Hey, How would you prefer to see Ontario beer/alcohol laws changed? 1. Lcbo privatization; market is opened up for small stores 2. Beer stores are nationalized, some become "specialty beer stores" run by the lcbo 3. Lcbo corporation remains unchanged, but the market is opened for smaller stores (who will likely sell stuff the lcbo/beer store doesn't carry) 4.other (specify) I favour 2 or 3, i like that the lcbo ships good beer to rural areas, funds public services and has economies of scale **If somebody knows how to add a poll let me know.
Step 1 - Restore The Beer Store to its original function as an Ontario brewery-owned co-operative. Legislate that in order to maintain their monopoly the current owners must issue new shares equalling 51% ownership to the highest Ontario-based bidders. If foreign interests buy out the little guys again, repeat as necessary. Rationale: We actually have tons of retail stores and a distribution network in place; we just need the store contents to reflect customer demand rather than supply. Presumably the new ownership bloc would make changes favorable to getting Ontario beers onto store shelves at competitive prices. Step 2 - Legitimize the 'private order' system at the LCBO into boutique storefronts. You can actually already order products not offered at the LCBO; it's just financially prohibitive (minimum order size), overly complicated for the layman, and SLOW. Basically add the 'third tier'. Rationale: Even without simplifying the process (which DRASTICALLY needs to happen), it makes sense for a handful of experts to navigate LCBO ordering rather than hundreds of novices. Allow these experts to profit from their knowledge & skill by letting them own shops that carry products outside the LCBO mainstream. Will the prices by high? Absolutely! The market will dictate how many are viable and where. Ontario's two alcohol institutions initially served noble purposes. The Beer Store was a co-operative that allowed small guys and big guys to share distribution and storefronts. The LCBO leveraged the buying power of 14 million people, while servicing very low population density parts of the province (for reference, Ontario is nearly twice as big as Texas, with half as many people). Both allowed for uniform retail hours and reliable enforcement of the drinking age. Sadly, The Beer Store is now a cash cow for macrobreweries funnelling money out of Canada while the LCBO is a bureaucratic nightmare that is largely out of touch with customers. They've both basically driven retail traffic to brewery stores or out of province/country. Restoring their original intentions and leveraging their strengths would seem preferable to blowing them up.
I think that outcome would be my first preference. How likely is it that the Beer Store ownership will change though? Most Ontarians are more concerned with privatizing the LCBO than solving/understanding the Beer Store problem.
I surmise that what most Ontarians want is the ability to buy their Bud and Blue at a 7/11. They could care less about ownership of the beer store. My guess is the ownership situation never changes - too much lobby power amongst the big brewers.
Our new LCBO in Sault Ste Marie was built around 2 years ago and is 14,000 square feet. They closed our previously biggest and oldest LCBO in the process. Alcohol aside, there is a wall of popular Ontario craft beers, a few rows of imports, a couple of rows of import/foreign and about 6 vertical coolers of speciality singles. I can go tomorrow and pick up a Founders IPA 6 pack, Abt 12, some Crimays, Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier Dunkel, some Flying Monkeys, Beau's, Warlocks and other pumpkin beers , etc. My point is the LCBO is trying in their selection and ability to order - I can get some pretty good beers - not an epic rare beer but who is going to complain if they can get a Flying Monkey Chocolate Manifesto for dessert and an Abt 12 and a decent German beer to watch the hockey game with. There is also a huge wine selection with a good focus on Ontario. So my opinion is: - let the Beer store sell macro brews and some of the popular Ontario brews - let the LCBO ramp up with their purchasing/centralization. Get a few more experienced purchasers/BAs. It is a trade off though. They purchased 1400 six packs of Westy 12 two years ago and they were gone in 4 minutes... - let speciality shops source and sell rare brews and items the LCBO does not sell
I think part of the problem with trying to let the LCBO do more is simply shelf space. The mom and hops website tells me there are 150+ breweries/brewpubs currently open in Ontario, with another 50+ in the planning stage. Even if each of those companies had 1 product at the LCBO and it was a single can product, there wouldn't be enough room even at a big LCBO. Especially before you factor in the imports and the macro stuff that a lot of people buy. Personally I would like to see Ontario allow bars to do off sales. So if a good beer bar has a bunch of bottles of some really good one off they can sell me one and I can take it home. Or if they want to sell me a growler of something they currently have on tap that would also be legal. It seems like it would be the easiest way to make a big change. I mean bars already have licences to sell alcohol and have to worry about ID'ing people, so the whole "think of the children" argument wouldn't really hold up. Plus bars already have relationships with brewery sales reps, so it wouldn't really add any extra layers of work like selling to corner stores would. Not to mention orders for off sale stuff for a specific bar would probably be relatively small. So if a brewery just had maybe 20 cases of a certain one-off to sell, it would be so much easier to sell it to bars than trying to get that product into the LCBO or the beer store. Plus Ontario law already lets me buy a bottle of wine at a bar, literally have one sip and then take it home, so why can't I take a bottle of beer home. Alternatively why not let breweries have their products for sale at the retail stores of other breweries. I know there are some breweries who would be into this since it drives people to their retail store. Plus it gives breweries more outlets to sell their products.
Leave the LCBO the way it is. It's a massive money maker for hurting provincial coffers and the fact it's the largest single purchaser of alcohol gives it a buying power that privatization would ruin. No problem with how the LCBO operates under the current model, as local brewers and wineries make a solid presence there. The only thing they fail to do is bring in a wider selection of international beer and beers from other provinces. As far as the Beer Store, offer the current owners a choice (Keeping in mind the Beer Store is currently it's own entity owned by the big three). They can either make available a percentage of shares to other brewers for purchase, based on capacity they operate and pay dividends and be answerable to those stockholders, or the monopoly is dissolved and the Beer Store becomes nationalized. The province is starving for revenue right now, and a nationalized Beer Store or several more local breweries making more money and paying more taxes is just what the doctor ordered. Finally offer a limited number of pilot licenses to the OCB (or a similar Ontario Based Brewers association) a limited number of store licenses to sell local beer, similar to the local wine shops they have at many grocery stores and demand each brewery be offered an equal number of listings at this store. The licenses are non-transferrable, meaning a larger company can't buy a small brewer to get more listings. This would allow the LCBO to focus outside the local scope a bit more in bigger markets.
The only problem I have with the brewers purchasing shares in the beer store option, is that I am not sure it would change things. Most small brewers wouldn't have the available cash to buy a meaningful amount of shares. I have heard a few brewers say they haven't joined the Ontario Craft Brewers because they don't have the cash to pay the membership fee. I mean isn't having extra cash available what is keeping a lot of brewers out of the beer store (not being able to afford listing fees). So if TBS sold shares who would be able to afford to buy them? My guess would be Steamwhistle, Mill Street and maybe Amsterdam/Big Rig/Beaus. For the most part those are the guys who are already in the beer store.
an article of interest http://www.thestar.com/life/food_wine/2014/10/27/ten_ways_to_improve_the_lcbo.html
