Grocery shopping can be a struggle at the best of times and if you’re planning an event that involves a tipple or two, things can quickly become a logistical nightmare. Once you’ve whizzed around the food aisles and paid at the check-out, the Smartphone comes out, and on goes the GPS to find the closest LCBO or Beer Store to head to, laden with bags.
But now our Christmases have all come at once, as the Ontario government has just announced that up to 60 grocery stores will be able to sell beer by December and it hopes to increase that number to 450 stores within three years. Premier, Katherine Wynne, said: “Beer in grocery stores could be seen as a holiday present that many people in Ontario have been waiting for, for a long time.”
Six-packs will be sold in both small and large grocery stores throughout the province of Ontario, but will not be available in convenience stores. The first batch of licences will be limited to 25 grocery stores in the GTA, 16 in western Ontario and six in the north, divided between small, medium and larger operators.
Grocery stores carrying beer will be required to reserve 20% of shelf space for products from Ontario’s small and craft brewers, helping to support local businesses in the process. And best of all, the price of beer will be the same price as anywhere else that it is sold.
The Premier added: “It’s a good day for our economy and for job creation. It is also a good day for the people who like their beer cold because it will be easier to buy it.”
An ethical, convenient and reasonably priced way to pick up some chilled beers? We’re sold!