From Echo Moskvy:
Despite the ban, beer can still be found for sale at kiosks
Kiosk owners were seriously under threat of bankruptcy. From the January 1st, they were required to stop selling beer, as changes in legislation came into force that meant the sale of beer is subject to the same restrictions as strong alcoholic drinks. For small businesses [the sale of beer] is forty percent of their revenue, money kiosk owners are not ready to part with, RBC Daily newspaper writes today. The newspaper’s correspondent found beer for sale in the kiosks of the Bryansk Oblast, with dealers resorting to tricks such as selling snacks or contraception for an increased price, and giving away beer as a free gift. Bloggers report that beer is still available in other regions as well, including Moscow, albeit “under the counter”. Some of businessmen surveyed by the newspaper were not at all planning on using trickery [to get around the law]. Many, according to RBC Daily, will only sell beer at the beginning of the prohibition; the current penalties are small and breaking the law is more profitable at the moment.
According to calculations by the Ministry of Economic Development, the new measures will lead to the closure of almost 200 thousand kiosks, and about half a million people will lose their jobs as a result.
Comments from Echo Moskvy:
evgenii_rodin:
Well, these are just small businesses. It’s all right to put pressure on them. They’re not exactly Gazprom, our national treasure.
natakrss:
They’ve taken away 40% of their revenue, and increased their outgoings, and we call this helping small businesses.
zashedshiy:
The sort of business that makes 40% of its profit from sale of swill, it’s not just all right to put pressure on them, we have to put pressure on them.
They should lose their licence, be fined a million roubles [£20,500, 25,000€], or even be sent to jail for selling booze. Then there will be order, and young people will be sober.
oleguns: (responding to above)
… completely sober – but pretty stoned.
vitaly_solo:
“If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law.”
Winston Churchill.
luess60:
In Kemerovo where we are, beer, vodka, and wine all used to be for sale at kiosks – and they still are.
vanyasechenov: (responding to above)
And not only in Kemerovo :)) Another law that no one is going to follow.
gabbyfrog: (responding to above)
And what future does a country have, where the law is something that “no one is going to follow”?
greensleeves:
I saw it for myself: on the platform of Tekstilschiki metro station, at about 8 p.m. on the 7th January, the kiosks were quite happily selling beer…
mandrian2008:
To hell with them, let them go and work in the factories!
johnywalker:
What’s bad about being able to go and buy a quiet beer at a stand, quickly “sort yourself out”, and carry on about your business? Everyone’s inventing problems, blin as though we didn’t have enough of them already. They’re not lawmakers, they’re troublemakers, blin.
diman68:
The year is new, but the idiocy is old…