Convenience vs Beer Stores

Underage access to alcohol is the focus of a pitched battle underway in advance of an expected spring election.

At the moment The Beer Store and the LCBO are the only places in the province you can buy a case of suds. But the Ontario Convenience Store Association wants to change that. And the fight is getting nasty.

The Beer Store’s TV commercial argues: “Alcohol in convenience stores? It’s just not right for our kids.” But the slick political attack ad gets short shrift, from the Ontario Convenience Store Association’s chief executive David Bryans.

“Ontarians have clearly spoken. They’re not happy with the antiquated alcohol retailing system, we have here in Ontario.”

And Bryans says he has the paper to prove it. “What you see here is the largest petition ever collected in Ontario.” More than 400,000 Ontario residents supporting the sale of beer in corner stores.

The Beer Store’s Jeff Newton doesn’t buy it. “Minors were able to sign. Anybody who wanted to put their name on that list were able to sign.”

The facts are hard to pin down in this dispute. For example — controlling sales to minors. Newton says Beer Stores challenge 3.6 million people every year. But convenience stores say they do the same thing with tobacco sales. “In the last year alone we checked 5.2 million IDs in our stores.”

Or the cost. Newton argues “the reality of that type of a change is that people would end up paying significantly higher prices.”

Macs Milk VP Tom Moher: “The decision in terms of price would be, as it is today, up to the government of Ontario.”

Bryans: “If you can go to Quebec and buy it in a convenience store, and any road out of Ontario, you can buy it in a private setting, I think it’s time to start considering the facts of what people want.”

Or at least what some people want. The executive director of Arrive Alive, Anne Leonard isn’t one of them. “We don’t want to see beer and wine next year to a loaf of bread. That’s a very casual approach to a special commodity.”

Leonard says she has studies showing — that increased sales availability — means increased trouble:

“Public safety issues. It could be robbery. It could be drinking and driving.”

And as talk of a spring ballot heats up in the province, it could also soon be an election issue.