Beer and wine in cornerstores

[harls]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

I was in Ottawa today, and of course, I went across to Gatineau and bought some beer. There's a neat store I found today on Rue Eddy that has a whole section devoted to Quebec craft beer. We need stores like that in Ontario.

Good luck. Head to Beau's in Vankleek Hill, he might sell you some off the back of his truck, less the Po-leece shut him down.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I agree that we're not likely to see the drinking age drop to 18 at any point soon, but I think it's even less likely it will be raised. At 19, most undergraduate university students are legal (basically everyone beyond 1st year more or less), but at 21 most would not be. This would absolutely destroy the bar & nightlife industry in university towns like K-W, Guelph, and Kingston. Not to mention make a big hit on the LCBO's profits too. 19-20 year olds probably consume more alcohol than any other age group.

With lowering the drinking age, universities have lobbied the government for dropping to 18 in the past, MADD lobbies against.

As for your municipal autonomy idea, I like it. Right now only Toronto has the flexibility to adjust its liquor laws, all municipalities should have this privilege.

If the drinking age was 21, Ottawa's nightlife would likely be dead and Gatineau would be the ultimate party town...

I don't think too many cities would go for the 24 hour liquor availability, but a few might at least experiment with it. Would some rural municipalities try to go completely dry though? (A few small ones, especially in deep rural or northern Ontario, may be de facto dry since there is no LCBO, Beer Store or liquor-serving bar or restaurant, but that is more due to economics than legislation.)

[1overcosc]

I don't know. Nowadays rural residents seem to love their beer more than urban residents, and more importantly its the rural people complaining about 'nanny state' regulations so I can't see banning alcohol being a popular preposition in rural areas.

[vid]

If anything, it will be the rural areas that bring out the 24/7/365 alcohol sales. Dry municipalities in Northern Ontario? Haha! Not a chance! The only thing people up here love more than the idea of the state controlling the means of production, is getting drunk!

And for the few small communities that don't have beer and liquor stores (and I can't actually think of any community with over 500 people that doesn't have that), people would just drive to the one in the next town over that does has it and stock up.

[bornagainbiking]

Feb 2 2015
TORONTO — Premier Kathleen Wynne says Ontario will not allow beer sales in corner stores when the government changes the rules on the retailing of alcohol this spring

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by bornagainbiking

Feb 2 2015
TORONTO — Premier Kathleen Wynne says Ontario will not allow beer sales in corner stores when the government changes the rules on the retailing of alcohol this spring

Did anyone actually think that beer in corner stores was actually in the cards for the 2015 reforms? I sure didn't, but I nonetheless hope it will happen eventually. More likely we're going to see The Beer Store forced to pay a special fee in exchange for being allowed to have a monopoly.

[bornagainbiking]

There are 216 "Agency" stores already These are private businesses that are allowed to act as retailer (like Stewarts in Mildmay, a strip mall with a separate private liquor and beer store ) in areas that are not a big enough market for either the LCBO or Beer Store to make a profit. So are they more responsible because they are rural and we are urban?
Or because of potential profits?
There was a petition submitted with 500,000 signatures in favour of!!
So is it about representing the people or ruling them?
I look forward to the upcoming revamping of the process. Long live Local Businesses!

[1overcosc]

I agree with you on every single point, don't get me wrong, I want beer in cornerstores. What I'm saying is that I highly doubt Wynne will go for that, at least not now. Remember this is Ontario.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

I don't know. Nowadays rural residents seem to love their beer more than urban residents, and more importantly its the rural people complaining about 'nanny state' regulations so I can't see banning alcohol being a popular preposition in rural areas.

That's a complete reversal of the way it used to be in Ontario. I found out recently that the former Ernestown Township, immediately west of Kingston (now known as Loyalist Township since amalgamating with Amherst Island and the Village of Bath), was dry up until 1972. When Amherstview (a Kingston suburb located in that township) began to develop and people from Kingston started moving out there, demand for alcohol sales increased. The story goes, the owner of a golf course out there started lobbying for legalized alcohol sales, and the township held a referendum. In the end, the people of Amherstview voted overwhelmingly in favour of legalized alcohol sales - and the rural areas to the north including Odessa voted overwhelmingly against it. By then Amherstview comprised the majority of the population of the township, so they finally got an LCBO and Brewer's Retail, and the golf course could add a bar.

I know that's only one township, but the book I read implied that rural Ontario was a lot more anti-alcohol than the cities in those days.

[MolsonExport]

Get rid of the Beer Store. Now. Get rid of the Beer Store. Now.
Repeat x 1000000000000000000000000000000000

[1overcosc]

This is an interesting tidbit from the Toronto Star:

While Wynne again ruled out the sale of wine and beer in convenience stores on Tuesday she refused to speculate about supermarkets, like Loblaws, or big-box retailers, such as Costco.

[kwoldtimer]

I'm puzzled as to why the type of store selling the booze would make a difference. Time to look at political contributions. Again.

I wish that craft breweries could be allowed to open up, alone or in partnership with others, more craft beer stores in which to sell their product.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I'm puzzled as to why the type of store selling the booze would make a difference.

The main argument in favour of allowing alcohol sales in other types of stores is convenience for consumers. Where I used to live, there was no Beer Store within a 10 minute drive, but there was a Metro. If that Metro could have sold 24s of beer, people wouldn't have to drive out of their way - wasting gas and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions - to pick up beer. They could even have it within walking distance.

Where I live now, this is not an issue, but in many suburban areas it can be a long distance to a Beer Store or LCBO while there's another type of store much closer. Kingston's east end is one such area, where some people actually drive to Gananoque to pick up booze.

[1overcosc]

Originally Posted by manny_santos

The main argument in favour of allowing alcohol sales in other types of stores is convenience for consumers. Where I used to live, there was no Beer Store within a 10 minute drive, but there was a Metro. If that Metro could have sold 24s of beer, people wouldn't have to drive out of their way - wasting gas and contributing to greenhouse gas emissions - to pick up beer. They could even have it within walking distance.

Where I live now, this is not an issue, but in many suburban areas it can be a long distance to a Beer Store or LCBO while there's another type of store much closer. Kingston's east end is one such area, where some people actually drive to Gananoque to pick up booze.

I laugh at those people. They say they drive out to Gan instead of going downtown to avoid paying for parking... but the extra cost of driving all the way out there is more expensive than downtown parking. Silly suburbanites.

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by vid

If anything, it will be the rural areas that bring out the 24/7/365 alcohol sales. Dry municipalities in Northern Ontario? Haha! Not a chance! The only thing people up here love more than the idea of the state controlling the means of production, is getting drunk!

And for the few small communities that don't have beer and liquor stores (and I can't actually think of any community with over 500 people that doesn't have that), people would just drive to the one in the next town over that does has it and stock up.

I agree with your comments and I live in Northern Ontario. The only dry places I know of here are the coastal and remote First Nations that are "officially" dry but alcohol makes its way to them anyways.

Foleyet (population 193) has a real (not agency) LCBO store. It is about an hour West of Timmins on Hwy 101. It is likely the LCBO store that serves the fewest number of people in Ontario but its sales are big enough to keep it going.

[1overcosc]

Incredible story. Beer and wine coming to supermarkets! Although... only 300 of them. Nonetheless, it's a start.

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspa...ermarkets.html

My respect for the ONDP is now completely destroyed (it was already falling apart), as they are against it saying that the Beer Store system works and we should not be 'encouraging' alcohol use.

[1overcosc]

Given that there appears to be activist/socialist/nannystate-ist backlash to liberalization, I think it's important that Ontario's silent majority that favours deregulation speaks up.

[eternallyme]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

Incredible story. Beer and wine coming to supermarkets! Although... only 300 of them. Nonetheless, it's a start.

http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspa...ermarkets.html

My respect for the ONDP is now completely destroyed (it was already falling apart), as they are against it saying that the Beer Store system works and we should not be 'encouraging' alcohol use.

That is only because of the union base (especially OPSEU) who would otherwise be screaming at them. Many union activists want the Beer Store taken over by the government as well.

[1overcosc]

It's now official, straight from the Premier's mouth.

Beer is coming to supermarkets.

[haljackey]

Originally Posted by 1overcosc

It's now official, straight from the Premier's mouth.

Beer is coming to supermarkets.

Source?

All I have so far is https://twitter.com/Kathleen_Wynne/s...27239593697280

http://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/comm...ey_want_us_to/