I won’t have to worry about this for a while:
To get a sense of how much the lack of competition affects beer prices, Sen compared pre-tax beer prices in Ontario and Quebec. The price of a 24-pack (the average of several brands such as Molson Canadian or Bud Light) came to about $26 in Quebec grocery stores, and about $36 at the Ontario Beer Store. Sen estimated that the extra money, about $700 million, “is going directly from consumer pockets to a consortium with majority ownership by foreign-based firms.” (The Beer Store disputes those numbers, saying Sen compared pre-tax to post-tax prices, ignored commodity tax differences and used a small sample.)
What can you say when your face numbers like that. Anything I have to say is framed by the fact that it really doesn’t affect me. I buy good beer at the LCBO, in a pub, from the brewery or on jaunts into nearby northern NY or Quebec. The Beer Store, even with its generalist’s name, has found itself in the position where its stock is specialized, limited to those beers that don’t really qualify as craft or for the most part all that interesting. When you think about it, the good beer buyer in Ontario is really well served by this physical retail reality, the separation of macro beer from the better stuff.
And I will really not be able to concern myself as it’s time to drive the family from brewpub to micro brewery to good beer store in a random selection of US states for a while. What should I get that’s new in Maine? What’s the best place to eat with the family near Fenway? Do any brewpubs offer mini putt? These are the questions for the next wee while. Ontario’s macro retail off shore monopolists? What are they to me?
[Original comments…]
Jason – August 16, 2013 12:57 PM
Re: “When you think about it, the good beer buyer in Ontario is really well served by this physical retail reality, the separation of macro beer from the better stuff.”
Though the LCBO doesn’t (can’t?) sell larger packs of beer at a discount the way a 24pk at the Beer Store is cheaper than 4 6pks. LCBO has gotten rid of the Cameron’s 9pk and there don’t seem to be Creemore 8pks either.
dave – August 16, 2013 3:56 PM
Is there a game happening at Fenway when you will be eating? The place gets crazy around game time, so unless you are going to a game best to avoid the area (or plan to eat well in advance of said game). I’m trying to think of an inexpensive place around there… I’ll have to think some more.
Marshal Wharf Brewing (Belfast, ME) is pretty good from what I have had. My sister really enjoyed The Funky Bow Brewery & Beer Company (Lyman, ME).
Chris – August 19, 2013 7:36 AM
I am a homebrewer and stopped going to the “Beer Store ” many years ago. One of the reasons I started to brew my own was just after I returned from my first vacation to the US. It is even better now with Craft Beer stores in any small town that rival anything the pathetic Beer Store sells.