% alcohol (percent not proof) would be mercilessly mocked.

The Swedes almost had prohibition but instead had alcohol rationing from 1919 to 1955 which I'm told resulted in the smuggling of alcohol across Oslo Fjord from Norway to Sweden and probably over the sixteen hundred kilometre long land border too. Sweden later set up a state monopoly company like the Norwegians, it's called Systembolaget.

@meggie I paid $8 yesterday

@ninalanyon 😆

@Sevendays Sounds expensive. A dozen eggs here would usually be between 50 and 60 NOK, 4.42 .. 5.30 USD, but you can get 18 (just over a kilo) for 56.90 NOK, that's 5.03 USD.

@MntoNc Depends how you define "decent."