OREANDA-NEWS  The number of draft beer stores in Russia's million-plus cities has decreased by 8.7% over the year and stands at more than 9.3 thousand at the beginning of October, the 2GIS geoservice calculated for RIA Real Estate.

According to the service, the number of such stores decreased the most in Voronezh (-16%, to 501 points), Omsk (-15%, to 415 points), Chelyabinsk (-13%, to 593 points), Krasnodar (-10%, to 809 points) and St. Petersburg (-9%, to 1 thousands of points). In Moscow, the figure decreased by 7%, to 1.2 thousand stores.

"Draught beer has a difficult situation. This format is highly dependent on a regular local customer, and its economy is becoming increasingly tense. Retail beer sales are declining, while excise taxes, purchase prices, rent, and staff costs are rising. For a small store with several dozen varieties, product losses, shelf life and inventory turnover are essential," explained the co–chairman of the Association of Commercial Real Estate and Retail Experts (ATER) Pavel Lyulin.
 
He added that labeling, accounting for each sale from the kega, requirements for cash register equipment and electronic document management increase the administrative burden on this business. For large chains, this is a common operating expense, and a small entrepreneur has to invest extra money with shrinking margins, the expert noted.
 
In addition, regional restrictions have a noticeable impact. For example, in Voronezh in 2025, the sale of beer in stores with an area of less than 50 square meters located in apartment buildings was banned. In the Omsk and Chelyabinsk regions, there are also restrictions on small cafes and bars in apartment buildings, Lyulin said.

The number of alcohol shops in Russian cities with a population of one million is also decreasing. By the beginning of October, there were almost 13.7 thousand of them, which is 6% less than a year earlier, 2GIS estimated. The most noticeable optimization is observed in Nizhny Novgorod, where the number of points decreased by 22% (to 535), in Omsk, Voronezh, Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk – by about 12% (to 709, 343, 793 and 798, respectively). In Moscow, there were almost 5% fewer of them (3.3 thousand). Only in two cities – Yekaterinburg and Rostov-on-Don – there were 1% and 2% more such stores.