Some of the hard truths are coming home to grocers and the public as they wait to see what the government has in mind for its wine and liquor kiosks in grocery stores. Cynics will be inclined to say it isn’t much. The scheme is very limited, maybe as few as ten places across the whole province. If you are a small player, moreover, you can forget it altogether. The LCBO is specifying that a store allocate a minimum of 2,000 square feet for a kiosk. Very few independents have that option. The franchisees of the Valu mart organization (which is owned by a Loblaws subsidiary) can pretty much forget about a kiosk. It also seems a long shot for other indy operators, like the neighborhood chain Rabba. In a place like South Bayview, what does Metro do if Loblaws gets the kiosk? Or Longo’s or Whole Foods? You don’t have to be a serious complainer to think that this is seriously unfair. Why this plan? The government is clearly addicted to the direct transfusion of funds from the LCBO. In buoyant Alberta, the sale of liquor and wine has been privatized. As The Bulldog has observed in the past, a fair and easily controlled system could be built using modern vending machines. There is no sign of that in the LCBO plan and this may have something do with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, which represents the LCBO employees. Metroland
