Doesn't make sense...

Welcome to Ontario, learn to love and hate the LCBO. They have incredible purchasing power, so some of the stuff we get really is well priced. However...it is often kept back for "testing" and other BS procedural reasons for months before it hits shelves. Fine for a beer like Chimay, but perhaps not so for others. Pricing for beer from the big beer companies are controlled by the BeerStore and LCBO just follows suit. That is another story altogether.

I'm there are others on this forum who can join in and expand on the love/hate relationship with the LCBO.

 

Wait until you cross over to Quebec. In Ottawa, a 6 pack of Goose IPA is $13.75. In Gatineau, we get 12 for $16

 

At the NLC in Newfoundland Chimay Blue is $5.65 for a 330 ml bottle.

 

Worth the trip IMO, I get my beer from all over Gatineau and Ottawa, and the quality of the stuff available paired with our prices, it's not even comparable. At Rapifo, for example, you can make yoyr own 6 pack and they take 3 bucks off, so basically 6 beers for the price of 5. For 15 bucks, you can leave with a mixed pack of DDC, Dunham, Castor, Trou du diable... Of course prices vary per beer. Another great bargain they had was a 12 pack of Unibroue for roughly $14. For the fall/winter it was 4 Fin du monde, 4 Maudite, 3 blanche de chambly and 1 résolution... For summer, not as good, but still a mic of eau bénite, don de dieu, blanche de chambly a d éphémère apple.

 

Wait a minute...we get Goose IPA in Quebec?? Since when?

 

Some time in late April, I believe. It is being brewed for the Canadian market by Labatt.

 

There's someone there from thursday to saturday for in store tastings and just general help with craft beers. Nice kid. Also, I apparently can't type on my Galaxy S6

 

Who's carrying it? I seem to remember when Sofie/Matilda came out, it was large grocery stores only

 

Marché des Brasseurs d'ici I think, Rapido for sure

 

IGA.

@beerluvr if you've never been to a beer store across the river, go to Broue Ha Ha first. Rapido is fine and all (and you can hit 3-4 great stores plus an excellent bar while in that area), but you may as well go to the best there is first. Better selection, fresher, larger quantities, great staff that will hold anything for you, etc. Or just make an afternoon out of it and hit every store over there.

 

in Alberta a 12 x 341ml of Goose IPA is $31.10.

 

Every time I complain to my wife's cousin - who works at the LCBO - about all the things wrong with their handling/selection/distribution of beer, he reminds me that the incredible buying power they possess keeps the prices of stuff like Rochefort, Westmalle, Chimay, etc. among the lowest in North America.

Proof that even the most reviled things in our life often have at least one or two redeeming qualities.

 

ouch...

 

With those prices it is the ability to ship in very large quanities. Shipping large amounts gives them the ability to work their shipping company for better deals as shipping is a large portion of the end shelf price of a beer. This of course is passed on to the end customer. For our Quebec friends just look at the prices of Rochefort and Orval in your SAQs, Orval is cheap in your market last I looked.

 

Prices for european imports are roughly the same between SAQ and LCBO. The difference is LCBO brings in more stuff (SAQ hasn't figured out yet that there's a huge market for imported beers). In Quebec, it's not like Ontario where when you think beer you think SAQ. Anyway, we have Orval pretty much available all the time, but I've yet to see a Westmalle.

 

Was giving two examples that I knew were in the SAQ and price comparison, know very well the SAQ does not care about beer or even increasing their selection a whole lot. Although the SAQ was talking to Stone some years ago, all the extra labelling they wanted was the end issue there. Just showing what shipping large amounts does to the end shelf price.