Ikea To Stop Selling Booze In Sweden

There are surprisingly few places in the world where a person can get his or her drink on and then buy some reasonably priced furniture, and there will be even fewer in the near future when Ikea stops selling alcohol at its restaurants in Sweden.

While getting very drunk and shopping at Ikea sounds like either a recipe for disaster or an excellent way to spend a weekend, not a lot of people in Sweden were taking advantage of the fact that their Ikea restaurants were serving alcohol. In the face of poor sales, Ikea said it is phasing out the liquor in all its restaurants in Sweden.

"It's a gradual phase-out," said Ikea Sweden spokesperson Anna Pilkrona Godden to The Local. "We stopped stocking up at the same rate at the beginning of this year and will keep on selling until we run out."

According to Godden, the alcohol just wasn't selling well, so Ikea decided to cut it. Apparently Swedes were just not into drinking and picking out furniture. Ikea customers in other countries may still be able to get alcohol at their restaurants, though, because Godden says the new move is just for Sweden. Ikeas in other markets that sell alcohol will most likely continue to do so. 

"This is in no way a global policy," she explained. "Every [Ikea] country can bring in and sell a certain amount of local products if they want to. I don't know what the others are doing or not doing."