This Christmas, six-packs of beer are set to come to Ontario supermarkets. Four-hundred and fifty supermarkets and grocery stores will gradually be licensed to sell beer and wine.
Beer will be sold in roughly 450 of 1,500 urban supermarkets across the province, ranging from chains like Loblaws to independent markets. The beer sales expansion approximately matches the existing number of 500 The Beer Store outlets and further adds to more than 600 LCBO stores in Ontario.
Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne called it the “biggest shakeup to the sale of beer in Ontario since we repealed prohibition,” on April 16.
The expansion of alcohol sales come alongside moves to dismantle the LCBO/The Beer Store monopoly, after a Toronto Star exposé revealed significant Beer Store profits went to foreign companies and attempts by lobbyists to maintain The Beer Store monopoly on larger quantities of beer.
The government also intends to apply a $0.25 tax on cases of 24 beers starting on Nov. 1 which will reach $1 in 2019.
Third-year commerce student Matthew Galiardi felt good about the new changes.
“For some, I feel it’s great because now supermarkets can be a one-stop shop. They’ll still have to card people,” Galiardi said. “However, it’s going to take sales away from the LCBO and The Beer Store, and if it adds competition that’s great for us—lower prices.”
The Beer Store will also enter into a new agreement with the government that will “create a new craft category to better profile craft beer; extend the Ontario Deposit Return Program beyond 2017; and generate an additional $100 million a year in revenues for the province, phased in over four years,” according to an April 16 press release.
While private supermarket beer sales are a step in the right direction, controlling public liquor sales should remain, according to Adam Teare, a second-year interactive multimedia and design student at Carleton.
“I like the idea of being able to go to the grocery store to buy alcohol, although I think that drinks with higher alcoholic content should remain regulated as they are,” Teare said. “Since the people taking the IDs at grocery stores, being fellow students, may be more forgiving and may not ID as consistently to uphold the laws in place.”
For supermarkets, the plan details that “the sale of alcohol is restricted to set hours, is in a designated section of each store, and that all staff selling alcohol in grocery stores are properly certified and fully trained.”
Some students are enthusiastic about the convenience offered by the expansion of beer-offering locations.
Ben Debney, a third-year law student and regular beer drinker, believes the “amount of alcohol sold will skyrocket.”
“I think my consumption will increase after supermarkets start selling alcohol,” he said. “It’s a great idea. It’ll help boost the economy.”
Tony Cheng, a third-year computer science student, said he thinks beer’s move to supermarket shelves won’t change students’ consumption habits.
“It won’t make me buy alcohol more often. In fact, I don’t think it’s going to have a measurable effect on students in general,” Cheng said.
