Dan Murphy's And BWS Introduce Restrictions On How Much Alcohol You Can Buy

Two Australian liquor powerhouses, Dan Murphy's and BWS, have introduced new restrictions on how much alcohol you can buy.

While this might sound distressing to some people, the limits aren't actually outrageous and shouldn't stop anyone from getting what they need.

All Dan Murphy's stores in New South Wales, Victoria, the ACT, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Tasmania will stop customers buying more than 18 bottles of wine, three casks of wine, six bottles of spirits and three cases of beer, cider and premix.

Stephen Dann (Flickr)

A statement on Dan Murphy's website said: "These limits are in place to ensure everyone has access to the drinks they love, and we appreciate your understanding during this time.

"These are subject to change at any time and we reserve the right to cancel items from your order if they are exceeding our limits or our ability to supply. You will be automatically refunded any items not supplied."

BWS will only allow people to buy 12 bottles of wine, three casks of wine, four bottles of spirits and four cases of beer, spirits, premix and cider in all states and territories except for Western Australia.

There will also be social distancing rules brought in to make sure everyone stays safe.

Jmik (Creative Commons)

"Through these times, it's important that we limit the amount of time we all come into close contact with others," the website reads.

"You will start to see floor markings in our stores to help indicate appropriate distances between others when waiting at the checkout, in addition to perspex sneeze guards to safeguard our customers and our teams."

The situation is different in Western Australia, where new rules were introduced to prevent people panic buying.

People in WA will now be limited to either one case of beer, cider or pre-mixed spirits; three bottles of wine; one litre of spirits; one litre of fortified wine; or a combination of any two but not of the same product.

PickPix

Premier Mark McGowan said: "They are relatively minor, sensible measures. Alcohol-related issues take up an enormous amount of resources in our health system. These are resources we simply cannot afford to spare during the Covid-19 situation.

"We expect our hospital system to be under pressure in coming weeks, and we need as many hospital staff as possible on hand to assist."

Mr McGowan said he was dismayed at seeing so many people flocking to bottle shops at the faintest mention of restricting social gatherings.

"This only will result in problems throughout our society that we cannot afford right now," he said.

"These are problems that will stretch our police force and only put more pressure on our hospital system."

The measures will be reviewed after two weeks to see if they've made any difference.

Topics: News, Coronavirus, Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

@stewartperrie