Sale of beer, wine in grocery stores not a radical idea
Anewly announced plan aimed at overhauling B. C.’ s liquor laws has ignited a debate on the sale of beer and wine in supermarkets and convenience stores.
Such a change would mirror current practice in Montreal and long- standing custom in Europe as well as across the U. S.
People in those locations think nothing of grabbing a bottle of Chardonnay as they pick up the ingredients for their dinner. And the world does not come to an end.
For busy British Columbians, the change would add a helping of convenience, and mark only a subtle adjustment from current circumstance whereby private beer and wine outlets often are located alongside stores where grocery items are sold.
Private liquor stores number 670 in B. C., and are far more plentiful than provincial liquor stores, numbering 195. In total, liquor can be purchased at 1,439 outlets in the province. Selling spirits more broadly would not bring about all that much change.
The B. C. government launched its liquor policy review last August, and set up a website for public feedback earlier this month.
Posted responses so far suggest overwhelming support for the idea of allowing beer and wine on to grocery shelves.
Parliamentary Secretary for liquor policy reform John Yap says he’s looking for “balanced, common sense” ideas that would further three provincial goals: improving customer service, growing the economy and ensuring public health and safety.
But reform is “not as straightforward as what it may seem,” cautions Yap. For example, which category of spirits should be marketed more broadly, and exactly where? Should hard liquor be sold at grocery stores? Should wine and beer also be carried at gas station convenience stores?
Yap notes liquor is responsible for 10 per cent of the “total burden of illness in Canada.”
He also points out that about 30 per cent of late- night attendees at B. C. hospital emergency departments are there directly or indirectly because of drink.
Access and availability certainly are connected to consumption. But that should not mean the responsible consumers of alcoholic beverages are inconvenienced as a result of irresponsible liquor use by the few.
And it is worth remembering, the province has several levers at its disposal that it can use to regulate consumption.
First, the legal drinking age in this province is 19 and shopkeepers presumably would continue to be obligated to check identity cards in order to prevent sales to minors.
Second, B. C. has stiff penalties for drunk driving and most surely would agree, they should be kept in place.
Third, this province has some of the highest liquor prices in the country.
Society has come a long way from the Prohibition era of almost a century ago. The public these days increasingly prefers to be free of strictures imposed by Big Brother governments.
No one is suggesting the sale of liquor become a free for all. But simply allowing B. C. residents to buy their booze along with their ground beef and potatoes is hardly a radical notion.