LCBO kiosks may be coming to Toronto grocery stores

Here’s half-measure number two in the Liberal government’s multi-part strategy to placate Ontarians calling for corner-store booze sales across the province. (Number one, you may recall, was a promise to install LCBO booths at some farmers’ markets.) Earlier today, Ontario finance minister Charles Sousa announced a plan to install ten LCBO Express kiosks in Ontario grocery stores as part of a year-long pilot program. The province is asking any supermarkets with 2,000 extra square feet of retail space to apply for the privilege of hosting the Ontario liquor seller in their stores, with hopes that the booze stands will be up and running by the end of 2014. We won’t know until later this year whether any of the kiosks are coming to Toronto. Either way, we suspect that a few extra-glamourous VQA-style shops may be insufficient to mollify the pro-privatization masses.