Ontarians thirsty for answers

The fact that you need the LCBO is crap.. we in Quebec have beer, liqour and wine in the corner store and its no problem.. same in the states .. this is just a government cash cow..

But who will save you from the ravages of selection and reasonable prices?
Socialist rubbish. Fire them all.

We already HAVE beer and liquor in Ontario convenience
stores...all over the North.
Has no one here ever been west of Sudbury ?
Many have walk-in coolers now.
What's the big deal ?
There don't seem to be any problems with them.
There's some licensee-type stores in the South too,
[ as in between Collingwood and Thornbury...]

If The Beer Store and LCBO go bye-bye then also say goodbye to the huge selections of brands they carry and keep stocked in every store.

Careful what you wish for....

Well on the flip side, here in Alberta they privatized the liquor stores but now there is only one distributor because the Albert government stepped in made it that way (I�m not overly familiar with the details, maybe someone else from here can help me out). Now the smaller private liquored stores are having a hard time getting their shipments. There's a liquor store over in Prestwick (community close to where I live) and the shelves were damn near bare right before the Canada Day weekend. I talked to the store owner about it and he mentioned he may have to go out of business because he can't get stock in because of the distribution problems their having.

Why is that? If I go to a supermarket in Washington state, I can buy a wide variety of beers that makes our specialty liquer stores look like a joke. The thing is the store owners now can pick and choose what they want to stock based on preference, what sells and remember that, due to copletition, the price will go down.

California had a great couple of years and they started selling what became called "two buck chuck". It was quite good wine and because of the quantitys, it was very inexpensive. No one in Canada saw those savings because the boards have a "dutie" to protect Canadians by not passing along the savings.

Come to Ontario, visit a Beer Store or LCBO, and take a look.....

I've notice the variety of liquor sold going down in Alberta but I think that is again due to the distribution problems we're having. I love Okanogan ciders, particularly the white cranberry ones but I can't find the darn things any where these days. Seems like the only damn coolers you can get any more are Seagrams, Mike's and Smirnoff.

There are definite advantages to the privatized system ALberta brought in about a decade ago. Where liquor stores were pretty much open only banker's hours (and never on Sundays), it is now much easier to buy a case of beer if you want one, because there are more stores and they have much longer hours. With the huge number of stores (Superstore, Costco, Sobey's, Safeway and tons of little ones), the selection is pretty good IMHO.

The argument that private liquor stores will lead to more underage drinking is hogwash. If someone is going to buy beer for minors, what's the difference if they buy in a LCBO store or a corner store?

The liquor laws in BC must be run by monks. I play in a band. We play reguarly in a local Newfie joint downtown. Because of the liquor laws, every time someone gets up to dance, we have to stop playing. I'd always thought that kind of stuff was only in the movies.

That kind of puritanical crap isn't going to look good for the olympics. I remember it wasn't long ago that they had harsh restrictions on the size and number of TV's you could have in pubs.

Back when the Socreds ran Alberta, men and women weren't even allowed in the same bar!

I'm surprised that law hasn't been challenged by someone.

Yup. Every drop of liquor goes through the old ALCB warehouse in St. Albert. Most domestic beer goes through other places, but all spirits and wines and imports seem to go through that place. I don't know what their bread and butter is, but I'd believe there can be real problems. I imagine I should be thankful to live in Edmonton, close to the warehouse (in fact I can see it from my office, it's fucking massive).

Public liquor stores were staffed by government employees and were far less numerous so it was easier, I expect, to keep good scrupulous staff.

Access is easier, but it's still difficult to get real specialty foreign stuff. I know one California micro brew that you can get in Cleveland, but not here, because the stores have to jump though hoops to import stuff.

Also costs have potentially gone up because now the companies have to market to hundreds of stores to get their stuff sold, whereas though a monopoly they only had to market to the government.