The loosening of the laws around liquor sales in Prince George in recent years is great but there's still more work to be done.
Private liquor outlets can now sell more than beer and wine. Restaurants can now sell an array of alcoholic drinks. Diners are even allowed to bring their own wine to some restaurants, as long as they pay a corking fee for the privilege.
Fans attending Prince George Cougars and Prince George Spruce Kings games can now enjoy a beer or two in the stands, rather than being ostracized to a room where they have to watch the game on TV or sitting in an exclusive luxury box.
As of last week, shoppers at the Spruceland Save-On Foods store can buy B.C. wines with their groceries. It's great to encourage sales of B.C. products and it's an enlightening walk through those aisles to appreciate the size and the quality of the homegrown wine industry. For those wondering why Kelowna has enjoyed such explosive growth in the past 25 years, wine explains a lot of it.
Yet Okanagan and B.C. wines are not some hothouse industry that needs protecting or special treatment. They stand on their own on the national and international stage for quality and price. With that in mind, the next steps are obvious. All grocery stores should be allowed to sell all wines, both domestic and imported.
Then they should be allowed to sell beer and coolers before finally opening the door all the way to liquor sales.
For those worried that this might be too radical a step, to add milk and whisky to the same grocery cart, the Alberta Costco stores have a separate liquor outlet attached to the main store with a separate till. Inside, there is brand-name liquor as well as Kirkland, Costco's private label brand, even for vodka and whisky. There's no reason why the Save-On group couldn't and shouldn't be able to start producing and selling its own Western Family wine now and then other alcoholic products as the laws continue to be relaxed.
The remaining rules are silly.
Teenaged Spruceland Save-On clerks are allowed to sell lottery tickets and cigarettes - products they are not allowed to purchase legally - but those same clerks need to call over a manager to close the sale on buying a bottle of wine. The surveillance and oversight already in place to prevent problems with teenagers selling smokes and Lotto 6/49 tickets can easily be used to avoid issues with wine sales or any kind of liquor sales for that matter.
Government liquor stores could still fill a role in a B.C. where full liquor sales are provided in grocery stores. The government outlets could specialize in rare and premium products, sold by staff experts to an exclusive clientele that can taste the difference between a Highland and an Islay single malt Scotch. Government outlets could also retain the exclusive right to grant special event liquor licences, as well as the sales for those events.
The fretting from years gone by that allowing more venues to sell alcohol increases booze sales and encourages overconsumption simply isn't true. Allowing gas stations to sell milk hasn't increased milk sales, for example. In fact, allowing greater access to a product has actually been shown to decrease sales and consumption. When a sought-after item is only available in one location, buyers will stock up on that item, buying more than usual because they don't know when they'll be back again and if that item will still be available.
Once at home, they'll consume more than they normally would because there's plenty of it close at hand.
When a product is for sale everywhere at any time for roughly the same price, people only buy what they need in the short term, rather than trying to anticipate their long-term desires.
That's why smokers rarely buy cigarettes by the carton any more and smokers will nurse the pack they have, because there isn't half a carton waiting to be smoked in the cupboard and it takes a little bit of effort to get to the corner store for a fresh pack.
The Spruceland Save-On Foods store holds a monopoly at the moment on grocery store wine sales in Prince George but hopefully that monopoly doesn't last for long and those sales don't end with just wine.
The opportunity to sell alcoholic products of any kind should be available to all food and wine retailers and any member of their staff.
That's just good business.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout
