THUNDER BAY -- Bigger is better when it comes to booze.
At least that’s the opinion of shoppers who flocked on Tuesday morning to the city’s newest LCBO outlet, a 14,000 square foot retail outlet on West Arthur Street celebrating its grand opening.
“I think it’s great. There’s a great selection of everything,” said Maryann Ginty as she browsed through the aisles on opening day.
“And my granddaughter had to show ID on the way in.”
Ginty added she likes the new investment in the city and welcomed the store with open arms.
“It’s great, it’s wonderful. And there is a great selection of beer in the cooler. It’s nice that you can see it all and walk around and try it all,” she said.
In fact the beer cooler is about half the size of the former store itself, which was situated a little further east on Arthur Street.
Other amenities include an increased vintage wine section and a larger choice of Ontario-made products.
LCBO regional director for Northern Ontario Rick Redwood said he was excited to finally open the doors of the store to the public.
“It’s been a long time in the planning stage and we’re finally here today. It’s a great store to service the community. It’s extremely modern and has a lot of modern conveniences for the customer,” Redwood said.
The new location is about twice the size as the store it replaced.
“We have a modern, brand new vintage area that has up to 350 brands here. We’ve got over 400 brands of great Ontario brands. Really what we’ve done is brought modern retailing to Thunder Bay,” Redwood said.
“The other store was much smaller. This is more apt to look around, to browse and explore. It’s a big part of it.”
