General LCBO Debate & Discussion Thread

[Belgian]

I'd gladly accept some SNPA bottled in early May, preferably to that of March. I'm sure the drama continues and I'll buy more again next time 'round. Thanks for sharing the cognitive dissonance.

[Blasphomet]

I just find it funny that the Canadian shipment... to the wonderful LCBO... is the one that got messed up.

[saints_gambit]

I just find it funny that the Canadian shipment... to the wonderful LCBO... is the one that got messed up.

I'm not sure it's all that remarkable. They've never had to do business up here before. I'm sure it'll be smoother on the second batch.

[Belgian]

This thread was originally split off from the 2011 Spring Release thread to separately discuss people's concerns & beefs about the LCBO.

Looking at the 2015 Fall and Halloween / Oktoberfest release thread, and seeing the awestruck disappointment of the comments, I wonder if we are now headed back to 2011. With the apparent promise of the LCBO to do less with craft beer, it seems like they are now cranking back the seasonal craft beer selection abruptly even long before the availability of beer in grocery stores is imminent.

I wonder the Big Brewers and TBS have not been watching the rising popularity of craft beer and Ontario, and have been quietly lobbying to basically allow less craft beer imported & promoted here, and prevent it from growing quickly and taking away more of their profits.

The once-backward LCBO is again backing down from its recent improvements in beer selection, and the beer-in-grocery stores plan rather than feeling innovative seems so careful to maintain the Status Quo. Are they all dancing to the tune of large, foreign-owned brewing corporations that want to keep craft beer out, as much as possible? Is that the big chess game we now see playing out in weak LCBO releases?

There seems to be no reason the LCBO could not continue a trend of improving and expanding craft beer selection, first of all because the success of doing that in a captive market they have already proven, and secondly because there is no proposed alternative (the grocery store thing is simply not.)

Ontario has seen some amazing progress in the last five or seven years, but now it seems like someone has panicked and quietly tried to put the brakes on the incredible success of craft beer in Ontario. And I'd love to be wrong about this.

[saints_gambit]

Well, look. The Craft Beer Market has not expanded independently. It expands as much as the LCBO allows it to. The switch over to grocery stores is going to be a brief hiccup. And then the lawsuits will begin.

[spinrsx]

odd beer to update pricing on...

'Goose Island Vanilla Bourbon Stout (650 mL bottle) is ¢25 more expensive now'

[spinrsx]

There is some new return/exchange policy at the lcbo now. You need to sign your life away and they send your returned product away to a lab for analysis. Apparently someone was returning vodka bottles filled with water.

[rfrf]

There is some new return/exchange policy at the lcbo now. You need to sign your life away and they send your returned product away to a lab for analysis. Apparently someone was returning vodka bottles filled with water.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/m ... -1.3405313

[jeremyg]

Firestone Walker just announced distro to Canada, wonder if we'll get any.

Wouldn't blame them for wanting to steer clear of the lcbo tho.

[ry_kinney]

Some great sale prices at the LCBO right now to make room for spring arrivals. Picked up Matilda ($8) and Best of Beau's 4pk 2015 ($18). Winey Bastard ($9) all sold out.

[Belgian]

There is some new return/exchange policy at the lcbo now. You need to sign your life away and they send your returned product away to a lab for analysis. Apparently someone was returning vodka bottles filled with water.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/m ... -1.3405313

I'm sure the low foreheads at the LCBO will find a way to criminalize any person trying to return a product for legitimate reasons.

Like me today, just swapping a few (fairly recent) bottles of wine to buy six others! Was all 'uhh we'll have to check we sell this' (UHH you mean the LCBO idiot or your store? Why is your store special if all LCBO's are pretty much unimaginative duplicates of other stores?)

Then the rigmarole of filling out forms with ID and giving reasons, such as the product isn't great. It's disrespectful, that and the pretence I am doing these tits a grand inconvenience for them to take 100% of my net business. I honestly have no respect for LCBO's 'business problems' and I'm sure they will make out like they are the victims of this vodka-water swindle.

Because they didn't protect the vodka-buying consumer from possible poisoning or death, so they will now go into hyperdrive with a newer and better policy in an attempt to shore up some or other rationale for their existence.

[S. St. Jeb]

Here's one for all of you who get frustrated with the LCBO holding up beer between the brewery and the store shelves.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yuk ... -1.3503260

[DeMarco]

does the LCBO actually dump beer though? I find this hard to believe.

[S. St. Jeb]

does the LCBO actually dump beer though? I find this hard to believe.

I have no idea. I just liked the irony of the LCBO slowing the brewery-to-shelf process down, while in the Yukon they are begging for fresher beer.

[mds]

I was in the LCBO at Royal Bank Plaza (just north of Union in the PATH) this afternoon and noticed several beers at 30% off. I'm not sure if it's that location only (the prices aren't discounted on lcbo.com).

I picked up these:
10 Bitter Years dated April 14
Fat Tug dated March 16
Bolshevik Bastard
Collective Arts Stranger Than Fiction