The Bar Towel

Went to the East Mall and Burnhamthorpe Loblaws to see how they're handling the rollout and I was fairly impressed. Grabbed a fresh sixer of Rhyme & Reason and a can of Headstock, both packaged in early December. All of the beer was nicely faced and well presented, which you would expect on day one. Lots of sales types on hand to talk about the products too. Wasn't aware that you have to check out at designated "Beer Lanes," though, so not paying attention I unloaded my stuff where a cashier wasn't trained and was asked to go to another till. I think it'll take some time for consumers to get used to that, as I guarantee plenty of people will do what I did and some won't be happy when they're asked to go to a "designated" till. It'll probably cause some delays as well (in the short term, anyway), but over time we'll get used to living in the 21st century.

TheSevenDuffs wrote:

TwoPint wrote:I was at the Victoria Park Loblaws today. Two piddly end-of-aisle displays. Nothing refrigerated. What a cruel joke.

Most of the LCBOs I go to have the majority of their beer on the shelf - unrefrigerated.

Premier Gourmet, despite having a walk in fridge, regularly has the majority of their IPAs sitting out on the shelf at room temperature.

Let's not be unrealistic with our expectations here.

Agreed.

cratez wrote:...but over time we'll get used to living in the 21st century...

Was there a 20th century or did they just cancel it?

Belgian wrote:

cratez wrote:...but over time we'll get used to living in the 21st century...

Was there a 20th century or did they just cancel it?

it was the 0th that was "cancelled" J

Belgian wrote: Was there a 20th century or did they just cancel it?

Belgian reads every post instantly, because he never leaves his computer.

Dale thanks I meant the LCBO perhaps never caught up with the previous century, so it's funny they'd already be in this one. It's so schizoid, man!

Crate you are a funny man.

The really important thing in all of this is that Loblaws set the standard with 50% craft beer. Everyone now has to do better than that or be considered worse than Loblaws.

This is going to be great.

That said, I talked to Kamran Butt who manages the Lakeshore and Leslie Loblaws for the CBC last week and they're not done. It's like I've been saying since April when this was all announced: It takes time to renovate stores. It's not like a large grocery store has a lot of space going begging. They've got all manner of different products that are all carefully planogrammed in different departments and you don't want to mess with that. If you want to put in a cooler for beer, you've got to put it somewhere where the power coupling to do that is already inbuilt or you've got to install one. You've got to find a time to do that when the store is closed. Also, they really haven't had all the intervening time. No one knew which stores were getting licenses until last month. You've got to figure on three to four months for build out. It was never going to be as easy as flipping a switch.

I'm actually impressed at how quickly this happened between the liberal announcement and product on the shelves.
Complain all you want about no coolers, but the red tape could have kept this tied up until 2017.

This is more like it:

Currently beer is shelved at the end of aisles in Loblaw store locations, with almost 2.5 metres of space devoted to the drink. Beer drinkers can expect the amount of space provided for the beverage to expand to 12 metres, with the inclusion of extra brands and refrigeration by early 2016, said Kevin Groh, vice-president of corporate affairs and communication at Loblaw.

http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/loblaw-says-it-will-devote-more-retail-space-for-beer-in-ontario