Windsor Independent - January 2016

I
should have known this would
happen. We’ve spent so much time
criticising the curious state of beer
retailing in Ontario that as soon as
something actually goes our way, the
only way people know how to react is
to criticise it.
Yes, beer is available in 19 Loblaw’sowned
stores, 15 Sobey’s, a bunch of
Farm Boys and about 10 more chains
and independents. Good news, right?
Apparently not. I’m hearing complaints
along the lines of “The beer is
unrefrigerated and relegated to two
end-aisles”, though a quick question
to staff reveals that at least 40ft of
brand new refrigeration has already
been ordered for the beer and will be
installed in January. Or, “It’ll all be
big domestics,” while Loblaw’s has
dedicated at least 50% of its shelf space
to independent craft beer (and no, Mill
St. doesn’t count).
Look, I get it. I left Ontario when I
was 22 and didn’t come back until I
was 27. So on December 15th, when
I stood next to a smart-serve certified
cashier and watched an MPP cut a red
ribbon tied awkwardly between the two
end-aisles dedicated to beer, trapping
the civilians innocently shopping in
that aisle and wondering what all the
hubbub was about, buying beer in
grocery stores was nothing new to me.
Having lived in more “modern” alcohol
retail environments, where booze can
be bought in all sorts of establishments
from state-run to independent and
huge grocery chains to little mom-andpops,
I didn’t even have the novelty
of it, let alone excitement, to make it
seem like this was an important event.
It felt less like the awards ceremony in
A New Hope and more like the ending
of Empire, when we’re happy that we
haven’t lost the fight, but we know
there’s a lot more work to be done.
When I spoke about it with a
representative from a certain large
brewery east of Toronto, I couldn’t
resist running down the list of
problems:
- Grocery stores must be at least yea
big
- Products can’t be sold in anything
larger than a six-pack
- Prices have to match those of the
LCBO
- The LCBO acts as a wholesaler (ie.
local stores can’t purchase beer
directly from local breweries)
- The Beer Store receives a cut of the
profits if stores sell above a certain
yearly allotment (I don’t know how
they got away with this one)
Admittedly, these are real problems.
But this is still a step in the right
direction and many of the other
complaints I’ve heard are petty and
ill-informed. It doesn’t help that the
criticisms come far too soon, based
as they have been on only 1 of the 13
grocery stores that received licenses on
December 15th.
Let’s back up for a minute.
In April, the province announced that
“sometime within the next two years”
beer would be sold in grocery stores.
The response to this was “Um, okay
but... (insert any complaint you can
come up with)”. First and foremost,
people took issue with that exceedingly
vague timeline, expecting this, like
most policy in Ontario, to take years
to come into effect. Nobody (except
perhaps Loblaw’s) expected to be
buying beer from grocery stores on
December 15th.
In September, the government allowed
grocers to begin bidding on licenses to
sell beer.
In November, the first 13 of a planned
60 winning bidders was announced
and the government said that beer
could be on grocery store shelves by
Christmas.
By December, people still didn’t seem
to buy it. The general consensus was
“hopefully by the spring”. But then
somebody leaked some information to
Ben Johnson which he published on
his blog on December 11th, claiming
that beer would be hitting the shelves
on the 18th.
Now it’s December 15th and there’s a
big photo-op at a Loblaw’s in Toronto.
Kathleen Wynne is hanging out with
the presidents of brewing companies.
Even as people got progressively less
pessimistic over the course of the year,
it’s still earlier than anyone expected.
At 10AM from Windsor to Thunder
Bay, the shelves are stocked, the staff
is trained, there’s one “express” beer
column and three more where you can
buy your beer and groceries together.
By Christmas Day, at least three other
grocers have also begun stocking beer.
Alcohol retailing in Ontario is a very
strange thing. But at this moment it’s
better than it has ever been. There’s
enough local brewers in this province
that nearly all of us can get our beer
straight from the source. And for the
first time ever we now have a fourth
retail environment.
You can complain that it’s not enough.
The LCBO is still in control of grocery
store sales. The Beer Store is still too
powerful. This is just disguising the
fact that we still essentially have a
duopoly on beer distribution. The
Liberal Party is trying to distract
us from more important things by
appeasing to the popularity of beer at
the moment.
Well, that last one is fair. There are
much more important things we ought
to be complaining about. Instead of
whining about beer in grocery stores,
celebrate a small step in the right
direction and continue to demand
more from your government.
windsorindependent.com
JANUARY 2016
2015 11 Accelerator Independent 3.3 x 9.2 R1.indd 1 2015-12-10 12:16 PM
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