Perhaps I should add some concrete numbers to my assertions about alcohol shops in Nepal. Consider Diapayal (sometimes pronounced more like Tiphael). A relatively low altitude town 8 hours drive into the mountains. The town is large by Nepal standards, spread over several hills, each with their own cluster of shops. But the central part of town is only about 150 meters of shops along one road, not exactly a city.
In short I was wrong, it's not quite true that 50% of all businesses here sell alcohol, only 20% do. But can you guess the scale? ... lets not consider why I spend my time counting all the 170 shops.
If you class shops which sell alcohol as a single category, consisting both of alcohol shops and small restaurants, its 36. That's 36 places to drink in a short street. There are probably more but I didn't ask the shops without displayed alcohol because I'd likely end up trying to explain I didn't actually want to buy 15 different bottles of spirit. For scale consider that there are probably only about 30 people walking about the entire street who are not presently working in one of the shops.
The other shops are worth a mention considering my previous thoughts on the ever present and superfluous general stores
If you lump both general goods shops (23) and food shops (15) together this becomes the joint largest single category at 38 shops. As it is separating the two is difficult, and is largely based on whether they stock fresh and bulk foodstuffs, as everyone sells the same packaged goods.
If clothing (at 33 shops the largest distinct category) and jewellery (5 shops) are combined into a single category this also comes out at 38. Defined generally as 'shops which I avoid'.
Third is restaurants (generous), of which many feature in the list of alcohol shops. There are 31 'restaurants' in the town.
Hardware is the next largest at 22, and it goes on from there.
In the end there are only 15 'alcohol shops' in town, but the rows of bottles make these clearly visible. Any good deals? No, thanks to MRP they all charge the same price. Still, in a crisis situation each of the people milling about town could probably all get a drink in under 1 minute, should the need arise.
In short I was wrong, it's not quite true that 50% of all businesses here sell alcohol, only 20% do. But can you guess the scale? ... lets not consider why I spend my time counting all the 170 shops.
If you class shops which sell alcohol as a single category, consisting both of alcohol shops and small restaurants, its 36. That's 36 places to drink in a short street. There are probably more but I didn't ask the shops without displayed alcohol because I'd likely end up trying to explain I didn't actually want to buy 15 different bottles of spirit. For scale consider that there are probably only about 30 people walking about the entire street who are not presently working in one of the shops.
The other shops are worth a mention considering my previous thoughts on the ever present and superfluous general stores
If you lump both general goods shops (23) and food shops (15) together this becomes the joint largest single category at 38 shops. As it is separating the two is difficult, and is largely based on whether they stock fresh and bulk foodstuffs, as everyone sells the same packaged goods.
If clothing (at 33 shops the largest distinct category) and jewellery (5 shops) are combined into a single category this also comes out at 38. Defined generally as 'shops which I avoid'.
Third is restaurants (generous), of which many feature in the list of alcohol shops. There are 31 'restaurants' in the town.
Hardware is the next largest at 22, and it goes on from there.
In the end there are only 15 'alcohol shops' in town, but the rows of bottles make these clearly visible. Any good deals? No, thanks to MRP they all charge the same price. Still, in a crisis situation each of the people milling about town could probably all get a drink in under 1 minute, should the need arise.
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