The Bar Towel

If the LCBO stores were sold off en masse, again I argue that Molson and company would want a very large slice of that pie and your dreams of seeing Stone in Canada would die on the spot.

Sometimes the devil you know....

sprague11 wrote:If the LCBO stores were sold off en masse, again I argue that Molson and company would want a very large slice of that pie and your dreams of seeing Stone in Canada would die on the spot.

Sometimes the devil you know....

Maybe but the big grocery corps are larger and already have the infrastructure in place to sell beer including the software. It would be a battle.

sprague11 wrote:If the LCBO stores were sold off en masse, again I argue that Molson and company would want a very large slice of that pie and your dreams of seeing Stone in Canada would die on the spot.

Sometimes the devil you know....

You're right. Selling off the LCBO without opening the market to other competition would be the death knell for good beer in this province, and that's why I don't support privatizing the LCBO. I support opening the market to whoever wants in. If I opened a store there wouldn't be a drop of BMC or MolBatt's in the place, and I'm sure there are many people who share that sentiment. Only an open market system would allow such a store to exist.

People that support overhauling the system in Ontario need to get their terminology right. We need to be supporting an open market model, not a privatized LCBO model.

What Ale's said...

Privatization wouldn't guarantee anything...

I know it's been said a million times before but the Beer Store is about as private as it gets and I don't see any Stone there.

Even in the "beer boutique".

Ultimately, though, I think the point is moot. It's not happening anytime soon. What we can hope for is a more open model like they have in Quebec with smaller businesses opening stores with a lot of great choice...competing with the LCBO.

Maybe nobody gives a crap about us craft beer consumers in the big business picture, and maybe this is slow to change.

But it might be a saving grace that the beer scene is much better than it was only five years ago, and if we can take advantage of the big LCBO structure to maintain this upward trend, there's almost a cause for supporting it.

I say almost. People outside the GTA (London, Kitchener, Ottawa) don't seem to get half the good stuff (at least not reliably) yet I hope this too is improving as good beer becomes 'normalized' and even some backward-thinking stores start accepting IPAs and premium Stouts as actual beverages real humans would want.

Belgian wrote:Maybe nobody gives a crap about us craft beer consumers in the big business picture, and maybe this is slow to change.

But it might be a saving grace that the beer scene is much better than it was only five years ago, and if we can take advantage of the big LCBO structure to maintain this upward trend, there's almost a cause for supporting it.

I say almost. People outside the GTA (London, Kitchener, Ottawa) don't seem to get half the good stuff (at least not reliably) yet I hope this too is improving as good beer becomes 'normalized' and even some backward-thinking stores start accepting IPAs and premium Stouts as actual beverages real humans would want.

People in Sudbury get even less. I always go to the local stores with lists of new releases... 50% of the time I get what I order because of the warehouse system. + you can't do an interstore transfer on discontinued items...

and Rob... I don't think grocery stores will help me out... maybe I'll be able to buy some table wine easier but I'm still going to have to drive to Cambridge 6 times a year to fill my restaurant with Grand River.

Selling the LCBO will be good for MolsonCoors InBev, Corby's, Diageo... relaxed laws will help the OCB and craft beer importers.