The Bar Towel

The Beer Store, basically:

Ford's expansion plans include 87 more Grocery Stores and 60 new LCBO Convenience Outlets by September this year and another 80 by December 2019.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5361454/ford ... hol-sales/

https://www.lcbo.com/content/dam/lcbo/c ... ist-en.pdf

This is good news for a few beer enthusiasts who have connections to effectively become beer stores. Its fair competition. It can only be better for the craft industry. The LCBO can go back to doing what they do best.

LCBO is doubling down but with more Convenience Outlets which isn't a new program at all.

http://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/sd ... tion.shtml

people living in major cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Kitchener, etc. are not gonna notice anything except maybe 1 or 2 more grocery stores that sell alcohol. it's just a smoke screen for the Master Framework cancellation.

JaseWescott wrote:LCBO is doubling down but with more Convenience Outlets which isn't a new program at all.

http://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/sd ... tion.shtml

people living in major cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Kitchener, etc. are not gonna notice anything except maybe 1 or 2 more grocery stores that sell alcohol. it's just a smoke screen for the Master Framework cancellation.

Yep, that seems custom-tailored for the convenience of Ford Nation, i.e. people in the sticks and suburbanite families driving up to their cottages.

In my experience the selection at these outlets isn't any better than your average Beer Store, and most of the time it's worse (due to a lack of space and/or customer volume). As for the expansion of grocery store sales, woo-hoo! I guess.

As an aside, TBS is basically being forced to modernize or die, and I will be fascinated to observe their response. The "stand in line and wait for the surly comrade behind the counter to bring you your beer ration" business model was outdated 30 years ago.

So far their strategy amounts to "ooga-booga, beer is going to be more expensive!" and I don't think that will get them very far. Albertans do pay more for a case of Coors Light, this is true, but they pay more for tons of things. The cost of living out there is higher. I worked at a liquor store in Edmonton years ago, and most of the alcohol that you'd actually want to drink costs more than it does in Ontario. On the other hand, if you're after plastic jugs of wine, rotgut whisky or Bow Valley Strong...

darmokandjalad wrote:

JaseWescott wrote:LCBO is doubling down but with more Convenience Outlets which isn't a new program at all.

http://www.doingbusinesswithlcbo.com/sd ... tion.shtml

people living in major cities like Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara, Ottawa, Kitchener, etc. are not gonna notice anything except maybe 1 or 2 more grocery stores that sell alcohol. it's just a smoke screen for the Master Framework cancellation.

Yep, that seems custom-tailored for the convenience of Ford Nation, i.e. people in the sticks and suburbanite families driving up to their cottages.

In my experience the selection at these outlets isn't any better than your average Beer Store, and most of the time it's worse (due to a lack of space and/or customer volume). As for the expansion of grocery store sales, woo-hoo! I guess.

As an aside, TBS is basically being forced to modernize or die, and I will be fascinated to observe their response. The "stand in line and wait for the surly comrade behind the counter to bring you your beer ration" business model was outdated 30 years ago.

So far their strategy amounts to "ooga-booga, beer is going to be more expensive!" and I don't think that will get them very far. Albertans do pay more for a case of Coors Light, this is true, but they pay more for tons of things. The cost of living out there is higher. I worked at a liquor store in Edmonton years ago, and most of the alcohol that you'd actually want to drink costs more than it does in Ontario. On the other hand, if you're after plastic jugs of wine, rotgut whisky or Bow Valley Strong...

great post. I went to The Beer Store yesterday and noticed the stack of Doug Ford propaganda cards next to the register also LCBO ran it's buck-a-beer promotion this weekend but it's not a long weekend in Canada?

darmokandjalad wrote: As an aside, TBS is basically being forced to modernize or die, and I will be fascinated to observe their response. The "stand in line and wait for the surly comrade behind the counter to bring you your beer ration" business model was outdated 30 years ago.

So far their strategy amounts to "ooga-booga, beer is going to be more expensive!" and I don't think that will get them very far. Albertans do pay more for a case of Coors Light, this is true, but they pay more for tons of things. The cost of living out there is higher. I worked at a liquor store in Edmonton years ago, and most of the alcohol that you'd actually want to drink costs more than it does in Ontario. On the other hand, if you're after plastic jugs of wine, rotgut whisky or Bow Valley Strong...

Quebec was significantly cheaper than Ontario until they raised the minimum prices on beer. Alberta is more expensive because you have distributors taking a big cut.

I was in a The Beer Store on Friday that is fairly new. It doesn't use the order at the counter model but you go into the refrigerated area to grab your beer. It was, like all the other The Beer Stores that I've been in with this model, an embarrassment. Dirty. Random cases stacked on the corners of aisles. Prices missing. The stink of skunky beer. Beer that was either past it's best before date or from last year sitting on the shelves. The cash registers with the rollers to put your beer on while you wait in line weren't open but instead you had to go to the cash for the returns.

There are houses turned into convenience stores in Gatineau with comparable sized coolers that do a much better job of selling beer. The Beer Stores are possibly the worst chain of stores in the country.

My local has two terminals to search "other" products. Both were not working on the weekend.
I love the smell of stale beer that eminates from the bag in box that they dump the return cans behind the register. A young girl working there tried to remove the bag which dumped a hellish mixture onto her pants and caused her to spew a blue streak that would have done Teresa Cascioli (from Lakeport: The only women I've met who would use the C word 5 times in a sentence and then do it again in the next sentence) proud.
A truly bizarre retail experience.

Next up, loosen up the idiocy around how alcohol is imported into the province.

Whether the LCBO makes it easier or if individual store owners can bypass the whole LCBO process.

While I'm happy that the beer store is on the way out, it seems in Toronto that is already the case. East end Toronto stores that have any real estate value/zoning have already been sold, along with their big parking lots, to developers . I'm guessing that once the Beer store lost its monopoly on beer sales/ changing consumer preferences, that the idea of owning/running a chain of crap stores is not that appealing. This just seems to be a way to give a golden handshake to a few corporations to help them underwrite the purchase of new branded fridges to lock up the accounts of small convenience stores.

BlackRedGold wrote:

darmokandjalad wrote: As an aside, TBS is basically being forced to modernize or die, and I will be fascinated to observe their response. The "stand in line and wait for the surly comrade behind the counter to bring you your beer ration" business model was outdated 30 years ago.

So far their strategy amounts to "ooga-booga, beer is going to be more expensive!" and I don't think that will get them very far. Albertans do pay more for a case of Coors Light, this is true, but they pay more for tons of things. The cost of living out there is higher. I worked at a liquor store in Edmonton years ago, and most of the alcohol that you'd actually want to drink costs more than it does in Ontario. On the other hand, if you're after plastic jugs of wine, rotgut whisky or Bow Valley Strong...

Quebec was significantly cheaper than Ontario until they raised the minimum prices on beer. Alberta is more expensive because you have distributors taking a big cut.

I was in a The Beer Store on Friday that is fairly new. It doesn't use the order at the counter model but you go into the refrigerated area to grab your beer. It was, like all the other The Beer Stores that I've been in with this model, an embarrassment. Dirty. Random cases stacked on the corners of aisles. Prices missing. The stink of skunky beer. Beer that was either past it's best before date or from last year sitting on the shelves. The cash registers with the rollers to put your beer on while you wait in line weren't open but instead you had to go to the cash for the returns.

There are houses turned into convenience stores in Gatineau with comparable sized coolers that do a much better job of selling beer. The Beer Stores are possibly the worst chain of stores in the country.

I went to a Beer Store in Hamilton recently that has the refrigeration units with singles behind the counter... yeah, you have to stand in line and tell the cashier what singles you want.

lister wrote:Next up, loosen up the idiocy around how alcohol is imported into the province.

Whether the LCBO makes it easier or if individual store owners can bypass the whole LCBO process.

on the federal level, the new legislation to allow all alcohol between provinces should help?

northyorksammy wrote:

lister wrote:Next up, loosen up the idiocy around how alcohol is imported into the province.

Whether the LCBO makes it easier or if individual store owners can bypass the whole LCBO process.

on the federal level, the new legislation to allow all alcohol between provinces should help?

Sure, that too. But I'm talking about international imports.

Don't believe what Ontario's Beer Store is saying about liquor sales in Alberta

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/dont-b ... pR9MBoG-MA