In Sweden, there are currently around 450 Systembolag stores all over Sweden, plus around 480 agents where you can order drinks.
In all stores, there are several employees who are there every day to help customers in the best possible way. It can be about everything from what is the difference between Pinot Noit and Amarone as well as which white wine goes best with Saturday’s smoked shrimp.
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One thing that distinguishes Systembolaget from other stores, however, is that here they try to “sell as little as possible”. For example, Systembolaget never has a sale on its items or offers in the form of “take three but pay for two”.
Have you thought about why it actually looks the way it does inside Systembolaget? Image source: Ari Luostarinen/SvD/TT
Systembolaget is also closed on Sundays, which many Swedes consider to be bad as in many other countries you can easily fish out a bottle of wine for the Sunday roast. But what many people don’t know is that it wouldn’t really be open on Saturdays either.
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When Systembolaget started to be open on Saturdays, they saw increased consumption among the Swedes. But as the Saturday opening was in such strong demand, it outweighed when the Riksdag decided on the matter.
There are still things that Systembolaget had in their calculations – but that customers don’t think about when shopping.
Systembolaget’s trick in the shop
News24 contacted Systembolaget to ask if there is any further thought about how it looks in the stores around the country.
And very truly it is so.
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Systembolaget explains how they think about their interior design. Image source: Geir Olsen/TT
Just like when you decorate a grocery store (with a thought behind where things stand). Is there a thought for how the System companies are decorated? For example, that “the bubbly is closer to the entrance because…” or “We put the spirits further in as it should be a bit more noisy to get in to buy” and so on?
– Yes. There definitely is, begins Teodor Almqvist, press officer at Systembolaget.
– Because alcohol is not like other goods, we are not like other stores either. Simply put, you can say that what other stores do to sell more, we do the opposite. For example, we don’t have any goods on the shelves, there is no alcohol at the checkouts in our stores, but there is a “return cart” where you can easily put away drinks you no longer want to buy. We also don’t have a warehouse you have to go through in our stores, but you should always be able to quickly find what you want to buy and then get to the checkout without having to walk around unnecessarily, he concludes
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