The LCBO - Part 4

In the first three parts, I covered the three objectives of the LCBO and how these could still be achieved under a privatized system. This part was supposed to discuss what I felt is wrong with the LCBO, but I don't want to just be negative so I've decided to discuss the good points of the LCBO as well.

The last time the topic privatization came up under the Harris government, the LCBO went through a number of changes. They modernized their signs and stores from the old plain blue and white to their current green and white/beige look. Some of the stores before the makeover looked dirty and old. The current LCBO's are all very clean and modern looking. They opened on Sundays and have longer hours of operation; they started accepting Debit and Credit cards. They now offer Air Miles on purchases. They have a website and web-based searchable inventory system. Their product inventory has gotten better over the years.

In short there have been a lot of improvements to the LCBO over the last 10-15 years. For that I will give them credit.

This still doesn't change the fact that they have a monopoly on imported liquor and wine in the province Ontario. It doesn't change the fact that their unionized workforce lags behind in service levels vs. private sector retail. It doesn't change the fact that Ontario consumers are paying more for wine than they should and while their selection has gotten better, it is still far too limited.

Here is a few of the issues I have with the LCBO...

1. There has been an alarming trend for LCBO stores to increase the size of their beer selections to the detriment of their wine floor space. (There are Brewers Retails/Beers Stores where you can buy beer, but there is only one place you can buy imported wine).

2. There web based inventory system is good but it has a few short comings - inventory levels aren't 100% accurate, they are slow to purge out inventory items which they have no stock (and aren't getting any more) from the system, the search isn't as flexible on search criteria as it could be, you can't right click on a link in search and open it in a new window (this would be very useful to compare products).

3. There should be a way to order products that are listed online and have them shipped to your nearest LCBO.

4. Customer service... here is two examples of problems with LCBO customer service - I found a wine that I wanted located at Toronto store as none of the local stores had stock. I went to my local LCBO after work, and asked them to transfer 12 bottles from the Toronto store. The lady told me that the product manager had gone home for the day and to come back tomorrow. I had the store number, the product, and all the details they needed, I would have quite happily pre-paid for the wine, but yet she couldn't take this information and give it to the product manager when he was in next. Instead, I had to make a trip up on my lunch hour to do this.

The next example is my favorite... there was a brand of wine that I read nice things about their Merlot. I had tried this brand's Chardonnay and really want to try the Merlot. I did a search and found that the LCBO doesn't carry the Merlot for this brand. I decided to go to my local LCBO, to see if they could help me. In the end the person helping me, gave me the name and number of the agent who imports the wines for this brand and then sells it to the LCBO. Two problems with this - Wine agents usually only order by the case, and I just wanted to try a bottle and why the hell should I do the leg work and calling around... I’m not in the business of selling wine - they are.

Now both of these are small points but neither of them would have happened in a regular retail environment.

There a store in Kenmore NY called the Prime Wines and is part of the Premier Group. If you live in Southern Ontario and like wines make the trip. The Prime Wines store is huge; this store is like a Home Depot of wines... HUGE! The customer service is fantastic and the selection is mind-blowing. If you think the LCBO is adequately serving Ontario, one trip to Prime Wines and you'll realize how under served we are.

5. Limited selection, I have done searches on the wines on the Wine Spectator and found a list of 20 or so and found that the LCBO doesn't carry a single one of them. Here would be a classic example – in a search for South African Chenin Blanc, 5000 cases made, rated 85 or better. This will produce a list of probably 20 or more, and yet the LCBO didn't have a single one. If stores were privately owned, you could establish a relationship with the store and I sure they be able to get you in one of the twenty wines... There was a wine tasting event in Calgary (Alberta, Canada) where they judged 1000 wines under $25 and then made a list of the top 3 of each wine by grape. I did a search via the LCBO and half didn't even come up, and out of the remaining half, half of those that came up had no stock. This wine tasting was done in Calgary not California, Alberta is a smaller province than Ontario and yet we only are able to get a 1/4 of the wines on the list? Alberta has privatized liquor stores...

6. The Ontario Government has recently changed the rules and added a 20 cent deposit on wine bottles. The idea was to cut down on waste and keep wine bottles out of landfills and recycle them instead. Two problems with this - most cities in Ontario have a "Blue Box" recycling program. I know I haven't tossed a bottle in the garbage since the Blue Box program went in, and I image most Ontarians are vigilant in their recycling efforts as well so I question how many bottle were ending up in landfills. The second and biggest problem with this deposit idea - YOU CAN'T RETURN THE BOTTLE TO THE LCBO... you have to take it the Beer Store... so I have to waste more gas driving (really thinking of the environment with this plan!) to the Beer store to return my empty wine bottles.

What pisses me off the most about this, is this deposit idea was taken out of a report that Ontario's Liberal Government had commissioned to look at liquor sales and how well served the people of Ontario are by the current system. The report was like 100 pages, and the majority of the report recommended privatizing the LCBO and the deposit thing was like half a page, almost like a footnote... so of course they choose to do the deposit idea and implement it half-assed and ignore the rest of the report.... sigh.

These points seem like small issues, but as the LCBO has a monopoly on imported wines, there isn't any other option but to go New York State to buy wine to get around these issues.

The people of Ontario should have more options and this monopoly hurts Ontario consumers. We deserve better than this and it is time for a change...