The Bar Towel

http://metronews.ca/news/toronto/492250 ... s-in-2013/

I is disappoint.

it is a pilot project and going in 10 stores.

/monopoly

BUT HOW WILL WE STOP THE 10 YEAR OLDS FROM DRINKING ALCOHOL?

This would get me excited if they kept grocery store hours. All my grocery stores are already right next to LCBOs, this just gives me less selection in the stores themselves. Thanks, but no thanks.

Bytowner wrote:This would get me excited if they kept grocery store hours. All my grocery stores are already right next to LCBOs, this just gives me less selection in the stores themselves. T
hanks, but no thanks.

but you can pick up Moslon Dry or Labatt Blue or Trius at the LCBO Express. Because we know they won't be selling St Berny 12 there.

The increased number of VQA boutiques —for wines that are grown and made in Ontario — will eventually lead to stand-alone stores for VQA wines, Duncan said.

So if this can be done (which I thought was illegal under NAFTA regs) then why not OCB stores?

my local grocery store has had a LCBO for years, and it is open store hours including most holidays. they usually have tree hop head and a few other decent beers too

distr0 wrote:my local grocery store has had a LCBO for years, and it is open store hours including most holidays. they usually have tree hop head and a few other decent beers too

The only good part of living in Rural areas LOL

icemachine wrote:

The increased number of VQA boutiques —for wines that are grown and made in Ontario — will eventually lead to stand-alone stores for VQA wines, Duncan said.

So if this can be done (which I thought was illegal under NAFTA regs) then why not OCB stores?

I am not a lawyer, but it seems to make sense that it's allowed if they are still owned and operated by the LCBO. AFAIK, NAFTA doesn't dictate what the LCBO can or has to sell.

OMGWTFBBQ <- I just wanted to use more acronyms.


Rather than say "Ah, this is nothing, boo!" I take the approach of "OK, they did something; therefore if people (and the OCB) keep pushing, we'll get more." Dismantling TBS model is a more realistic goal than abolishing the LCBO, I think.

Why is it a bad idea?

Great for more availability of generic and popular products. Wow... or not wow.

Won't be great for selection, so don't expect it to be like Wegmans or Whole Foods in the USA just because there's high-end food sold nearby. Putting an LCBO Express in your favorite food store would be no assurance of good hours, products or service. In fact all it would guarantee is more union jobs and deeper entrenchment of liquor retail mediocrity.

This is just another stranglehold strategy the LCBO can use to stop any privatization liquor retail - privatized sellers could pose something of a competitive threat, if not outright embarassment, to the LC.

At any rate, it's worth keeping a wary eye on this development.

I am ok with this. I mean from a beer fan standpoint the convenience will be nice as long as they carry at least a few things I like.

And from a Tax payer stand point this sounds like a good idea. I mean there is a huge LCBO that is like two blocks from my house. It seemed to take forever to build that thing and it must have cost a fortune. I imagine that even with the cash the LCBO makes it must have taken awhile before they made back the investment they had to make to build that thing (or if the landlord built it the lease must be priced accordingly to make up for his investment). Either way it means less profit for the province. Now there is a perfectly good mall just across the street and I am sure they could have fit up a couple of suites in the mall to get something maybe not as big but comparable for a fraction of the cost. So if these new stores mean more sales with less overhead I am not sure why it would be bad.

Belgian wrote:Why is it a bad idea?

Great for more availability of generic and popular products. Wow... or not wow.

Won't be great for selection, so don't expect it to be like Wegmans or Whole Foods in the USA just because there's high-end food sold nearby. Putting an LCBO Express in your favorite food store would be no assurance of good hours, products or service. In fact all it would guarantee is more union jobs and deeper entrenchment of liquor retail mediocrity.

This is just another stranglehold strategy the LCBO can use to stop any privatization liquor retail - privatized sellers could pose something of a competitive threat, if not outright embarassment, to the LC.

At any rate, it's worth keeping a wary eye on this development.

I agree.
The article touts the system the NSLC has in Nova Scotia. In Sydney River, A Sobeys is basically split into 3rds, 2 are the grocery store and 1 is the liquor store. There is a doorway between the two. You still have to pay for your groceries and booze at separate checkouts. Who really wants to drag their groceries into the liquor store? I see it as a step away from privitization too by the LCBO. Although Nova Scotia has private liquor stores, there aren't many, pretty much just a handful in Halifax (this also has to do with the issue of population being spread out so much in rural areas too)

I don't see this as a step forward, at least not for my personal convenience. I'm never too far from an LCBO in the city, and the selection will be less, not more or different, so it's unlikely I'll ever be visiting one of these.

I don't really have a problem with access to the LCBO, just a problem with what the LCBO chooses to stock.

icemachine wrote:

distr0 wrote:my local grocery store has had a LCBO for years, and it is open store hours including most holidays. they usually have tree hop head and a few other decent beers too

The only good part of living in Rural areas LOL

I live in the same town as distr0. The great part is we are only 10 minutes from Branford or Cambridge. Best of both worlds.

It's a great plan for idiot taste. If all people know is Yellow Tail and Coors Light (forgive me for saying - stupid choices of a deliberately mis-educated public), well this is a GREAT idea! [/irony]

If am a snob, fine. I would just hate to see more of the overtaxed & captive market systematically 'streamlined away' from good taste in wine or beer, like big-money veal calves kept in the dark by the Province.

At very least current LCBO stores (non-horrible ones) offer people a fighting chance of stumbling over something really worth buying. People who'd never have to go to those stores would be a lost generation. They would be bland Commodity Consumers that most obediently serve the LCBO's lust for high profit margins.

Product value and quality should not be undermined by conflicting interests of sheer profit.

Worthless decision by a lumbering anachronism trying to justify its pointless existence.