THUNDER BAY — Convenience stores all over Thunder Bay can now sell beer, cider, wine, and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages.
Over two dozen locations in the city were already licensed by mid-July, but they had to wait until Sept. 5 at 7:00 a.m. to legally sell booze.
Across Ontario, more than 4,000 convenience stores have taken advantage of the opportunity provided by the government's decision earlier this year to make booze more easily accessible.
At Alley's Corner Variety on Franklin Street, owner Heather Ambro-Bergeron said she's managed to work everything out, but the transition has presented some challenges.
"Oh my gosh. It's been rather hectic. There has been a lot of information thrown at us over this summer, and we're just trying to take it day by day."
She said she's not quite ready to start selling alcohol but expects everything to be in place by the weekend.
"We were able to rearrange our stock in the walk-in cooler. We also have a space outside the cold vault that we can store red wine and larger packs of beer or cider, and find a door that we've had dedicated to alcohol."
Ambro-Bergeron said she'd like to bring in a greater variety of locally-made beer in the future, but that will require some creativity in terms of finding space.
She expects customers will appreciate the convenience of being able to walk or take just a short drive to pick up their favourite refreshments.
"From my perspective, it's going to be really nice at the end of the day to just grab a beer, because I want to have that one beer after I get home from work, or if I'm hosting a barbecue and I know one of my relatives really likes red and I don't have it. Instead of having to go all the way to the liquor store, I can just come to my own store and get it."
She said some customers have expressed concern about what booze sales might mean to the safety of patrons and store staff, but she's taking precautions.
"I know a lot of other retailers are having open access on their shelves to customers. That's not an approach that we've very comfortable with at this time. We're going to see how it goes, but I think for now we're going to have a pay-before product, like you would with tobacco sales, and the alcohol will only be accessible to staff at that moment."
With regard to recycling booze containers, Ambro-Bergeron said she doesn't feel she has the space or time to manage that.
"I've talked to a couple of retailers, some small independents who operated as LCBO outlets. They said it was very daunting to get into . . . So I would just continue to encourage people to bring their empties back to The Beer Store."
With files from Justin Hardy/TBT News
