{"id":89343,"date":"2024-05-29T03:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-05-29T07:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=89343"},"modified":"2024-05-28T12:34:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T16:34:10","slug":"ontarios-long-and-winding-and-subsidy-strewn-road-to-beer-in-convenience-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/05\/29\/ontarios-long-and-winding-and-subsidy-strewn-road-to-beer-in-convenience-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario’s long and winding (and subsidy-strewn) road to beer in convenience stores"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apparently I’ll have a little bit more to celebrate on my birthday this year as the Ontario government’s glacially slow-to-change alcohol sales rules are being liberalized as of September 5th to allow all the province’s convenience stores to begin selling beer and wine<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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“The Beer Store” by Like_the_Grand_Canyon<\/a><\/span> is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0<\/a><\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Premier Doug Ford promised Ontarians<\/a> beer in corner stores, supermarkets and big-box stores, and by God he has delivered<\/a>. As of Sept. 5, all Ontario convenience stores meeting eligibility criteria will be allowed to sell beer, wine, cider and pre-mixed drinks. As of Oct. 31, the privilege will be extended to all grocery and big-box stores. The province says it expects as many as 8,500 new booze-procurement sites to come online under the new regime. By Ontario standards, it’s absolutely revolutionary.<\/p>\n

The new regime is also, of course, hilariously complicated. And absurdly, offensively expensive.<\/p>\n

It is fair to describe the new regime as somewhat more competitive, and certainly more convenient. In addition to offering potentially thousands of new locations, supermarkets (including the roughly 450 already licensed) will be able to offer volume discounts on beer \u2014 i.e., a 24-pack will cost less per bottle than a six-pack. This was a privilege hitherto reserved for The Beer Store, the American-, Belgian- and Japanese-owned conglomerate that dominated beer sales in Ontario from the end of Prohibition until fairly recently.<\/p>\n

Private retailers will even be able to set their own prices, which until now has been considered blasphemy.<\/p>\n

It is not fair to describe the new regime, as the government does, as an “open” market.<\/p>\n

Near as I can tell, Ontario will by 2026 have the following retail environments in place:<\/p>\n