The Bar Towel

St Louis Gueuze Fond Tradition seems to have arrived at King and Spadina. And only at King and Spadina. I'm hoping this is not a sell off of the stock sent for testing and that a wider roll out is coming, but I'm not taking any chances!

As per another comment about stickers. There are two white stickers. One indicating it is 5% (which is also listed on the label) and contains barley malt and another that indicates it's "Strong Beer" and 6.0% alc./vol. Goodness!

Belgian wrote:

ChrisK wrote:I know you're kidding but I can't help but think how fast Loss Prevention would be all over this and deactivate the store credit. Can't turn off the retail brain

Thanks, I find it very funny that 'Loss Prevention' is actually a loss reaction system. Amazingly they must not really care about tiny losses given the frequent errors, just my humble guess.

And yes, I don't really advocate intentional theft. Usually I'm undercharged because they can't find the price in the system so they decide to practically give it away. They must like me.

It's true. Most of it is reactive, but their hands are often tied by policy and procedure. Private investigators and former police officers/detectives are often employed and they do carry out relatively in-depth investigations over time. This all happens within the confines of the customer service paradigm, of course. It's not so much that they prevent it from happening, but rather prevent it from continuing when a problem has been identified.

I'm getting more and more turned off my most pricing at the LCBO lately. I used to be okay with some of it, but seeing a the Jolly Pumpkin witbier at 4.8% ABV selling for $10 bucks... I don't care if it's a large bottle... I find that to be a rip off.

Blasphomet wrote:I'm getting more and more turned off my most pricing at the LCBO lately. I used to be okay with some of it, but seeing a the Jolly Pumpkin witbier at 4.8% ABV selling for $10 bucks... I don't care if it's a large bottle... I find that to be a rip off.

I don't know if I've seen JP much cheaper anywhere else. That's generally the price range they fall in in Buffalo too. Maybe a buck cheaper? It's an oak aged beer from a pretty sought after producer, so if you want JP, you pay the JP price.

Some of the stuff on this offering is actually lower than I've seen in the states, including the Gueuze which was like $7.50 for the same bottle last time I was at Premier.

spinrsx wrote:wouldn't a beer like this (JP) be good for several years?

After one year it should probably be given to Hazardous Waste Pickup, PM me if you need the phone number to arrange disposal.

Blasphomet wrote:I'm getting more and more turned off my most pricing at the LCBO lately. I used to be okay with some of it, but seeing a the Jolly Pumpkin witbier at 4.8% ABV selling for $10 bucks... I don't care if it's a large bottle... I find that to be a rip off.

Calabaza Blanca sells for $9-$11/bottle (USD) even in Ann Arbor. Now whether you think it's fair to pay $10 for a low ABV witbier is a different story, but there doesn't appear to be any price gouging on the LCBO's behalf in this instance.

mtomlins wrote:

Blasphomet wrote:I'm getting more and more turned off my most pricing at the LCBO lately. I used to be okay with some of it, but seeing a the Jolly Pumpkin witbier at 4.8% ABV selling for $10 bucks... I don't care if it's a large bottle... I find that to be a rip off.

Calabaza Blanca sells for $9-$11/bottle (USD) even in Ann Arbor. Now whether you think it's fair to pay $10 for a low ABV witbier is a different story, but there doesn't appear to be any price gouging on the LCBO's behalf in this instance.

It's not price gouging. Calling it Just A Witbier is an understatement, if you want just an excellent well-priced wit could go buy Blanche de Chambly.

Yes slightly more $ USD in Buffalo, and Jolly Pumpkin is probably in the league of La Fantome, another small brewery that is usually not inexpensive but nobody questions the high intrinsic value of the product.

Sympathies if these brews are out of people's budgets, but then maybe so are the best Burgundies and Barolo wines. Should they not exist?

AFAIK the LCBO doesn't 'gouge' on beer prices. There's a formula that applies taxes and markups to beer, but I believe they're fairly consistent across the board.

The price you pay is highly dependent on what the brewery price is, plus the local agent's markup. There's three parties in the mix (excluding the government itself for tax) that make the price what it is.

Yah, I was surprised at the JP price; it was cheaper at the LCBO than at some of the bottle shops right next to the brewery! And I couldn’t agree more with some of the praise for JP, they are making some phenomenally delicious beers.

Blasphomet wrote:I'm getting more and more turned off my most pricing at the LCBO lately. I used to be okay with some of it, but seeing a the Jolly Pumpkin witbier at 4.8% ABV selling for $10 bucks... I don't care if it's a large bottle... I find that to be a rip off.

It's not always about alcohol content, man.

I just spent the weekend in Ann Arbor and I can guarantee you will not find JP for less than $9 even from the brewery...although they have started bottling the blanca and La Roja in 375s. I paid $8 for one of those.

As far as other LCBO pricing, in Michigan I paid $8 for St. Louis Gueuze because I was impatient for the LCBO release...I just paid $4.50 at King and Spadina for the same Gueuze.

The Elseebeeoh makes its money in buying so much volume and being the only game in town, allowing the economies of scale you sometimes see reflected in a decent price for a great product.

Or sometimes not.

The evil twin brother of some good prices remains the lack of selection, a discussion topic for the LCBO debate and discussion thread. I will briefly say the quality of nearly all our more affordable wines is appalling and sad by European standards. Nobody's doing us any special favors here as consumers.

Belgian wrote:The Elseebeeoh makes its money in buying so much volume and being the only game in town, allowing the economies of scale you sometimes see reflected in a decent price for a great product.

Or sometimes not.

The evil twin brother of some good prices remains the lack of selection, a discussion topic for the LCBO debate and discussion thread. I will briefly say the quality of nearly all our more affordable wines is appalling and sad by European standards. Nobody's doing us any special favors here as consumers.

Isn't that more a product of taxation than markup?

Picked up some St. Louis Fond Tradition. Maybe the 4th or 5th time I've had it and always impressed. Really complex and super smooth. I've never understood why it doesn't get more props.

this barely showed up in Ottawa.. already discontinued? Seems like there wasn't a whole lot of this to go around. Peen: any idea how much of this the LCBO had ordered?

ST LOUIS GUEUZE FOND TRADITION SOUR BELGIUM ALE
LCBO 371880 | 375 mL bottle
PRODUCT DISCONTINUED*