Skaidi in Finnmark is the only gas station in Norway selling beer. ‘Virke’ will put an end to grocery stores’ exclusive rights to beer sales.
Trade associations are working to strengthen the regulatory framework for kiosks and petrol stations, and the right to sell beer is an important step in this process. Now Virke seeks real change in alcohol regulations, writes Dagens Næringsliv.
‘We can sell beer as responsibly as any other outlet, as demonstrated in many countries today’, says Paul Heldaas, who is communications director of retail chain Circle K.
While a grocery store can freely start selling fuel, why can’t a petrol station freely move into the grocery store’s sales areas?
‘In reality it was a new monopoly, introduced when the grocery stores took over beer sales from municipal Ølmonopol,’ says Torstein Schroeder, director of store, petrol and service (KBS) in Virke.
The organization believes petrol stations don’t have the opportunity to assume the role of convenience stores when they have to drop an important part of the range.
‘When we can’t offer a one-stop-shop on the same terms as competitors, we know the battle is lost,’ says Schroeder.
The gas station at Skaidi receives the concession there because owner Svein Arne Hansen has proved that he sells more groceries than gasoline.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
