By Desirea Black
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) hopes to modify its retailing style and its public perception when it opens its newest downtown location.
Today it is only a red steel frame, but it won’t be long before the lot next to the Loeb on Rideau Street is transformed into the new face of LCBO retailing.
Local restaurants are also a target of the new 24,000 square ft. store, which includes warehousing space.
However, restaurants in the Centretown area don’t expect that they will use it as their source of supplies, since it is just as easy for them to continue to get their supplies delivered from the Walkley Road depot.
Some restaurants anticipate the opening of the new store and its modernized retail strategy with either expectation or doubt.
John Couse, owner of the Lieutenant’s Pump on Elgin Street, says the new approach is a conflict of interest since the LCBO regulates liquor sales in the province.
Currently, restaurants and other establishments who want to sell alcohol must buy their supplies from the LCBO wholesale.
Couse says he thinks when the LCBO begins an aggressive retailing strategy, including full page ads and air mile rewards, that they are putting themselves in a situation of conflict of interest.
“The analogy is that of GM competing with Ford,” Couse explains, “but Ford is forced to buy all its parts from GM. GM wouldn’t have any interest in seeing Ford do well.”
The new store will include a wine tasting area, a demonstration kitchen, gift shop and Internet access for purchase research.
Customers will also be able to buy music featured in the LCBO magazine.
It’s a new look for the 72-year-old organization that used to reprimand employees who offered to gift wrap a purchase for a customer.
“Our theme is that the LCBO is the source for entertaining ideas and that’s exactly what this store will reflect with its special features,” says LCBO spokesperson Chris Layton.
Couse also comments that, in the past, the LCBO has acted as a protector of the public and that when they start marketing themselves as an entertainer of the public they enter into competition with the restaurants and other businesses they supply.
Scott Johnson, manager of Darcy McGee’s Irish Pub on Sparks Street, disagrees.
Rather than seeing the new retail strategy as a threat, he sees it as a potential way of increasing his business as people become more educated about what they are drinking.
“It will make people realize that it’s not all about getting a rye and Coke and mixing it, but that its actually about getting a scotch and finding out what flavours you like,” explains Johnson.
The store is slated to open to the public in March 2000.