General LCBO Debate & Discussion Thread

[mintjellie]

How do you figure that? A private owner makes more money by selling to underage kids. A LCBO employee makes no extra money selling to underage kids.

A bar owner - and the hypothetical private store owner - can lose their license and be put out of business if they're caught serving underage patrons.

What would happen to an LCBO employee? A reprimand? Maybe a short suspension? I suspect the union would ensure nothing worse in terms of punishment. And the store wouldn't be shut down.

That is true but it doesn't seem to stop store owners from selling tobacco to underage customers.

I used to work at a gas station/c-store and we were always told by the owner, that under any circumstances where we doubt the customer is older than 25 yrs old, to check their ID. We had one employee get caught selling to a minor, and she was fired immediately. And the rest of us got letters from our boss saying why she was fired, and that he would do the same to any of us.

[sprague11]

Private owners have far more incentive to enforce age restrictions than the LCBO or Beer Store.

Far more incentive to not get caught, I would argue. I was able to buy smokes when I was 16 and god served in bars when I was 18. I never had any fake ID and my license clearly said 1979 - I was just never asked.

[Belgian]

I'm pretty sure you didn't need to rephrase your entire thesis 'in clear english', JP was specifically questioning the bit about 'at a loss', which was factually incorrect.

As an aside, to 'milk the cow' is to squeeze as much profit out of something as possible. Which is sort of what you've argued they are not doing, no? I can think of a few other bovine themed idioms that could be used to appropriately depict the scenario that you've (mostly) accurately described here.

I'm pretty sure I had not been speaking, or rambling, in clear english.

And yes milking the cow in this case means getting the most money out of the same old thing with no other effort to innovate or improve. If it's all a business does they normally decline after a while, but the LC is in a unique position - they didn't really 'create' a competitive success nor do they have to defend it from innovators. They just assumed the total market as theirs to own.

Anyway that's the best I can muster, not feeling great this week and sorry if meaning was unclear! Please no prickly detail analyses... I need soup...

[dale cannon]

Anyway that's the best I can muster, not feeling great this week and sorry if meaning was unclear! Please no prickly detail analyses... I need soup...

'Twas a decent attempt.

Hope you found some soup (and some Nogne) and are feeling better J-Roc.

[kafercrazy]

finally got around to getting my stash of Gulden Draak from the winter release (my local had 3 cases listed on inventory). Only to find out that they're not allowed to sell them to me because they are on hold for a licensee. The guy tells me I can go enjoy my beer there ... for 200% markup .... no thanks.

No Gulden Draak for me.

[Bytowner]

The Agenda on TVO is having a LCBO discussion tonight with Regg Cohn.

[mintjellie]

finally got around to getting my stash of Gulden Draak from the winter release (my local had 3 cases listed on inventory). Only to find out that they're not allowed to sell them to me because they are on hold for a licensee. The guy tells me I can go enjoy my beer there ... for 200% markup .... no thanks.

No Gulden Draak for me.

Does this mean I can call my local LCBO to hold three cases of Gulden Draak for me?

[JeffPorter]

Not sure where to put this, but thought it worth pointing out that according to NAC, as of Feb 4 you'll be able to get Tree Hop Head 6 pks for a buck off.

[Belgian]

they're not allowed to sell them to me because they are on hold for a licensee. The guy tells me I can go enjoy my beer there ... for 200% markup .... no thanks.

Does this mean I can call my local LCBO to hold three cases of Gulden Draak for me?

I'd say you could arrange a reservation or transfer, minimum one case, should be no problem. I've done it a few times.

Kafer it sucks the store held nothing back for its walk-in customers, WTF is the purpose of a Ontario-run store if they put no stock on the floor for the Ontario public?

[St Veronus]

Hey Kafercrazy,
Sorry about the Gulden Draak. Bit of a misunderstanding from the LCBO employee though. I ordered that beer. That particular store had no plans to get any and no plans to stock it. It shows up in inventory because there is no way to flag it as a customer order. I don't have any special access to beer that you don't. You can order beer the same way I can. just call them up with the product number. Hope this helps out. Cheers.

[kafercrazy]

Hey Kafercrazy,
Sorry about the Gulden Draak. Bit of a misunderstanding from the LCBO employee though. I ordered that beer. That particular store had no plans to get any and no plans to stock it. It shows up in inventory because there is no way to flag it as a customer order. I don't have any special access to beer that you don't. You can order beer the same way I can. just call them up with the product number. Hope this helps out. Cheers.

it worked OK, I got some in the next order.

[El Pinguino]

Ok.... not sure if anyone else has run into this recently. But it's happened to me three times in the past two weeks.

I always look around at what single bottles are lying around at the LCBO. There are way too many beers I don't want to buy a bunch of.

I finally came across a single Sam Adams Latitude 48 on a shelf today and picked it up. I also picked up a single Palm from Belgium.

At the cash, neither scanned as a single bottle, and the guy told me I couldn't buy them. This happened at the Queens Quay location but happened at another location to me over a week ago.

Both times the staff member actually asked someone else what he could do...and he was told he could not sell me that beer. The one guy was explicitly told that "no, we can't use that generic number anymore." (Which they used to always punch in no problem)

So both times I asked the guys.....are those loose bottle beers going to sit there forever then if you can't sell them? The first guy kind of joked and said "I guess so!"

The other guy said, "no...I guess we'll have to destroy them."

Anyone else having trouble with single bottle buys these days?

I should note that it only happened for these beers. I did manage to get singles of some other (much less appealing) beers, like Bud Light Platinum.

[zane9]

Ok.... not sure if anyone else has run into this recently. But it's happened to me three times in the past two weeks....

At the cash, neither scanned as a single bottle, and the guy told me I couldn't buy them. This happened at the Queens Quay location but happened at another location to me over a week ago.

Both times the staff member actually asked someone else what he could do...and he was told he could not sell me that beer. The one guy was explicitly told that "no, we can't use that generic number anymore." (Which they used to always punch in no problem)

So both times I asked the guys.....are those loose bottle beers going to sit there forever then if you can't sell them? The first guy kind of joked and said "I guess so!"...

I ran into this during my first year as a BT forum subscriber. The King & Spadina outlet was in the running for the least customer-friendly location in Ontario.

I raised the issue on BT. Many of you responded: (highlights)

- all open box product can be sold as single-bottle purchases;
- the LCBO has always had a single-bottle code;
- there is no such thing as an orphan bottle;
- managers are the gatekeepers, and if they don't care much about customers they will tell all CSRs to refuse to sell a single bottle if it won't scan.

I had many arguments at the King/Spadina location and usually lost. The final straw was the manager's refusal to sell Boneshaker as singles from the open box. A friendly CSR essentially snuck the bottle through the sales process. But life's too short for asshole managers, so I stopped arguing and now follow the "rules" at that location.

[midlife crisis]

FWIW, the last time I was at Queens Quay there were large signs beside the Green Flash (open top) four packs which say "not available for single bottle purchase". I share your frustration as I too never break up sixes but try to buy orphans if they are just sitting there, ostensibly "for sale".

[lister]

Yeah I've had that problem several times at King & Spadina and elsewhere.

Be consistent. Either allow singles or don't. And if singles aren't allowed then get rid of the singles basket!