Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Things Only Idiots Believe, Part Ten

That the following statement makes any kind of sense: I am a great wine lover, therefore I want the sale of alcohol to be opened up to other outlets besides Vinmonopolet.

Let's not get into the fact that increased availability of alcohol will lead to more violent crime, and nobody wants more violent crime ... that's another story. Don't get me started.

First: The wonderful thing about Vinmonopolet is that they are a specialty store, with specially qualified staff. You can get expert advice from them. If wine were to be sold at, say, REMA 1000, you would not get expert advice, or indeed any advice at all. The people selling you your wine would have NO FUCKING IDEA what bottle of red, for instance, would go best with the rack of lamb you plan to serve on Sunday.

Yet they might be able to drive their top quality competition - in this scenario - out of business. (See end of paragraph below for explanation.)

Second: If you are a wine lover, then Vinmonopolet is obviously the place for you. Specialty store? Experts on staff? And, not least, the fantastic selection. If your local grocery store were to sell wine, they would never in a million years be able to manage anything even resembling what Vinmonopolet offers. (This applies to the big 'luxury' grocery stores too.) They would stock only the bestsellers. And since Norwegians are such fucking cheapskates, this would be cheap and quite likely lower quality wine.

Now, I don't care about either of these two points personally, I don't drink wine, it tastes like shit to me. But if you claim to be a wine lover, connoisseur, whatever, how the hell do you figure the above inevitable results would benefit you? You must be an idiot.

2 comments:

Paz said...

Interesting looking after Alcohol, we have a problem here with kids drinking. The Parents blame the availability but WTF are they doing letting the kids out to the parks etc at the weekend.
As I type the hotel I am in is full of families on mid term break, some Parents are getting drunk at the bar/lobby while "minding the kids".
Pity its illegal to hit some kids, some need a kick in the ass

Leisha Camden said...

And some parents need the same ... !!

ITA, if they know alcohol is so easily available and they don't want their kids to drink, then what's stopping them from keeping better track of their kids? Although of course I do realize that it's easier to sit on their ass and complain that someone else ought to do something ... >:-)