I too question why, even with a 16% discount, private stores charge more (up to 35% more – Consumers Association of Canada study)than public stores and pay their workers less.

Also, why would we give a $62 million price break to private liquor stores? I guess payback for their donations to the Liberals. Interesting that former Liberal finance minister Gary Collins is with the private liquor groups. I wonder if we will ever hear the whole story about the BC Rail corruption.

The previous comment about beer expertise has prompted me to tell you about one of my visits to my local public government liquor store. I was talking wine with some very knowledgeable staff. I mentioned a friend who is into beer and they recommended I speak to one of their colleagues who is the beer connoisseur. I appreciated that they enjoy their work and each had a different passion. And yes I did talk to the beer expert and he is passionate about beer.

I think he and his colleagues could tell Campbell and company a lot about how to run a store – but given Mr. Campbell’s inclination for privatizaton and arrogance towards workers, I think he is not interested in strengthening public services. I’ve seen too many unnecessary cuts and stripping away – and it started during his first term, during the good times of surpluses and he is justifying more cuts now when we still haven’t recovered.

We definitely need the New Democrats.

However, government liquor stores also leave a lot to be desired. They don’t properly store unfiltered, unpasteurized craft beer; most of their staff lack any in-depth knowledge about different beers; their product selection is much less than it could be (and has been); and they don’t carry all products from all BC craft breweries.

The best beer stores in the city happen to be private stores: Brewery Creek, Viti, and WV Liquor Store. They have the best selection, they store the beer properly, they pay their staff better than minimum wage, their staff is more knowledgeable, they have more convenient hours, and they have mailing lists to let their clients know what new products have come in. For that, I’m willing to pay more.

This is the added value that private stores should be providing but largely aren’t. Those private stores that are little better than a government store or worse, don’t deserve to be subsidized with a higher discount. It is subsidizing mediocrity.

That said, most people probably don’t care about selection and service. They just want to go into a store wherever & whenever it’s convenient to them, buy the chilled mass-market lager they always drink, and quickly be on their way. A lack of interest in exploring different beer styles or food pairing means one doesn’t have any questions to ask of staff.

Rick Green
B.C. Correspondent, Northwest Brewing News
President, CAMRA Vancouver
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