Ontario Allows Wine on Grocery Store Shelves

Grocers will have a chance to bid on six opportunities to apply for a licence to sell B.C. wine, cider and sake off their shelves.

Wine will be sold at 70 grocery locations in Ontario by the fall and as many as 300 such stores on a timeline as yet to be established.

Ed Clark, Premier Kathleen Wynne’s business adviser, said a free-market system would lead to lower revenues for government and higher average prices for consumers. Additionally, 150 in-store wine retailers (like the Wine Rack) will get to use supermarkets’ regular checkout counters.

Thursday’s announcement also contained a handful of changes for the spirits, cider and fruit wine industries, but beyond those new measures, the province seems content to end alcohol liberalization there.

The move will slightly relax the province’s strict wine retail rules, which now restrict sales to the government-owned LCBO and 292 wine retail outlets mostly owned by two large wineries.

Grocery stores hoping to place a bid will have to put down a $25,000 deposit and if their bid is unsuccessful, the money will be refunded. Half of the new licences will stipulate the winning grocery store sell only VQA wines for the first three years before being allowed to bring in other wines. This would allow producers to keep up with increased demand. The Liberal government has made a “fundamental decision” that “hard liquor” will not be sold in grocery stores, Wynne said. Total wine sales in Ontario amount to about $2.2 billion per year.