Ontario considers private liquor sales
Canada.com reports that Ontario is comtemplating privatizing the sale of liquor and getting out of their monopoly business.
The province would still collect more than $1.5 billion a year in alcohol tax and licensing revenue but would also get $200 million or more annually by selling licences to sell beer, wine and spirits, according to the Beverage Alcohol System Review.
Consumers would benefit from better selection and cheaper prices if alcohol was more easily available and retailers were made to compete, the review states.
Here in BC, the privatization of liquor stores is ongoing, but those stores are restricted to exclusively selling liquor. One critisim of the privatization I’ve heard many times is that prices rise for the same products since private stores are in the business to make money. The people I’ve talked appear unwilling to acknowledge that not only are private stores competing, but they have to build unique stores for one single product and comply with liquor control regulations. On the other hand, putting a few shelves of alcohol into a grocery store or corner store would be so marginal, prices wouldn’t move much. As the Ontario report points out, the province still retains it’s control over how sales are conducted such as maintaining minimum pricing, restricting late-night sales, and limiting the number of licenced stores. Unfortunately, citizens of BC are still fighting hard to keep the unnecessary government monopoly.
Sources say it’s unlikely the government will follow through on calls to sell the liquor control board or allow greater distribution of alcohol.
At least there is movement in the right direction.
July 29th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
Having come from Ontario to BC, I have to say that I prefer the LCBO in Ontario to all the private stores here in BC. Not because I fear prices would rise if Ontario privatized, but for other reasons:
First, just how many liquor stores does one community need? Kamloops is a small city, and yet it seems that every other week I hear of a new liquor store opening up. It seems a bit out of control. There are 6 stores within a 3 minute drive of my home in Sahali. That’s not even counting the stores downtown, and on the north shore.
Secondly, I’ll take the selection at an LCBO store over a private Kamloops liquor store *any* day. While the Okanagan Valley produces excellent wine, there are other wine-growing regions in Canada and it would be nice to sample from them. LCBO stores tend to stock wine from across the country - I could easily pick up a bottle of BC wine along with something from the Niagara region in Ontario. Here, good luck finding any Canadian wine that was not produced in BC.
Finally, most of the private liquor stores are downright … tacky. Nothing like buying a nice wine to go with dinner, and having the salesperson ask your girlfriend if she’d be interested in purchasing a Bud Light bikini.
August 4th, 2005 at 11:27 am
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mike. I see your points, but I’m not convinced.
As you ask “how many liquor stores does one community need”, I have two things to note. One is that I think the question might better be phrased as “how many stores can one community sustain?” Generally speaking, the markets will tell us. Does a community “need” bus service? Does a community “need” city water, versus dependence on well water? I believe that the word “need” indicates a subjective point of view of how you view your community. Vancouver once faced the issue of too many sex stores in certain neighbourhoods. Unlike Savile Row in London where tailors congregated and now dominate the street, sex stores are obviously seen as a negative impact on the community. To prevent any one neighbourhood from becoming dominated by sex stores, Vancouver issued bylaws stating there had to be a certain distance between each one, thereby not imposing minimal restrictions on the quantity supported by the market, but preventing a neighbourhood from losing its identity.
It sounds like the LCBO stores have quite the awesome selection. Since these private stores in BC are quite new, I wonder if the selection will improve over time. You raise a good point, but I still wouldn’t support government liquor sales just because I like the selection of the established monopoly better. Of course, I also wouldn’t hold back my frustration every time I entered my local store. I might also point out that even bars in Kamloops have a terribly small selection of beer available, but after talking with bar owners about it, I learned that they’ve tried offering wider selections, but no one wants to drink it.
As far as the stores being tacky… well, I don’t think that can be argued with; however, these stores need to run promotions and do whatever they can to compete—something BC Liquor Stores never had to bother with. Again, I don’t think we need to further regulate an industry simply because the private stores are cheesy. A beer bikini… how romantic! (sarcasm)
Do you disagree?