Liquor sales are coming to 10 Ontario grocery stores
On New Year’s Eve, the Ministry of Finance announced that, at long last, grocery stores will be able to sell liquor—but not in the freewheeling, wine-shelf-in-every-Metro manner that many Ontario drinkers wanted. Instead, the LCBO will be setting up about 10 “LCBO Express” locations across the province over the next 12 to 18 months. The shops will be staffed by LCBO employees and sell products from the normal LCBO roster. The liquor monopoly also has plans for five “VQA Destination Boutiques” inside existing LCBO locations that will focus on an expanded selection of Ontario VQA wines. It’s not clear, however, whether the Toronto area will see any such stores. A ministry spokesperson told The Dish that the LCBO Express and VQA Destination Boutiques would only be appearing in “areas with growing demand but a somewhat under-serviced market.” Under-serviced is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, but with over 70 LCBO locations in Toronto—plus dozens of Beer Stores, Wine Racks and other grandfathered winery stores—we’re not holding our breath.
Large corporate supermarkets need only apply. No mom and pop stores, No proprietary nor partnership stores. Union shops preferred. Apply….
As expected from a union run monopoly, a weak attempt at offering choice for the consumer. Until we get rid of the LCBO, or at least allow competition, we’re stuck in the dark ages and the only winners are the government and the overpaid union workers. Don’t look to the US for a model on liquor sales like we do for everything, look to the rest of the world and let’s open our eyes for a change.This announcement does nothing for 99.9% of Ontario.
I really do not understand all the anti-union sediment: why don’t we want a living wage and good benefits for ourselves and our neighbours?