According to several unnamed sources and heard from various media, among others Bloomberg And Reuterstwo shops selling alcohol will open in Saudi Arabia by 2026, bringing the number of shops across the country that can sell it to three. Saudi Arabia is a Sunni Muslim country: in Islamic culture the consumption of alcohol is considered a prohibited act, and in Saudi Arabia it has been banned since 1952. The opening of these shops is one of many initiatives undertaken by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who de facto ruled the country in place of his 89-year-old father, Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, in an effort to attract tourists, investment and skilled workers.
A shop will open in Jeddah, a city in the west of the country, and only non-Muslims in diplomatic positions will be able to shop there. Another store will be in Dhahran, to the east, inside a building of Aramco, the state-owned oil company. This will be aimed at non-Muslim employees of the company.
The Saudi government has not officially announced the store’s opening and did not respond to media requests for comment.
Over the past few days, Saudi Arabia has also expanded the sale of alcohol in the only shop that can currently sell it, namely in the capital Riyadh. The company will be able to sell alcohol not only to foreign diplomats from non-Islamic countries, as has been permitted since its opening in 2024, but also to non-Muslim people living in the country thanks to “Premium Residency”, a special residence permit introduced to attract qualified workers and investors.
In fact, news of the extension of sales at the Riyadh store was not officially conveyed by the Saudi government, but became known through articles on US news sites. Traffic lights based on the testimony of several people who know the facts but are not named.
Before this shop opened, the only ways to obtain alcohol in Saudi Arabia were through (unmonitored) diplomatic mail, the black market, and home brewing. Alcohol was banned in Saudi Arabia after, in 1951, one of King Ibn Saud’s sons shot dead a British diplomat who refused to pour him another glass of alcohol.
Since taking power, bin Salman has made several changes to present Saudi Arabia as a more modern country, including opening up long-banned forms of entertainment such as concerts and cinema films and lifting a ban on women driving. But these reforms were not accompanied by democratic openness: Saudi Arabia is still a repressive country, and bin Salman rules in an authoritarian manner.
To reduce the country’s economic dependence on oil, and with the need to attract foreign workers and investment, bin Salman also made large investments in sports and culture, attracting great controversy abroad. Many believe that the aim is to use these investments simply to improve Saudi Arabia’s perception abroad, without bringing any positive consequences for the country.
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