The Bar Towel

I was going to post that too.

...After I went to get some at lunch

boney wrote:

PeenSteen wrote:

boney wrote:Remind me, what's the deal with London again? Why do they always get prime releases? Is it a western warehouse thing?

I'm pretty realistic and even minded about the LCBO. I know it's not going anywhere and I live with it, but limited releases only going to the same 3 cities bugs me. I lnow why it happens, but it still rubs me the wrong way.

Durham (GTA), Ottawa and London are the 3 retail warehouses in Ontario

Makes sense. I can't argue with logistics.

Even if you disregard the warehouse locations, it mostly makes sense from a population/market demand perspective. In terms of large urban centres, the GTA, Ottawa, Hamilton, and London are to Ontario what NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse are to New York. Or put another way, 58 percent of Ontarians live in these four urban areas. Beyond that they all have decent to excellent beer scenes that drive demand for niche products/special releases. So while it's fair to say that Hamilton and K-W (roughly the same metro pop. as London) have wrongfully missed out on this one, there's nothing unusual about it heading to the other three centres.

Is this the regular Oude Geuze and Armand and Tommy is coming later? Either way, I'll be trying to get some of both.

Don't bother with Manulife - not unpacked yet....not "visible" on one of the 5 skids.

cratez wrote:

boney wrote:

PeenSteen wrote: Durham (GTA), Ottawa and London are the 3 retail warehouses in Ontario

Makes sense. I can't argue with logistics.

Even if you disregard the warehouse locations, it mostly makes sense from a population/market demand perspective. In terms of large urban centres, the GTA, Ottawa, Hamilton, and London are to Ontario what NYC, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse are to New York. Or put another way, 58 percent of Ontarians live in these four urban areas. Beyond that they all have decent to excellent beer scenes that drive demand for niche products/special releases. So while it's fair to say that Hamilton and K-W (roughly the same metro pop. as London) have wrongfully missed out on this one, there's nothing unusual about it heading to the other three centres.

Quite true but.....but....the LCBO is a monopoly, if you cant get enough product to supply the area you are in control of then get out of the business.

My analogy would be Canada Post saying we arent doing the mail for Kenora, Moosonee and so on anymore because there is no demand. Although this may happen or CPC would like it to happen.

Private stores in the States get their product from private distibutors and may spread the product around, there may be not enough to go around but its not like one store or area gets it all, unlike here.

Me personally I dont care, I would have probably bought 6 (maybe try to bring in a case) if it didnt come to Hamilton, some for myself some for friends some for those in the area that didnt get any but now I have $136.80 to spend in Michigan next week, .....boo hoo!

I know we have covered this topic before and this is the only comment I will make.

Went to Atrium...all gone, I was the 10th person who asked for it. Other than the 6, that are being held for someone.

mixedup wrote:Don't bother with Manulife - not unpacked yet....not "visible" on one of the 5 skids.

Doesn't the store have to manually scan the case into the system before it appears online?

Yeahh... went to Manulife and the guy refused to take them off the skid for me. Said to call @ 1PM to see if they were unloaded.

Went to Atrium shortly after and snagged a couple. When I paid they had 3 left on the shelf and 5 reserved.

icemachine wrote:

mixedup wrote:Don't bother with Manulife - not unpacked yet....not "visible" on one of the 5 skids.

Doesn't the store have to manually scan the case into the system before it appears online?

Would have thought the same....guy wasn't the most customer service oriented. Probably should have been a security guard.

Anyway, a 2nd employee checked and she said it wasn't visible back there....although I'm not sure she knew what she was looking for.

Cost me my lunch hour and a $40 parking ticket for that escapade.

So, went to Rideau/King Edward at about 10:30am. Nothing, so they looked it up. 48 in the Bank/Walkley warehouse, 36 going to Rideau, nothing showed up for the other 12. She said it should be transferred over today, but when exactly is anyone's guess. I just called and they still don't have it, so...

If anyone finds it there, let us all know...otherwise I'll just call them 20 times today.

Atrium told me all but 6 got snagged by one person first thing this morning. The other 6 are held.

Manulife just told me it was on their second shipment today, so it wouldn't be unpacked until 3 or so. I asked if they would hold some for me, they said no.

squeaky wrote:Atrium told me all but 6 got snagged by one person first thing this morning. The other 6 are held.

That was not correct. I was there at opening and there were 5 on the shelf. Those five went immediately, split between myself and somebody else who had been waiting. Clearly some more were put out by the time mk12345 arrived.

I am surprised that the LCBO is allowing people to reserve these, which (AFAIK) they do not permit with Vintage release wines. I suspect it is because this is only a recent problem with beer and LCBO policy has not caught up. But it should not be possible to reserve a bunch of bottles just by dialing a number.
Ren

jrenihan wrote:

squeaky wrote:Atrium told me all but 6 got snagged by one person first thing this morning. The other 6 are held.

That was not correct. I was there at opening and there were 5 on the shelf. Those five went immediately, split between myself and somebody else who had been waiting. Clearly some more were put out by the time mk12345 arrived.

I am surprised that the LCBO is allowing people to reserve these, which (AFAIK) they do not permit with Vintage release wines. I suspect it is because this is only a recent problem with beer and LCBO policy has not caught up. But it should not be possible to reserve a bunch of bottles just by dialing a number.
Ren

Exactly, that's almost a 3rd of their stock!

jrenihan wrote: I am surprised that the LCBO is allowing people to reserve these, which (AFAIK) they do not permit with Vintage release wines. I suspect it is because this is only a recent problem with beer and LCBO policy has not caught up. But it should not be possible to reserve a bunch of bottles just by dialing a number.
Ren

Yeah.. agreed.

I remember when the Deus came out people had called in and reserved the majority of them.

If a Star or Toronto Life article hits sometime today the remainder of this release will be purchased/reserved before they make it to the LCBO listing system.

Well, I don't think it's so much "The LCBO" that's allowing it as it probably is just some random working holding a case for a friend. Which probably shouldn't be/isn't allowed, but whatever.