Published In The Great North Arrow, Aug 1, 2024: Now It's Broke

 Now It’s Broke

- jim Young

"You can't always get what you want..."- Mick Jagger & Keith Richards

CORRECTION: I would like to point out that in my article entitled “If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It” in the July 15th (Issue 14 - Volume: 11) of the Great North Arrow, I noted that Gerry’s General Store in Restoule and Trout Creek General Store were LCBO Convenience Outlets. However, I neglected to mention that Foote’s General Store at the corners of Hwys 534 and 654 in Nipissing is also an LCBO Convenience Outlet authorized to sell alcohol.

However when I recently stopped in at Foote’s General Store to apologize for the oversight, I was shocked to see so many empty shelves. While there was plenty of beer available, the liquor shelves were noticeably bare and contained one bottle of Kahlua and about ½ dozen bottles of McGuiness products, such as Creme de Cacao.

Although Doug Ford is quick to brag about 2,300 locations to purchase alcohol in Ontario even with the LCBO on strike, what he’s not telling you is that most of these locations don’t sell Spirits such as Vodka, Gin, Rum, Brandy, Tequila, Scotch, Whisky and Liqueurs. 

These same spirits also won’t be available in Grocery and Convenience stores as the regulations change to allow the sale of alcohol in those locations.

So if you’ve got your heart set on making your own home-made Mojitos, Cuba Libres, Long Island Iced Tea, Harvey Wallbangers or even just enjoying a simple Rye and Coke, Gin and Lemonade or even a shot of Tequila, you might be out of luck if the strike lingers.

That map of locations of places to purchase alcohol on the Ontario Government website may look impressive with all those dots filling the map, but start filtering away other options and see what’s left.

The Beer Stores aren’t on strike and nothing’s changed there, so let’s take them out of the mix right off the bat.

Then take out wine and cider, so you can identify the locations that are still available to purchase spirits. The dots in orange indicate the distilleries where you can purchase spirits if they are close by… but you’re limited to that one manufacturer’s products whatever they may be.

When you remove them, you are left with only 400 locations where you can still purchase your liquor in Ontario.

According to the LCBO website, “LCBO Convenience Outlets are not located in urban areas such as Toronto or in communities where a LCBO Store or Beer Store is within 5 kilometers.” 

So it’s not really all that convenient now, is it? Especially if they are having supply issues.

It seems Foote’s General Store is not the only LCBO Convenience Outlet that is having supply issues during the strike.

A quick search on the internet revealed this is a common occurrence right across Ontario.

So while some alcohol may be readily available across Ontario as Doug Ford suggests, it doesn’t mean you’ll be able get what you want.

Christopher the manager at Foote’s  General Store told me that the LCBO has greatly decreased the number of SKUs he can even order and that most of the SKUs left for him to order were not the products he would typically purchase based on his customer’s wishes.

A little further down the road in Restoule, Gerry’s General Store was doing a little better, but was still showing empty spots on their shelves. A note of apology posted on one of these empty shelves noted they had paid for their order, but not yet received it. That doesn’t seem fair.

Ordering from the LCBO website online, even with a 5 to 10 day wait doesn’t seem to be much better.

Looking for a bottle of rum I clicked on about 30 different bottles only to receive either an “Out Of Stock” message or “Delivery Not Available”. 

What the difference is, I don’t know and an email sent to the LCBO asking the difference has remained unanswered except for a reply advising me that the strike may be over soon.

Of course some of the shortages can be blamed on hoarders just like we saw with toilet paper during Covid, but if the LCBO is not shipping product to their retail outlets that are closed due to the strike, you would think they would have plenty of product available to go around to their LCBO Convenience Outlets, assuming the LCBO is truly interesting in supporting these outlets.

This leads me to question the wisdom of the LCBO’s decision to increase their online limit of shipping 2 units of product to 12. Doesn’t that seem a little counterproductive to their immediate issue of supply and demand? 

It's interesting to note that while there seems to be a push from Doug Ford to get alcohol into more convenient locations, the LCBO website also indicates "At this time, the LCBO is not accepting any applications (for LCBO Convenience Outlets)".

(And email to the LCBO asking why they are not currently accepting applications for new LCBO Convenience Outlets has remained unanswered.)

Or are they preparing for complete privatization of the LCBO so Doug Ford can turn over even more of the profits to his buddies?

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