Alþingi has yet to vote on whether private Icelandic retailers will be allowed to sell alcohol online, but RÚV reports that business is already booming for sellers willing to risk wading into this lucrative market before online sales are legalized.
Starting July 1, craft breweries will be allowed to sell alcohol on their premises. Alþingi voted in favour of this change on Wednesday. The bill to allow private retailers to sell alcohol online, however, was not voted on before the end of parliament’s session. But this hasn’t stopped Elías Blöndal Guðjónsson, co-owner of the online alcohol retailer Santewines SAS, from cashing in this holiday weekend. And not just this weekend, either: Like a small number of fellow sellers willing to take the risk before online sales are legalized, Santewines has been selling alcohol online for over a year and sales are increasing all the time.
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June 17th is Iceland’s National Day, so while people would normally be queuing in Vínbúð locations around the country to stock up on bevvies for the weekend, such wasn’t possible on Friday, when all state-run liquor store locations were closed. So many of these would-be customers hopped over to Elías’ website instead.
Elías said he isn’t worried about his operation being shut down, even though online alcohol sales haven’t been legalized yet. “We have all our ducks in a row and everything’s in order. We have a French company that is handling the online shop and legal products and we’re no more afraid than Amazon or EBay,” he remarked.
“I don’t actually think there are many people who have it out for the business,” Elías concluded. “Maybe ÁTVR [the State Alcohol and Tobacco Company, which runs Iceland’s Vínbúð stores], and maybe some Progressive Party MPs. […] The police were actually out here the other day, but they were just picking up an order.”
