As a general rule, I tend to prefer public ownership of essential services – utilities including power, natural gas and telephones; grain marketing (especially as opposed to ownership by Middle Eastern corporations) and, of course, liquor. 😉
Under the Brad Wall government, Saskatchewan has opened a couple private liquor stores recently including one in a former steak house very close to where we live.
It’s a beautiful store – well-lit, well-stocked with a wide variety of liquors (including one of my favourite beers from our time in Calgary I could never get in Regina previously), a huge walk-in beer cooler, a nice web site and weekly e-mail flyer plus some great sale prices (although regular prices appear to not be as promising – one 66oz bottle of hard liquor that Shea and I pay ~$68 for in a traditional LB was priced at $75 in the new Sobey’s Liquor Store.)
With that said, I’ve been to this store a couple times (mostly because I’m really enjoying their selection of craft beers which is both wider than the LBs in Regina and available already chilled, unlike most beers sold in Regina LBs.)
(And on that note – my biggest problem with this privatization is that there’s no good reason that the Sask Liquor & Gaming Commission couldn’t have re-designed their stores to be more modern, inviting and customer-friendly many years ago. Even when the NDP is protesting this new privatization, I can’t help but think “But why didn’t you push for modernization of the stores when you were in power? Maybe people wouldn’t be so eager to spend $150,000+ on opening day in a private liquor store – as was rumoured to be the case for the Regina store – and would’ve been a lot more supportive of the stores we already have!)
Anyhow, as I said, I suspect I’ll likely end up still buying most of my booze at the regular LB but most of my craft brews and anything with a good sale price at the new store.
But I’ll definitely have to watch those “Sale” tags… 😉
Comments 2
Why do you consider supplying liquor to be an essential service of government?
I meant the reference to liquor being “essential” as sort of tongue-in-cheek (hence the smiley face).
But I do think that having a public liquor service has many benefits over private:
* ensures profits go back into public services for all citizens of the province rather than off to some corporate headquarters in another province or country
* public liquor stores provide better paying jobs
* publicly owned stores have been shown to help control issues with addictions/access by minors better than private vendors
* better overall prices (many people dispute this but they tend to fall for the same thing I see at the Regina Sobey’s location – fixating on sale prices but not taking overall prices into account)
* ensures more consistent service across the entire province (eg. less likely that a private operator might take on liquor license in a small town or remote location)
Those are a few reasons I’m an overall fan of public liquor sales rather than private. But as I said in the post, it’s not perfect and there’s also ways that private liquor vendors seem to trump public – layout, selection, hours, sale prices, convenience (when I lived in Calgary, I had as many liquor stores within walking distance of my house as Regina has public LBs in total. Of course, proliferation of liquor outlets is also seen as a negative by many people.)