Beer in Grocery Stores

[atomeyes]

^^ Exactly. Just moving the sales from one major donor to another.

we can only hope that the Star jumps all over this.

the Weston family has literally become the evil empire. they own grocery. they own pharmacy. they now will have alcohol sales.

Galen whispers and the Liberals coo.

[atomeyes]

there's also the likelihood that this info was leaked so the govt could see our reaction before making a decision.
it was the leading story on the news.

i *think* reaction's mostly positive. I'm curious as to what the convenience stores will say/do.
also: why does it have to be a "large" grocery store? why does size matter?

[midlife crisis]

"Have a good time tonight, boys" campaign worked, in its own way?

[Masterplan]

Meh, I actually prefer the idea of LCBO run craft beer stores, to this. I'm not going to pick up a 30 pack of Coors light cans at the grocery just because I can...

The craft stores would have ensured those of us not in the GTA would get a supply of decent beer. Now we'll probably see the LCBO pull back on beer offerings and just end up with masses of readily available Macros...

[toweringpine]

So the convenience stores have been lobbying for this for decades but when it finally happens they are excluded in favour of the big grocery chains.

the Weston family's worth $9 billion.

someone should dig up how much they've donated to the Ontario Liberals or, in the very least, how many chairs they had at last week's fundraiser.

The convenience story lobby pales in comparison to a billionaire.

Looks to me like it is about the union. One UFCW local to another. Are the major convenience stores unionized?

[cfrancis]

It would be nice if the LCBO would drop the macros from their shelves and fill it with craft. That would provide a lot of shelf space for new good stuff.

LCBO's would then become more of a specialty beer store.

I fear that the macros just make up too much of it's sales to simply drop them.

[saints_gambit]

This is a really good step forward. Why is everyone always sending me these negative waves?

[sprague11]

Negativity? I call it cynicism.

[Inkling]

I think it's good news even if it isn't as far as we might have hoped. If Ontario has to be dragged into the 20th Century before it can be dragged into the 21st, then so be it. It's progress. I thought I'd never live to see the end of the Beer Store / LCBO monopoly.

I'm sure grocery stores will stock craft beer if they think it will attract customers. A lot might stick to the macros, but other higher end ones will venture further out. Much like in Quebec, an IGA will have a better craft beer selection than a Super C.

I hope it goes ahead as soon as possible.

If grocery stores could be given rights to collect empties I might never have to go to another Beer Store, which would suit me fine.

[Swampale]

Since I make my own beer, this is a non-issue for me. I do, however buy beer the odd time. It would be nice to NOT go to the beer store for a change.

[Belgian]

This is a really good step forward. Why is everyone always sending me these negative waves?

+1.

And who doesn't enjoy the Schadenfreude of how the beer store must be squirming right now? TBS stand to lose their artificial quasi-monopoly of foreign / privately-owned dominant beer seller in our market, WHILE also having to pay a very large fee just to stay in the game with their uncompetitive soviet-style operation!

And nobody has mentioned the potential advantage of better business hours to buy wine and beer. Who is not tired of 'just missing' the store hours of the LCBO or the beer store? Feh!

[Craig]

This has to be the biggest win on the opening up the beer market we have seen since the formation of The Beer Store, right? I mean it's far from perfect, but this breaks the monopoly! Hopefully when this works out for the big grocery stores for a while, they'll expand it to small grocers and corner stores.

[saints_gambit]

That is correct. Any change is a change that breaks the status quo. This is not the end of the reform that's coming. This is the beginning of the reform that's coming. It has taken 30 years so far. It will probably take a certain amount of time to adopt changes. Things don't happen overnight.

Yes, there are legitimate criticisms, but in the current system even if everybody wanted to do business with The Beer Store, they couldn't cause there isn't the shelf space. We just added ... what, half a million feet of shelf space and all the craft beers are going to be visible to consumers. How on earth is that not a significant victory? It'll grow market share for the entire craft segment, give large players like Mill Street and Steam Whistle who are capped near 75,000 HL a reason to expand while costing Labatt and Molson millions and millions of dollars.

You might actually grow the craft beer category by half the year after this launches.

[Craig]

It remains to be seen if craft will actually show up on grocery shelves. Grocery stores are just as, if not more, brutal than TBS when it comes to listing fees. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the macro/craft split ends up the same in grocery stores as it is in TBS today. Even if it does, this is still a huge step forward.

[saints_gambit]

It remains to be seen if craft will actually show up on grocery shelves. Grocery stores are just as, if not more, brutal than TBS when it comes to listing fees. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the macro/craft split ends up the same in grocery stores as it is in TBS today. Even if it does, this is still a huge step forward.

There is no way that it doesn't end up on shelves. Really small batch stuff like Bellwoods? That's not going to be on shelves. They don't make enough beer to be on shelves anywhere. What I think everyone is forgetting is that Mill Street, Steam Whistle, Nickel Brook, Muskoka... these are still craft breweries. In the long term those players gaining foothold in the public consciousness really helps everyone. We on this forum are not about gateway craft beer. We're about more impressive stuff that has a smaller target audience. What we're looking at is momentum.

Just like with any situation we've got the ability to help control the narrative on this. The reason The Beer Store is finally going to see action against it is because people like Martin Regg Cohn and Ben Johnson and (not to toot my own horn, but I did commission a professional poll and provide a lot of economic criticism) me set out to raise public awareness about its ownership. Now, The Beer Store wasn't trying to please the consumers and they weren't trying to improve.

Grocery stores, for all that I see listing fees and supply chain issues bandied about, are in the business of trying to cater to their market. Longo's or Sobey's or even Loblaw's all carry boutique products. A lot of the Loblaw's locations carry organic produce and upscale groceries of every variety. The idea that they're not going to carry craft beer is ridiculous. Can you imagine the amount of scrutiny their selection is going to be under? Can you imagine what a PR win it is for them to provide locally made products in addition to a range of macro things people also want?

Besides which, even if there are listing fees, would you rather pay a listing fee for The Beer Store where you get a coaster sized label on the wall or a grocery store where your product is visible to consumers? People who complain about there being listing fees at all are being a little naive. Even if we had specialty stores there would still be listing fees to get in them as there are in Quebec.