Ontario seeks bids from grocers wanting to sell beer

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Personally I love the LCBO........you will not get the kind of selection in any private situation as they will stock the "Dollarama" brands.
Now The Beer Store I will not miss so much......

 

[dapaterson]

Personally I love the LCBO........you will not get the kind of selection in any private situation as they will stock the "Dollarama" brands.
Now The Beer Store I will not miss so much......

LCBO is better than the beer store, but last time I was in Alberta I was very impressed by the variety available in the private stores.  I'd much prefer the Alberta model for Ontario; since that's impossible, the Quebec model would be my next choice.

 

[Scott]

I'm in Nova Scotia, so not many words on the buying of booze situation, because it fucking sucks. Halifax is the only place you can get growler fills and the microbrews from Quebec and Ontario...aside from those that have hit a critical mass like Mill Street or Steamwhistle. It's too controlled.

However, I love our returns. You guy your grog, you drink it, you return it. They all go to one central facility. Or you can drop them cut side and the municipality picks them up twice a month. Or give them to one of the groups that canvasses in old fashioned bottle drives.

It's not rocket appliances, Julian.

 

[SeaKingTacco]

Personally I love the LCBO........you will not get the kind of selection in any private situation as they will stock the "Dollarama" brands.
Now The Beer Store I will not miss so much......

Entirely disagree, Bruce. My personal experience with private Alberta liquor stores is that even the average ones have an adequate selection. The really good ones (and they are everywhere) have selections that make the average LCBO look like a Soviet era shop. I have look for the article, but I recently recall that some one did a study that found that Alberta has about twice as many product types on offer to consumers as Ontario and the the government revenues per capita were much higher (probably because there is effectively no government overhead).

 

[Oldgateboatdriver]

I concur with SKT on the Alberta selection.

If any of you think  private means lack of choice: The best stocked store I ever saw was on the outskirt of Houston, Te.

I am a big fan of good wines and rare liqueurs. I swear that store, which was as big as Walmart, had the best wine selection I have ever seen anywhere, and liqueurs I had never even heard of.

To my mind, privately owned stores will always be operated by, yes businessmen that want to make money, but businessman who are in that business because they like wines/beers/liqueurs etc. They will seek to have on hand that  which the others don't as a matter of pride. This will lead to better selections than all the government run stores in Canada would ever bother to hold.

 

[Lumber]

I concur with SKT on the Alberta selection.

If any of you think  private means lack of choice: The best stocked store I ever saw was on the outskirt of Houston, Te.

I am a big fan of good wines and rare liqueurs. I swear that store, which was as big as Walmart, had the best wine selection I have ever seen anywhere, and liqueurs I had never even heard of.

To my mind, privately owned stores will always be operated by, yes businessmen that want to make money, but businessman who are in that business because they like wines/beers/liqueurs etc. They will seek to have on hand that  which the others don't as a matter of pride. This will lead to better selections than all the government run stores in Canada would ever bother to hold.

I'm a big fan of rye whisky (actual rye whisky). I've been in New York a few times in the past 2 years, and they have a lot of "hole in the wall" liquor stores that are long but very narrow. I couldn't believe the selection of different spirits they had, including a ton of 100% rye whiskys that I had never heard of. I meant to buy one, but alas, I'm stuck with Canadian Club 100% Rye and their annoying ass commerical...

 

[Scott]

On choice: one Reason we don't have much at the NSLC, or at least why they do not widen choice, is because of their steep demands for margins, likely necessitated by their structure.

If I want most of the craft beers in this province I have to hit a pub or their brewery because only the largest are carried by the NSLC, or those with a tolerance for their ludicrous demands.

This is why I preferred the Alberta system. The LCBO reminded me too much of home.

 

[Scott]

I should also mention, we've had a few specialty shops open in the last few years. Two come immediately to mind in halifax. Both are doing very well, both have installed growler taps, both have things not found in the government shops.

Neither have Bud, Blue, Coors or Keith's. I'm sure that loses them some business with that crowd, but I am also sure they don't care and are making profits without.

There was a good documentary done a few years ago by the woman who used to run Mikes Hard Lemonade about just how big beer gets shelf space, and about how organizations like LCBO or NSLC enable them to continue. It's also part of the problem the craft guys have stay afloat because these big boys do not want to share.

 

[jollyjacktar]

I should also mention, we've had a few specialty shops open in the last few years. Two come immediately to mind in halifax. Both are doing very well, both have installed growler taps, both have things not found in the government shops.

Neither have Bud, Blue, Coors or Keith's. I'm sure that loses them some business with that crowd, but I am also sure they don't care and are making profits without.

There was a good documentary done a few years ago by the woman who used to run Mikes Hard Lemonade about just how big beer gets shelf space, and about how organizations like LCBO or NSLC enable them to continue. It's also part of the problem the craft guys have stay afloat because these big boys do not want to share.

The private guys cannot carry what the NSLC does and vice versa.  You don't realize how badly we get gouged for beer in NS/ON until you buy some in Quebec at the grocery store.

 

[Scott]

Check carefully, they do cross over in local craft. Not much, but they're both carrying some of the stuff.

100% agreed on being gouged. When I lived there, I felt the same any time I left Alberta.