Alko is required by law to sell drinks with lower alcohol content than 8% and non-alcoholic alternatives, but in practice carries a very limited stock of low alcohol beer, cider and non-alcoholic drinks and others as supermarkets are allowed to sell those at a substantially lower price.

[citation needed] Nowadays wines occupy most of the shelf space in an Alko shop.

Alko also sells brands of drinks produced by the Finnish state-owned company Altia, which are traditional products and not sold abroad.

[4] Alko shop locations have to be approved by National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Finnish abbreviation Valvira).

Earlier shops were located separately from other retail outlets, but beginning in the 1990s a growing number of Alkos have appeared in malls and supermarkets, some even in gas stations.

On February 3, 2005, the Finnish Food Marketing Association (a pressure group of the country's supermarkets like K-Kauppa and S-Group) asked the European Union to challenge the legality of Alko's monopoly, which it disputes.

Alcohol will not be sold to visibly intoxicated customers or when there is a reason to suspect misuse or illegal supply to a person who would not be authorized to buy.

[7] During the 1939–40 Winter War the company mass-produced molotov cocktails for the Finnish military, production totalling 450,000 units.

Between 1962 and 1998, Alko stores gradually switched from desk service (where customers asked shop attendants to retrieve products for them) to self-service.