When Anna opens her Wolt account, it’s not pizza, burgers, and durum rolls that appear as her latest orders.
Instead, it’s one vodka bottle after another.
DR knows her real name but refers to her as Anna in this article. She does not wish to publicly disclose her alcohol abuse, which over the past three years has settled like a heavy blanket over her entire life.
“I started buying vodka a couple of times a week, and I’ve gradually begun drinking more and more,” she says.
> Not long ago, I went to help a friend with some practical stuff for an hour. When I came home, Wolt had already been there with the alcohol, and Anna was drunk.
Anna is connected to a treatment center and, in her own words, “really, really” wants to stop drinking. This also means she can have “good periods” where she doesn’t drink for a few days.
Yet the same pattern repeats.
“The craving becomes too strong, and then it’s really easy for me to just order it on Wolt.”
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Avoids both shame and hassle
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With the delivery service Wolt, you can order alcohol delivered to your door with just a few clicks.
In Fredericia, where Anna lives, they can be there in 30-40 minutes. And when she discovered a year ago that you could get two bottles of vodka as easily as a durum roll, her alcohol consumption escalated.
One of the orders from Wolt. (Photo: © Private photo)
“There’s so much shame associated with having to stand and buy vodka at 1:00 PM on a Tuesday at a kiosk. And at the same time, I generally have a bit of trouble getting out the door. All of that is stripped away,” says Anna, who suffers from anxiety.
So would you drink less if there were no delivery services like Wolt?
“Yes, I would. I only started using it this year, and I can see that my alcohol abuse has really spiraled. Right now, it’s completely out of control.”
“I really, really want to stop, but it’s just hard when Wolt can be here 30 minutes after the urge hits.”
But is your alcohol abuse really Wolt’s responsibility?
“No, it’s mine. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a problem that Wolt makes it so easy for people with an alcohol abuse to fall into it the second the craving hits.”
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Organization: Accessibility has huge impact
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According to the interest organization Alcohol & Society, which works to create broad support for a sustainable alcohol culture, accessibility has a huge impact on alcohol abuse.
“And delivery to the door must be said to be the ultimate accessibility,” says Michael Jensen, team leader for knowledge at Alcohol & Society.
The organization informs DR News that they will be more attentive in the future to the role delivery services play for alcohol abusers.
They will recommend that lawmakers look into the area. Possibly through a total ban on alcohol sales for delivery services or a time frame for delivery.
“Or perhaps one should look at whether they should be allowed to deliver during so much of the day,” says Michael Jensen.
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Need help?
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If you have problems with alcohol, or if one of your relatives does, you can call the Alcohol Helpline at 80 200 500.
You can also get help through their chat counseling ( https://alkohologsamfund.dk/alkolinjen ).
And that’s what Anna’s boyfriend would like. He says he experiences that the delivery options often lead to Anna drinking far more than she otherwise would.
“If you’re dead drunk by noon, it’s just too embarrassing to go down to a store and buy two more bottles. But if you can just press ‘order’ from the sofa at home, then you do it,” he says.
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Wolt employees refused to help
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In September, Anna therefore tried to contact Wolt’s support department in the hope that they could block her from buying alcohol.
“I have an alcohol abuse that I’m trying to get under control, and it’s impossible when I get a sudden urge for vodka and can easily order it in your app (...). I would like you to block my ability to buy alcohol,” Anna says, among other things, in the correspondence that DR News has seen.
To this, the Wolt support employees respond: “This is unfortunately not possible for us.” Instead, they refer to the fact that Anna can choose to delete her user. In that case, she would have to create a new user before she can order the alcohol.
If you want to get rid of your user on Wolt, you must set your user for deletion. It will then take 30 days before the user is actually deleted.
And that creates the following problems for Anna:
“That means I have to stay sober for 30 days and not fall into using the app.”
* Excerpt from a message sent to one of the two Wolt employees Anna has been in dialogue with.
* The message is that they cannot block Anna from buying alcohol. Instead, she receives a guide on how to delete her profile.
1 / 2 Excerpt from a message sent to one of the two Wolt employees Anna has been in dialogue with. 1 / 2 The message is that they cannot block Anna from buying alcohol. Instead, she receives a guide on how to delete her profile. 2 / 2
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Wolt: We have the ability to block people from buying alcohol
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The handling of Anna’s case, however, puzzles Wolt’s headquarters.
“In this case, it was a human error that meant the option was not used,” comes the written response, as Wolt did not wish to give an interview.
Anna has been in dialogue with two different support employees at Wolt, who apparently were not aware of the option. To DR’s question about whether Wolt’s employees are sufficiently aware that the option for blocking exists, the answer is:
“We will now ensure that everyone in our support department knows about this option going forward,” Wolt states.
They also refer to the fact that “alcohol restriction” is far more effective than deleting one’s user.
Have you considered whether you should sell alcohol on your platform at all?
“Alcohol is a legal product, but it entails a special responsibility. We have age verification and delivery safety measures in place for age-restricted products, and courier partners receive clear instructions on how these orders should be handled, including asking for a code linked to an age check.”
Warning: This article was translated by a Large Language Model, in case of doubt, you can always visit the original source.