Clean up (of a carton of Chardy) in aisle 5!

Anyone who’s been to a supermarket in London or New York would know there’s a major difference between their shelf stock and ours: whilst our overseas counterparts are allowed to sell alcohol in their stores, our shopkeepers aren’t.

And that’s kind of odd considering Australians are renowned as indulgent drinkers the world over.

All this might soon change with a proposal from the government that suggests we relax the laws surrounding the selling of liquor in this country.

Released just over a year ago, something called the ‘Harper Review’ proposes that the government allows shopkeepers – big and small – to stock and sell alcohol in their aisles amid everyday groceries like apples and OMO.

In effect, what this would mean is that instead of having to nick into a BWS after your shopping trip to Woollies, or to a Liquorland after stocking up on groceries at Coles, you could do it all in a kind of one-stop shop.

But public health advocates have responded negatively to the proposal, insisting that alcohol be sold separately from everything else.

Meanwhile Liberal Democrat Senator David Leyonhjelm says keeping booze banned from supermarket shelves is a non-sensible move. “Not allowing supermarkets to sell alcohol is yet another example of silly nanny-statism,” he told news.com.au. “I’d welcome a relaxation in rules so that one could buy alcohol in supermarkets and convenience stores, as in the UK and Europe [and much of Asia and the USA].”

Indeed, some argue that since we sell tobacco and lottery tickets at supermarkets, these outlets may as well sell alcohol.

Ironically enough, it is the big wigs in the booze industry that don’t wish to see alcohol sold between products like fresh fruit and laundry detergent.

Coles and Woolworths insist on keeping alcohol product separate from the rest, refusing to say why, but the reason most likely being that a sudden convergence of these products would see even more health campaigners up in arms.  Antonino Tati