Federal court upholds Indiana’s limits on cold beer sales

“Today the wait is over”.

The government confirmed today that Pino’s Get Fresh is one of 58 Ontario grocery stores now approved to sell six-packs of beer.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne announced beer is now on sale at 58 grocery stores across the province as of Tuesday, with hundreds more stores set to carry beer in the coming years.

Beer sales in grocery stores will eventually be rolled out to 450 eligible stores across Ontario. They won’t be able to sell beer with an alcohol content above 7.1 per cent. They won’t be able to keep longer hours for selling beer than the other retailers: the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (run by the government) and The Beer Store (run by brewers).

Kitchener’s Real Superstore is the other location authorized to sell beer in the region.

“This is a historic first step for our company and for the Ontario government, giving customers the greater convenience of shopping for groceries and beer in one stop”, said Grant Froese, Chief Operating Officer of Loblaw Companies Ltd.in a news release.

“Grocery chains, that sell liquor, are part of our association”, explains Martinez.

While this change certainly isn’t a free-for-all and the Beer Store appears to be maintaining its monopoly, the convenience and common sense of the long-awaited change is more than welcome. Along with raising concerns about health and safety issues, Keith Osborne, Unifor’s Retail and Wholesale Industry Director said, “With the introduction of beer products and added responsibilities, including SmartServe Certification, alcohol handling, and checking ID, the union expects part-time jobs to be converted into full-time, and that fair compensation be awarded”.

Proximity to existing Beer Stores and LCBO locations doesn’t seem to be a factor in determining which large supermarkets get to sell beer.

The association argued that grocery and convenience stores already sell beer, just not cold beer.

“We’re required to be 20 per cent craft beer”.

“We are pleased that the court has recognized that Indiana’s package stores must operate under restrictive guidelines and legislatively mandated business models”, Tamm said.

The province is still examining ways to expand wine sales to more private stores, Wynne said. Marie and J-&-B La Mantia in Lindsay.

Wynne again rejected the idea of selling beer in corner stores – something first promised by the Liberal government of David Peterson 30 years ago – warning “the price of beer would go up if you put it in convenience stores”.

Not all of them were immediately ready to start selling beer. “It is going to have to be controlled in some way, and I’ll await the federal government’s direction on that”.