The Beer Store is giving four stores a boutique makeover

The Ontario beer chain owned by Labatt, Molson and Sleeman’s is completely revamping four GTA locations—College and Bathurst, Parliament and Winchester, Danforth and Greenwood and Hopedale Mall in Oakville—as part of a pilot program to test a new, more modern appeal. The makeover includes a new logo and colour scheme, more refrigeration space for featured seasonal suds and tablets to take orders rather than outdated beer walls. There’s also pictures of juicy burgers plastered on the walls. The move is likely a response to the recent explosion in the popularity of craft beer and increased competition from new retail shops attached to restaurants and pubs, like the Bellwoods Brewery beer store. If the pilot works, The Beer Store plans to change its entire outfit. While a cosmetic upgrade is definitely overdue, we hope some things stay the same: we’d miss the quaint clickity-clack of a case of beer slowly rolling along those old-timey conveyor belts.