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Prohibition of alcohol sales after 9 p.m. and until 12 p.m. law came into effect on July 13, 2014. Tengrinews reporters decided to conduct a small experiment to check if shop assistants followed the new law.
The idea was simple. The reporters visited a number of small shops in different neighbourhoods of Almaty. Buying strong alcohol after 9 p.m. proved to be easy. In most of the shops, shop assistants helped buyers with choosing an alcoholic beverage and gave their recommendations, despite the prohibition on the sales between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m.
In some places, shop assistants warned buyers about the new law. One shop assistants eagerly talked about the new law and about the negative effect it had on their sales. They asked buyers to put the bottles of alcohol into a bag so that no one would see them walk out of the shop with an illegal purchase.
However, the reporters were able to find law abiding sales people who did not sell alcohol after 9 p.m. Unfortunately, they were a minority. The prohibition of alcohol sales between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m. is usually followed in large supermarkets. A text informing buyers about the limitations is posted on shelves with alcohol that are closed after 9 p.m.
The new law was signed by President Nazarbayev in June and it concerns beverages that contain above 30% alcohol. Meanwhile, the prohibition on sales of beverages with alcohol level lower than 30% remains the same – from 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. In includes, beverages that contain alcohol above 1.5%. However, the prohibition does not affect restaurants, bars, pubs and other establishments.
Reporting by Vladimir Prokopenko and Dmitriy Khegai, writing by Gyuzel Kamalova
