LONGER LINEUPS FOR LIQUOR
Alcohol sales rise during pandemic
With COVID-19 putting a stop to going out on the town, many Windsorites are having happy hour delivered.
Local bar and restaurant owners who saw their business dry up when the pandemic forced them to shut down have pivoted to home delivery in hopes of staying afloat and filling a growing demand for alcohol.
“We’ve sold quite a bit of wine, which I’ve been pleasantly surprised about,” said Sarah Dewar, co-owner of Maiden Lane Wine and Spirits, which started doing home deliveries of wine, beer and food a couple of weeks ago.
“Those were our first orders that came in — ‘I’m glad you’re doing this. I need some good wine. I don’t want to go to the LCBO.’ I guess people are home, they’re not doing anything, they want a little taste of what they’re used to when they go out.”
The LCBO said in an email “we can confirm we have seen an increase in sales across most channels,” but refused to comment further.
The Windsor-essex County Health Unit has expressed concern about the increase in alcohol consumption and is urging moderation.
“COVID-19 has taken centre stage in the world and has become everyone’s focus,” Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Essex County’s medical officer of health, said recently. “While it is important that we continue to fight this virus, we cannot lose sight of everything else. It is hard to maintain calm during this stressful time, but it is essential that we find balance. Alcohol already takes too large of a toll on the health of our community.”
Despite that, people seem to have taken the province’s designation of alcohol sales an essential service to heart.
With painfully long lines wrapped around most LCBO stores, product shortages and online orders sometimes taking weeks to arrive, customers are looking for other ways to buy booze.
Many local hospitality businesses, which have been shut down for a month, are starting to get back in on the action.
“Everyone has kind of been left scrambling finding a way to reach their customers, both old and new,” said Adriano Ciotoli, co-owner of Windsoreats.
His company has added a new service called The Bevy Box, “allowing customers to avoid long lines” with wine and beer packages dropped off at home.
It’s a weekly service offering delivery of mix-and-match bundles of beverages from local breweries, distilleries and wineries. They are also offering “curated” packages, including a book club.
“It’s been going phenomenal,” said Ciotoli. “We already have well over 100 orders. It’s been incredible to see the response from people, which I think shows that people are really starting to appreciate what they had in their own backyard after being held up and isolated in their homes now for about a month. We’ve seen an enormous uptake on what we’ve been offering.”
Chapter Two Brewing Company, with the promise “we will get you your beer no matter what,” starting doing deliveries in late March. The brewery, which still offers takeout service, delivers as far as Amherstburg.
“It is something that we’ve been looking to get into for a while,” said manager Josh Flynn. “This arose and so we had the chance to pivot. It’s going very well. We’re doing a few hundred bottles every week. The community has been really responding well.”
Nearby Walkerville Brewery, which is also still doing walk-in sales, has been doing home delivery through its website for about a month. It will also be doing virtual launches of new beers in its online store.
“We’re just kind of adapting to this new form of getting our product out to customers,” said fronthouse manager Natalie Dolman. “People have been super supportive and doing lots of orders. It hasn’t really slowed down much, so we’re out several days a week doing deliveries and continuing to expand our store. We’re slowly going to start unveiling and updating our store to include more items.”