In a move that’s decades overdue but also timely given the recent conversation around the Beer Store, The Star reports that Ontario grocery stores (but not convenience stores) will be able to sell beer and wine under new proposed Liberal legislation. This will loosen the monopolies that are held by privately-run businesses the Beer Store and the Wine Rack on their own namesakes.
As much as youd like to think that this is the direct result of a shirtless brawl between Galen Weston and John Molson and Sleeman, the idea was apparently a decision by the Ontario government, developed through consultation with major grocery chain executives.
The LCBO will still be the place to buy hard liquor, and it wont be a supermarket free-for-all: theres still decisions to be made on what sort of criteria a supermarket will have to be able to fulfill in order to sell beer and wine.
The move is a step in the right direction on the tails of a massive failed PR blitz by the Beer Store in January, whose structure has not changed with the rise in popularity of craft beer across Ontario in the past decade or so. The Beer Store, mostly foreign-owned by three macrobrewers, charges a steep licensing fee for craft brewers to sell their creations: $8,000 to list just two beers.
The legislation will be brought to the table as a part of the spring budget, so details are scant. Theres no word yet as to whether anybody will start to drink Presidents Choice Beer.
anthonyb@nowtoronto.com | @brrrton
