The Bar Towel

El Pinguino wrote:

Craig wrote:They actually are trying out a few craft beer-centric stores this year. Summerhill is the first.

Since nobody here seems to know about this, are they actually promoting that somehow? Experiment is doomed to fail if they don't get the word out.

They promoted it pretty extensively as part of the initiative that also led to grocery sales. They also did quite a bit of press about the growler fill stations, which is part of the craft beer destination store thing.

napoleon wrote:Let them stock what the customer wants. This way the LCBO in rural Ontario doesn't have to stock the exact same products as the one in hipster central in Toronto.

I wish rural Ontario stocked the same products as Toronto. My old LCBO carries...well I was going to say Canuck and that's it, but it doesn't appear to carry that now. But they've got over 40 2-4's of Coors light and Bud. Out of honest curiosity what do you think rural Ontario wants?

DBN wrote:

napoleon wrote:Let them stock what the customer wants. This way the LCBO in rural Ontario doesn't have to stock the exact same products as the one in hipster central in Toronto.

I wish rural Ontario stocked the same products as Toronto. My old LCBO carries...well I was going to say Canuck and that's it, but it doesn't appear to carry that now. But they've got over 40 2-4's of Coors light and Bud. Out of honest curiosity what do you think rural Ontario wants?

Online shopping is coming.

DBN wrote:

napoleon wrote:Let them stock what the customer wants. This way the LCBO in rural Ontario doesn't have to stock the exact same products as the one in hipster central in Toronto.

Out of honest curiosity what do you think rural Ontario wants?

You've hit on one of the biggest problems with LCBO:
specialty products sell in small quantities
impossible to stock every store in the province with small quantity products
therefore, inevitably only a few stores (typically Toronto-centric) get them, or they just don't bother importing small quantities
the automatic reaction is that only Toronto hipsters will buy those products, when the REALITY is the same % of rural residents as Toronto residents want to buy them (not just beer but whisky, wine, etc)

Since LCBO is a gov agency, EVERY Ontario resident has the expectation (rightfully so as taxpayers) of same access to every product regardless of where they live in the province. If it were a privatized system, the same expectation would not exist (is there a Porsche dealership in Timmins?). However, a private store would find ways of selling to people outside their geographic area and/or local stores would stock what the locals want!

Solution seems to be online shopping, with either delivery to a local lcbo or direct to home
As Bakagaijin pointed out, apparently some form of online shopping is coming ... given Ontario's archaic liqour laws and LCBO's bungling to previous web updates I'm not very confident the system will be user friendly.

been over a year since they announced this online shopping thing.. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/201 ... nline.html

sooooo, it'll go live by 2018?

BakaGaijin wrote:

DBN wrote:

napoleon wrote:Let them stock what the customer wants. This way the LCBO in rural Ontario doesn't have to stock the exact same products as the one in hipster central in Toronto.

I wish rural Ontario stocked the same products as Toronto. My old LCBO carries...well I was going to say Canuck and that's it, but it doesn't appear to carry that now. But they've got over 40 2-4's of Coors light and Bud. Out of honest curiosity what do you think rural Ontario wants?

Online shopping is coming.

Keep6 already has online shopping, for those of you in rural areas. It's not the full LCBO portfolio, but if you want decent beer they probably have a better selection than your local Beer Store/LCBO/old truck body hybrid behind the local gas station.

Craig wrote:Keep6 already has online shopping, for those of you in rural areas. It's not the full LCBO portfolio, but if you want decent beer they probably have a better selection than your local Beer Store/LCBO/old truck body hybrid behind the local gas station.

They do, and that's great. But, for me at least, buying a case of something fairly expensive and in most cases unknown isn't what I want. All I want to be able to buy Great Lakes, Collective Arts etc without driving for 45 minutes!

I'm looking forward to online shopping, but suspect it will also require buying a case of one product (which we can already do by asking the local LCBO for a special order).

MattS wrote:But, for me at least, buying a case of something fairly expensive and in most cases unknown isn't what I want...

I'm looking forward to online shopping, but suspect it will also require buying a case of one product (which we can already do by asking the local LCBO for a special order).

exactly

Until we get the Amazon model - stuff delivered for cheap (free if over a certain $pend) - no one will be happy. Since it will be a delivery system offered by the bureaucrats at the LCBO, more likely than not, it will be something out of the 19th century.

rolling out the week of May 22nd? We've seen what.. 1 of these so far?

http://hellolcbo.com/app/answers/detail ... er-program

spinrsx wrote:rolling out the week of May 22nd? We've seen what.. 1 of these so far?

http://hellolcbo.com/app/answers/detail ... er-program

I think you'll find that they were rolling out on the 22th.

The only ones out are the ones that had been listed previously. I love that the Cuvee des Jacobins was discontinued before the 22nd.

The product is still far too fresh to go to market.

•LCBO 455964 Jolly Pumpkin Bam Biere - 750 ml - U.S.A
•LCBO 441980 The Calling IPA - 4 x 330 ml - U.S.A

Both have been received and are still awaiting testing.

the best part about buying jolly from the lcbo is it's already aged for you

Will be a shame about The Calling IPA when it hits shelves past its prime. Their Farmhouse Ale was delicious last year but might have to wait and be hopeful for a fresher second shipment of the IPA.

ry_kinney wrote:Will be a shame about The Calling IPA when it hits shelves past its prime. Their Farmhouse Ale was delicious last year but might have to wait and be hopeful for a fresher second shipment of the IPA.

I was looking forward to this one. It's been highly recommended by some American friends.