Looking for the original Bar Towel blog? You can find it at www.thebartowel.com.
We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.
Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!
Roland + Russell wrote:If you do not see it on your shelves ask for it to be listed at your local store!
When a single case arrived at my local downtown Sudbury LCBO last summer I bought up just a few because I assumed it be a semi-permanent product. Not so, haven't seen it on the shelf since. I'm simply not going to go out of my way to beg store managers to stock releases, most of whom here know me all too well and consider me a pesky nuisance what with all my 'weird beer interests'.
On an unrelated topic, I met a fellow Bartoweller at the downtown 'BO. He was clearing the shelf of St. Bernardus Abt 12 and him and I split a case of Rochefort 10 that coincidentally was only shipped to Sudbury in error. Their loss, our gain. Nice to meet you, enjoy your holiday brews and check out Drinkvine.com
Roland + Russell wrote:
If there is a specific store you'd like to see it at, also let us here at RR know and we will do all we can on our part to get it listed too!
Cheers,
Could you try Sudbury again, at any one of the three stores? As another poster wrote, I'd buy 1-2 bottles every week or every other week because I can actually share this beer with my wife.
Problem with Sudbury is when a case does arrive, it typically languishes in the back room for a few weeks (I kid you not). It seems that some managers would rather customers do the hard work by checking into inventory stock and then enquire into products they're supposed to have on the shelves. They ought to open up the back stock rooms in these locations - I will approach staff to check the back, most people won't. The bottle of Saison Dupont has pretty good visual appeal, especially to those unfamiliar. If it's actually on the shelf, but preferably not directly under bright lights, it will sell.
Thank you to those of you that suggested specific stores, we will follow up.
Also, thank you all for the constructive discourse. The craft beer scene has really evolved since we have been around and perhaps we are all victims of its success. There are so many more choices on the retail shelves than there were before and that fact alone does have an impact on brand specific sales overall.
At the store level the landscape is quite competitive and it takes a lot of continuous effort by agents and customers to get products on the shelves and keep them there.
The best we can do is to keep bringing more people on board with the craft beer movement.
Roland + Russell wrote:If you do not see it on your shelves ask for it to be listed at your local store!
... I'm simply not going to go out of my way to beg store managers to stock releases, most of whom here know me all too well and consider me a pesky nuisance what with all my 'weird beer interests'...
I think some (esp. older) LC employess need to adjust & stop thinking of beer as a generic commodity which now more than ever it ceases to be.
No more cakewalk of cramming cases of Coors and Blue into the fridge shelf; LC workers everywhere need to be literate and curious about LCBO release beers or at very least accept that the customers in all cities may have an equal interest to access them.
If a beer like Saison Dupont can be sold in Rosedale in Toronto, it can rightfully sell in Streamtrickle, Ontario as well, and it's not for someone's backwardness to preclude or prevent that. For what other great advantage do we need a province-wide system?
Beer'n'gin wrote: I'm simply not going to go out of my way to beg store managers to stock releases, most of whom here know me all too well and consider me a pesky nuisance what with all my 'weird beer interests'
nice to see there are other people who feel like a pesky nuisance at the lcbo as well
Guys, by feeling like a pesky nuisance and not acting because of that, you're empowering people to maintain the status quo.
It is their job to serve you.
If they make you feel like a pesky nuisance, or else don't honour your requests to get a better/different product, complain. Belgian's point, while fairly idealistic, will definitely never be realized if people just shrug and say "oh well" when offered poor customer service by some of the best-paid retail staff in the province.
The scenario below has happened to me at least a dozen times:
I get my drinkvine emails saying a product is in stock - I go to the store first thing. 50% of the time the item is not on the shelf. I ask someone about the product and tell them I didn't see it on the shelf. They reply 'we don't have it then'. I tell them their webpage shows they have multiple cases. They sigh. They walk into the back room and take a quick look and come back saying they couldn't find it.
Am I supposed to tell them its 'their job to serve me'? And tell them to check again or I'll report it to head office?
After a dozen times of asking for random beers I am now know as the 'pesky nuisance'. And I really don't want to push my luck and ask for certain products to be brought in just for me. I can't even manage to get the products they already have in stock.
spinrsx wrote: Am I supposed to tell them its 'their job to serve me'? And tell them to check again or I'll report it to head office?
I personally don't see anything wrong with this, though I would ask to speak to the store manager before calling the hotline/complaining to head office.
"Bar people do not live as long as vegan joggers. However, they have more fun." - Bruce Elliott
I have noticed some stores, while not perfect, have in recent years come around to the idea that it's important to get you the product. To in every way possible, help the buyer... to hunt around the stockroom and database and even offer to call other stores for you and secure what you need. We have proven change is possible.
I think the flaws of our Ontario retail system probably do a lot of harm to the establishing of some good 'staple' brands like SD. As consumers we have to encourage the stores that can be brought aound, not that we owe it to them so much as we want to help the brewers and importers we care about have a fighting chance for their brands to reach people.
chris_schryer wrote:Belgian's point, while fairly idealistic, will definitely never be realized if people just shrug and say "oh well" when offered poor customer service by some of the best-paid retail staff in the province.
Province-wide consistency is very idealistic, yes. Gradual change, though - some very good stores where there were once poor stores or none, in tandem with more and better products in the overall system - this is all happening. The positive trend may spread regionally.
I agree with you apathy does not help, and - speaking generationally - I also think some older LC employees will need to retire or die off to bring new blood into some of the really backward regions. Younger people seem to be more beer literate, more open to what craft beer offers, and perhaps they can better serve the local craft beer market & develop it. Time will tell.
Belgian, I would add to the retirement-die-off, that there is a generation of LCBO workers, many of whom feel they are entitled to a great-paying job, so doing the bare minimum or less is fine. They're entitled and protected, there's precious little anybody can do. On the other hand, anybody who lands an LCBO job who is a) under the age of 30 and b) not toting a MBA or some type of graduate degree that will plug them into a sweet job, will be so damn blessed to have such a steady and well-paid job, they will probably be a better worker, even if they aren't necessarily the most savvy in terms of products.
But I agree, and while I called your vision idealistic, I would have said that in the 1990s about gay marriage or a black president; idealistic definitely doesn't mean impossible.
I've been told by a store manager (Sudbury, South) that corporate refuses to send many products to their store--even when I've specifically asked for things. I don't know if that was just another strategy to deal with a "pesky nuisance" though.
I've resorted to using a smaller store that has a manager who cares. Only problem is the store is only open to 6 o'clock so it's not very convenient. I used to go far out of my way, practically begging to get products in but I no longer have the patience. Instead I just pick a few products a year now and drink a lot less.
I had no clue Saison Dupont was even available again so I wouldn't have even known to ask.
Wow still so few stores in GTA have many bottles. This is actually a beer I've brought home from Buffalo many times so I do hope Saison Dupont maintains at least a 'cult beer' presence at select stores (as do for example Köstritzer Schwartzbier and Heller Trum Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier.)
ercousin wrote:A few months ago when it was in stock at a lot of places The LCBO had it stocked on shelves under fluorescent light. I heard of more than a few people purchasing skunked bottles due to the oxidation through the green glass... nothing pleasant about the sherry/cardboard flavours in an oxidized beer...
I think skunking (due to hop oils reacting to UV light exposure) and oxidation/sherry & cardboard (due to age, poor handling & O2 exposure) are different. However I'd advise buy it from a store out of cases that are sealed up, better yet take it home in the case, that's the best insurance policy & you'll drink it all anyway.
_sloth wrote:.... begging to get products in but I no longer have the patience. Instead I just pick a few products a year now and drink a lot less..
My feelings exactly. If I didn't have relatives in the Toronto area I wouldn't bother with the limited product listings at all and while Saison Dupont was supposed to be a general list we're learning its fate is undecided.
