The Bar Towel

No idea if this is the case, but sour beers can use lacto sourced from yogurt or similar. I assume using a processed lacto source is why they're flagging it as vegan-style? But from my understanding, dairy based lacto is not that common.

Ceecee wrote:

spinrsx wrote:3 new beers online

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/search?searchTerm=Freigeist

The Poltergeist seems to be a collab with Pizza Port and Oxbow. $97 for 20, would love to split this 3 or 4 ways (in Ottawa )

I am in.

keep6 shows evil twin Imperial Biscotti Break and Imperial Doughnut Break as coming soon. So many good imperial stouts available in Ontario: Founders KBS, Stone RIS, Stone Xocoveza, Old Rasputin, NickleBrook Bastards, Sawdust Uranus, Evil Twins, Ten Fidy etc

what a time to be alive

cfrancis wrote:

Ceecee wrote:

spinrsx wrote:3 new beers online

http://www.lcbo.com/lcbo/search?searchTerm=Freigeist

The Poltergeist seems to be a collab with Pizza Port and Oxbow. $97 for 20, would love to split this 3 or 4 ways (in Ottawa )

I am in.

I'd be in if we are still looking for people.

3f gueuze coming to lcbo.com

With no ridiculous quebec case fees!

So apparently the LCBO can't / won't just sell any beers from online orders that are returned, they just pour them out.

I ordered a case of Evil Twin Don No to split amongst friends, but we didn't want the entire thing so I planned on returning 4 of the bottles. I picked them up at the LCBO, told the guy I wanted to return 4 of them, and he mentioned that their policy doesn't allow them to return beer and that he'd have to pour them out. I mentioned that was an insane policy since they'd easily be able to resell those bottles but he said there wasn't anything he could do about it. When his boss(?) came to verify the return he questioned it because they "aren't allowed to return beer" but the guy said he just put it in as a customer complaint.

I'm surprised but also not. Seems like a great way for them to piss away money.

Ive exchanged a few beers lately, and yes they have told me the same thing, it cannot be resold. But they always allow me to do the exchange. They put a big black X on the beers I bring back and bring them into the office.

Maybe the difference was that I was doing an exchange rather than a return.. but still, something isnt right.

skootles wrote:So apparently the LCBO can't / won't just sell any beers from online orders that are returned, they just pour them out.

I ordered a case of Evil Twin Don No to split amongst friends, but we didn't want the entire thing so I planned on returning 4 of the bottles. I picked them up at the LCBO, told the guy I wanted to return 4 of them, and he mentioned that their policy doesn't allow them to return beer and that he'd have to pour them out. I mentioned that was an insane policy since they'd easily be able to resell those bottles but he said there wasn't anything he could do about it. When his boss(?) came to verify the return he questioned it because they "aren't allowed to return beer" but the guy said he just put it in as a customer complaint.

I'm surprised but also not. Seems like a great way for them to piss away money.

Uhm, that IS insane if the only way to access these products in Ontario is case ordering & they destroy whatever we don't take home. Very consumer-unfriendly. Against previous LCBO policy.

I've never once heard the LC can't return a case or a bottle of any beer. They perhaps don't want to shelf-tag the item and then have to inventory all these small quantities? A store CAN shelve for example the Greek Xinomavro wines that were 'online exclusive' - a Danforth store still ordered cases which they opened and put them out and lo, they did sell because more people want a bottle or three than a whole case.

It looks lazy if a crown corporation simply throw out product at our collective expense as LCBO supporters. Really not acceptable. The least they could do is send it to a clearance center like Crossroads 401.

I wouldn't be surprised if they just pass the cost of the return back to the importer. If so, that'll pretty much put an end to the online shop.

I've always thought these returns would going to come back and kick people in the nads. I get that it was a logical response to a bad system, but still.

I assume this drain pour thing is in response to the cases where people returned liquor with water in the bottles or poison or whatever it was.

If you buy a two packs of chicken breasts at Loblaw and return one, do they put that back on the shelf? I'm asking honestly, because that seems like a direct comparison for what the LCBO would be dealing with. I admit that I'd be a bit grossed out to think that the pack of chicken I'm picking up was previously at someone's house.

Craig wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if they just pass the cost of the return back to the importer. If so, that'll pretty much put an end to the online shop.

Bingo!

rejtable wrote:
I assume this drain pour thing is in response to the cases where people returned liquor with water in the bottles or poison or whatever it was.

doubt this to be the reason. They still take back plenty of (regularly stocked) product and put it back on the shelf

I think this is a response to the extra limited qty SKUs they do not intend for wide distribution. Their fear is probably getting stuck with a few bottles scattered around the province.

I don't think the LCBO actually wants anything to do with the online shop. It was forced on them by the government and it seems like they're just trying to put arbitrary restrictions on it to make it unworkable. Why would they limit listings to 12 cases at a time if they wanted this to succeed? It's a totally artificial restriction.

Now they wasn't to stop returns, but instead of just putting in a policy of no returns on online orders they destroy returned beers and bill the importer for it. That means if you order a case of premium beers at 15 bucks a bottle and return 10 of them, the importer is getting 30 bucks for those 12 beers. But they already paid the brewery, probably something like 10-12 bucks a bottle, and they're not getting a refund. The risk for an agent is ridiculous and the opportunity for profit is almost nothing. The LCBO must know this.

Craig wrote:I don't think the LCBO actually wants anything to do with the online shop. It was forced on them by the government and it seems like they're just trying to put arbitrary restrictions on it to make it unworkable. Why would they limit listings to 12 cases at a time if they wanted this to succeed? It's a totally artificial restriction.

Now they wasn't to stop returns, but instead of just putting in a policy of no returns on online orders they destroy returned beers and bill the importer for it. That means if you order a case of premium beers at 15 bucks a bottle and return 10 of them, the importer is getting 30 bucks for those 12 beers. But they already paid the brewery, probably something like 10-12 bucks a bottle, and they're not getting a refund. The risk for an agent is ridiculous and the opportunity for profit is almost nothing. The LCBO must know this.

I don't doubt any of this deplorable LCBO behaviour - its their modus operendi.
However, it must be new policy. In the early days of the program I bought case of LTM porter baltique, returned 6 when picking up the order and the manager was quite excited about the opportunity to re-sell 6 of the bottles. On my next visit to the store a week later, spoke to him again & he was happy to report they sold in 2 days ...

For the most part you are all wrong, except for whoever said that it is because of the vodka being returned with water in it, he is 100% right.

Whoever said the LCBO doesn't care about their online sales is WAY wrong, they love it and it's exceeding expectations so don't expect the program to stop anytime soon.