No doubt you heard the terribly inconvenient news of last week that the government was planning to ban the sale of alcohol in minimarkets starting on April 16. But why would our government decrease our ease of access to cold, delicious beer so drastically?
According to Trade Minister Rachmat Gobel, the man behind the ban, it’s because it’s what the people wanted.
Rachmat said the reason the government was imposing the new regulation was because of complaints from the the public about the availability of alcohol in their communities, especially from minimarket outlets.
The Trade Minister said that minimarkets had proliferated to the point where they were spread throughout densely populated residential areas, near schools and around places of worship. He said there are already about 23,000 minimarket outlets throughout the country.
“Minimarkets are experiencing very rapid growth and existing outlets are everywhere. Therefore, the access of consumers to buy alcohol is our goal. Right now its wide open and can not be monitored,” Rachmat said Wednesday, as quoted by Bisnis.com.
The Trade Minister said that often times clerks at minimarkets forget to check for IDs when people buy alcohol, giving minors easy access to it.
“Despite enhanced surveillance, people still sell to underage consumers. It is not good for the younger generation. The government takes the position that it will not allow these products to be sold in minimarkets to protect future generations.”
Rachmat said consumers could still buy beer and other alcoholic products at supermarkets and hypermarkets, although they would still be required to show proper ID before purchasing.
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