Starting in April 2018, Cobourg Walmart will sell beer and cider. It will be in 6-packs and at the same price as the beer store. Hours are also “standardized” – better than the beer store but the same as other grocery stores selling beer. The addition of a Cobourg location and 86 other new locations will bring the total number of Ontario Groceries selling beer and cider to 370. 70 of these can also sell wine – but not the Walmart in Cobourg. The “standard hours” will be: Monday to Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m., Sunday 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Walmart’s regular hours are 7:00am to 10:00pm, 7 days. Grocers are required to adhere to uniform and minimum pricing for wine, beer and cider.
The winning grocers were selected via a competitive bidding process held by the LCBO in 2017. The rules are that the stores must have designated sales areas and standard hours of sale, abide by limitations on package size and alcohol content, and meet staffing and social responsibility training requirements.
Most of the grocers added to the list are large grocers – like the existing list. The process is managed by the Ministry of Finance and they announced that ultimately, beer and cider will be available in up to 450 grocery stores, including up to 300 that will also sell wine. This is in addition to more than 450 Beer Stores and 660 LCBO stores across Ontario.
Oshawa to Belleville – Grocery Stores selling beer, cider and wine
Town | Beer and Cider | Wine | |
Walmart 73 Strathy Rd. | Cobourg | Yes – New | |
Walmart 470 Second Dug Hill Rd. | Trenton | Yes – New | |
Sobeys 1377 Wilson Rd. N. | Oshawa | Yes | Yes |
Real Canadian Superstore 1385 Harmony Rd. N. | Oshawa | Yes | Yes |
Walmart Supercentre 680 Laval Drive | Oshawa | Yes | Yes |
Walmart Supercentre 1741 Harmony Rd. | Oshawa | Yes | Yes |
Walmart Supercentre 680 Laval Drive. | Oshawa | Yes | |
Walmart Supercentre 1741 Harmony Rd. | Oshawa | Yes | |
Walmart 274 Millennium Parkway | Belleville | Yes | Yes |
Metro 243 King St. E. | Bowmanville | Yes | |
Walmart Supercentre Hwy #2 | Bowmanville | Yes | |
La Mantia’s Country Market 50 William St. S. | Lindsay | Yes | |
Metro 110 North Front St., | Belleville | Yes | |
Sobeys 1200 Lansdowne St W., | Peterborough | Yes | |
Sobeys 501 Towerhill Rd. | Peterborough | Yes | |
Walmart Supercentre 1002 Chemong Rd. | Peterborough | Yes |
This is an improvement but still controlled as if adults are incapable of controlling their consumption of beer and wine (or is there some other obscure reason?). This despite the fact that citizens of Quebec, Alberta, most American locations and most countries in Europe seem to be able to handle the job.
Links
- Ontario groceries stores currently selling beer, wine and cider
- New Grocery Stores selling Beer and Cider in April
I would have much preferred to see Metro stores selling beer/wine instead of Walmart.
The rationale?
This is good news – perhaps Walmart has enough clout to influence pricing at some point in the future. I love how the Province is controlling the number of stores, the pricing and the products being sold as if there is a REAL plan and they know what they are doing. Liberal party is an embarrassment. I’m looking forward to the convenience from time to time but would prefer that wine sales be included also.
The LCBO has been in existence for 91 years, since 1927.
Liberals have only been in power in Ontario for about 27 of these years. So if you want to blame a political party for inaction on this issue the pc party would be more appropriate.
Greg H – there is no way your comment was designed to be taken as a serious reply to my comment … I like the sarcasm though – it brightens my day. Cheers.
Thank you LCBO for taking the huge risk of allowing WalMart to sell beer, but not wine, in Cobourg.
It is prudent to ration sales by only allowing six-packs and tall boys.
I am also truly happy to see that WalMart associates will be trained to be socially responsible.
“Seminars, instructional workbooks and videos help employees identify potential problems and handle them tactfully. They also learn to differentiate characteristics related to health conditions and disabilities from impairment resulting from intoxication.” Food&Drink
I am looking forward to consulting ‘tactful’ check-out staff regularly on these matters.
Well , what can I say, the lieables have decided to bless us with this great gift, but we had better be careful they have spies out watching to make sure we can handle this generous gift to Cobourg, no wine tho :((
This whole scheme is a joke, guess they think everyone will get high enough that we will not notice ( hello maryjane ) must be an election coming up