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Gleemer Imports wrote: ↑Fri Mar 14, 2025 9:58 am
My hot take: the LCBO is indeed restrictful regarding shipping. but they negotiate a pretty great freight rate (at least for international items). if you can get your beer/wine to the port, that $ amount per case is peanuts. $16 per case for the LCBO to pick it up from my Belgian breweries is a per-bottle laughable amount.
Yeah, I guess you're right about the international freight due to consolidation. But the final straw for me was when I tried to help Indie Alehouse do a Buffalo beer night with some of the breweries there. The LCBO quoted me something like $2,000 to ship a few cases, plus duties/taxes/exchange on top of that. The LCBO is set up well for large volume stuff, but some of the little things they can't or won't service effectively. It's that kind of thing, albeit pretty small potatoes, would be nice if barriers were removed on - even if it's still just within Canada.
Oh yeah, they're not equipped nor desired to be equipped to take care of smaller things. Not the way they make money.
In the end, I've been doing this for almost a decade. I always said I'd do this until it didn't make sense to do it any more. The LCBO's made things quite miserable by stopping their free store shipping program, which makes orders outside of Toronto more difficult and expensive. There's still a bit of a run left for me as long as there's still a willing audience.
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Maybe inspired by similar events, I had a new beer from Dominion City last night called Glorious and Free. They are calling on breweries across the country to jump in and brew it in their markets. Fun concept, but most importantly, it was one of the best new beers I have tried in a while. It was flat out excellent. I was with a group of people with a wide range of tastes and it was the first time in ages everybody agreed and got excited by the same beer. Highly recommended. Fresh on tap at C'est What. I think it was mentioned that Junction may take it up for Toronto. I hope they package and distribute.
Brands are for cattle.
Fans are cash cows.
The herd will consume until consumed.
On alcohol, long a point of contention in interprovincial trade talks, the legislation would introduce an interprovincial direct-to-consumer sales model so that Ontario residents could buy directly from producers in other provinces, and Ontario producers could sell directly to consumers elsewhere in Canada.
So in theory I'll be able to order Quebec beer to my door soon.
