The Bar Towel

jp_jkl wrote:I'll always remember the time a craft beer loving employee there called me out on returning bottles I didn't buy in Ontario. I had a bunch of Founders, Bells and Dark Horse empties I had originally purchased in Michigan and they refused to give me the deposit money. I returned bottles/cans purchased out of province there all the time and they only noticed once. I never thought it was a big deal, but I guess it is technically cheating the system.

We have a couple bottle pickers in our neighbourhood. One will take anything, the other only Ontario bottles. I'm guessing the latter also had a bad experience.

JasonTremblay wrote:

jp_jkl wrote:I'll always remember the time a craft beer loving employee there called me out on returning bottles I didn't buy in Ontario. I had a bunch of Founders, Bells and Dark Horse empties I had originally purchased in Michigan and they refused to give me the deposit money. I returned bottles/cans purchased out of province there all the time and they only noticed once. I never thought it was a big deal, but I guess it is technically cheating the system.

We have a couple bottle pickers in our neighbourhood. One will take anything, the other only Ontario bottles. I'm guessing the latter also had a bad experience.

I'll often give my bottles to a local picker. He has told me that he is sometimes able to get money back for balsamic vinegar bottles if the shape is right, and obvious u-brew wine bottles with wedding or occasion labels are almost never a problem.

How hard is it to check for that?!

When I used to return empties in Oakville they were picky...anything that looked remotely "non-LCBO / Beer Store" was questioned....so one-offs from local breweries that they didn't carry got scrutinized.

I'd have some US stuff sometimes too, and more than once they wouldn't count some of my bottles.

I pretty much jsut let pickers take my bottles now, but if I do return them myself, it's to a Beer Store in Parkdale. They pay for anything...

Beer store on Laird south of Eglinton doesn't seem fussy. They're much more interested in whether you're going to buy anything (they seem so hopeful). At least it is one of the better stores where you can walk amongst the product offerings and browse.

jp_jkl wrote:I'll always remember the time a craft beer loving employee there called me out on returning bottles I didn't buy in Ontario. I had a bunch of Founders, Bells and Dark Horse empties I had originally purchased in Michigan and they refused to give me the deposit money. I returned bottles/cans purchased out of province there all the time and they only noticed once. I never thought it was a big deal, but I guess it is technically cheating the system.

Well TBS have short-changed me many times, so have to even that score - and anyway the beers we bring in can't be sold here because of a crooked system that fails to serve the consumer interest.

We also pay a lot declaring it. If that imported beer's now an approved Ontario import like all others shouldn't the deposit now be part of that gigantic 30-40% premium? I say it should. Returning them brings back bottles where they ought to be, not blue bins which we have been told is BAD. They don't really reuse all LCBO-sourced beer bottles you know, many are crushed.

What's happened to me in the past is bottles without a volume in. ml, get caught otherwise they pay...