>>5983502Oh I agree.
However they are on the record as stating that their policy is essentially to control the entire market between "bar prices" (e.g. extremely expensive) and "duty-free" prices (e.g. expensive by most standards but cheap here). They rake in a ton of money from it, because essentially everyone has to buy from government controlled booze stores as everything sold from an non-government-ran store has to be 2.25% ABV or below.
It's not uncommon for people to come back from the airport with literally 200+ cans of beer here, because the price difference is that big.
The government ran stores mostly stick to the hours of the local municipality. For instance in Reykjavík they might stay open as late as 8:00pm, but in smaller towns such as the one I grew up in, they close by 4 and aren't open at all on weekends.
It's a weird system designed totally around mid-market control.
