Toronto supermarkets face strict quota on beer sales
Beer will start showing up at some Ontario grocery stores in the near future, but it likely won't be in abundance, reports the Toronto Star today.
According to the Star, Queens Park will limit the amount of beer sold in Ontario supermarkets to 46 million six-packs per year. Out of Ontario's 1,500 grocery stores, 450 will be able to carry beer by 2018. This means, as the Star notes, that stores can sell approximately 279 six-packs per day when the program is fully up and running.
While the provincial government previously said beer would land at supermarkets by Christmas, the actual date of arrival is still unclear. It likely won't happen until 2016, though the scale of the role out is a bigger question. Even if stores start carrying beer in 2016, there's little indication of how many that will be.
Currently, Ontario beer drinkers can buy 24-packs only at the Beer Store. Some LCBOs started recently carrying 12-packs as part of a pilot program, which the government will hopefully expand across the province. Dedicated Craft Beer Zones are set to arrive at 25 LCBO locations and the one at Summerhill now has a growler filling station.
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