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Brewers Retail Inc. founded in 1927, is a privately owned chain of retail outlets in Ontario , Canada , that operates as '''The Beer Store'''. Ontario government regulations regarding the sales of alcohol gives the chain a near-monopoly of domestic retail Beer sales in Ontario. These regulations stipulate that Brewers Retail cannot sell " Hard Liquor " (spirits), or consumer goods (like Groceries ). Its only legal competition is found in the beer sections of the Liquor Control Board Of Ontario (LCBO) stores, government-owned outlets which stock beers outside of the Brewers Retail system, and retail outlets at breweries. COMPANY Forty-nine percent of the company is owned by the Labatt arm of InBev of Belgium ; 49 percent is owned by Molson Coors Brewing Company which has headquarters in both Canada and the United States ; and the other two percent is owned by Sapporo Breweries . {Link without Title} Although founded by the Government Of Ontario , it is only linked by a relationship with Alcohol And Gaming Commission Of Ontario (AGCO). As Of November 2006 , the company operates 441 retail stores, {Link without Title} operating as "The Beer Store", which sell beer to the general public. BRI also has the government legislated exclusive right to sell domestic beer to Ontario bars and restaurants, of which more than 17,000 are licensed to sell alcohol. The LCBO sells imported beer to bars and restaurants. Imported beer is available for sale at The Beer Store, but this product is actually imported by the LCBO and then sold to Brewers Retail. HISTORY The company began in 1927, with the end of Prohibition in Ontario. Although prohibition had proven to be a complete farce, the provincial government still needed to placate angry temperance advocates and agreed that beer would be sold through a single network of stores. However, the government did not want to operate this network itself (as was done in some other Canadian Provinces ), and so permitted brewers to organize the Brewers Warehousing Company Ltd., which later became Brewers Retail. BRI established one of the first returnable bottle systems shortly after it was founded. BREWERS RETAIL TODAY Company claims Many stores (currently 129 of the 441 locations) have extended shopping hours. Hours vary in different cities, but many are open past 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, with some stores open until 11 p.m. As Of 2005 , The Beer Store offers 300 brands from 70 brewers in 441 stores province wide. The Beer Store claims to be global leader in the practice of “extended producer responsibility”, apparently meaning that they will take back all the packaging material they sell (including the cardboard, the glass bottles and bottle caps) and either recycle or reuse it. The Beer Store claims to operate an efficient packaging and recovery system with an aim of recovering 100 per cent of beer packaging sold in Ontario. The Beer Store is said to accept cartons, bags, plastic bottles, and every other kind of beer packaging. Environmental leadership is claimed to be a core value of The Beer Store as demonstrated by the company's environmental policies. The Beer Store claims to have diverted approximately 70 billion beer bottles from Ontario landfill sites over 80 years of operation (enough to stretch to the moon and back approximately 25 times). The Beer Store has been presented with the Eco Logo award, which the company says was given for its efficient environmental package management systems. The company claims to demonstrate their commitment to the environment year-round by operating what it claims to be the best packaging recovery system in the world. The company claims a system-wide recovery and re-use rate of 98 per cent for the Industry Standard Bottles , which it claims are reused 15 to 20 times. It supports the Conservation Council of Ontario’s "We Conserve" program. Criticism Most Canadian Provinces have since allowed privately owned stores to compete for sales of beer and wine while retaining tighter controls over the sale of spirits, while Alberta has privatized its entire liquor industry. However, in Ontario, no changes have been made and Brewers Retail continues to sell over 90% of the beer sold in the province. Despite its near-monopoly, it is permitted to charge non-shareholding breweries substantial listing fees for each beer carried in stock. This unsavoury practice has been criticized as restricting competition in the huge Ontario beer market, especially from smaller brewers who often cannot afford the fees. Although the province-owned LCBO also sells beer to the general public, Brewers Retail is the sole distributor to restaurants and bars. The company refuses to grant either Quantity Discount s or Credit to any customer, meaning that even the most solvent establishments in Ontario must pay Cash On Delivery for their beer. This is a constant source of friction between Brewers Retail and the Hospitality Industry . Many stores (currently 129 of the 441 locations) have extended shopping hours. Hours vary in different cities, but many are open past 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, with some stores open until 11p.m. Despite their unpopularity, the BRI-aligned AGCO conducts a heavy-handed enforcement of the laws proscribing off-sales by sending Undercover agents to perform random Spot-check s. Observers have frequently noted that AGCO agents often seem more concerned with off-site consumption than they are with enforcing the legal Drinking Age . Bars can be heavily fined (and even lose their liquor licences) if they fail to take stringent steps to ensure that the beer and liquor they sell is consumed on-site. Representatives for Brewers Retail claim that not offering either credit or quantity discounts means that everyone is treated the same way and also ensures that Brewers Retail and The Beer Store do not have to pass on costs associated with Bad Debt s to consumers. They also offer free delivery of orders province-wide, but only if the licensee orders a very large amount by small business standards, otherwise there is a $25 delivery fee. The company claims that unlike the LCBO, it does not outright refuse shelf space to any eligible product approved for sale in Ontario. The company claims that the Brewers Retail monopoly generates significant where about 20,000 stores sell beer compared to 1,250 in Ontario - about 25 times the number of stores per capita) would cause increased distribution costs of about $4/case that in other provinces have been either passed on to consumers or absorbed by the government in the form of a tax cut. However, these claims are dubious at best and have been vehemently refuted by officials in both Quebec and Alberta. As of June 2007 the retail price for a case of 24 of some brands of beer sold in Gatineau, Quebec has been proven to be more than $ 10 cheaper than the price for 24 of the same brand in nearby Ottawa , despite the fact that the differences in taxes are less than half that amount for that volume of ''any'' particular brand. {Link without Title} Brewers Retail further claims that selection is greatly reduced in the more liberalized jurisdictions, especially outside the major cities. They reason that a small, independent store will only have space and Cash Flow to stock a few major brands as opposed to the hundreds on the shelves of The Beer Stores. These claims have developed a hollow ring with the recent changeover of many Beer Store outlets from the Self-Serve format to the “Ice Cold Express” format. Critics of this change claim that its only logical purpose is to discourage customers from buying brands other than those of the Brewers Retail shareholders. One survey found that 78% of The Beer Store’s customers are opposed to the format change. The price difference of approximately 40 cents per serving between stores in Eastern Ontario and Southwestern Quebec is sufficient enough to make illegal Smuggling (or " Bootlegging ") of beer across Ontario's unpatrolled eastern border for re-sale on the Black Market a highly profitable enterprise, especially for anyone who can find both a vendor in Quebec that will negotiate discounts (which at least some will do in exchange for the convenience of selling beer by the Pallet ) and can also find (or simply ''be'') one or more high-volume customers in Ontario (such as unscrupulous Bar owners who might simply looking for a feasible way to fight what they see as an unjustified monopoly). BRI has lobbied the Government Of Ontario to name interprovincial bootlegging of beer as an irritant in intergovernmental relations with Quebec . However, BRI and the Unions representing employees of both the Beer Store and the LCBO have been criticized for falsely and/or misleadingly claiming that it is against the law for consumers to bring alcoholic beverages from Quebec or (less commonly) from Manitoba under any and all circumstances. {Link without Title} In fact, it is pefectly legal for consumers to import alcoholic beverages from other provinces into Ontario provided it is not intended for re-sale. Supporters of more open competition counter that average Canadians are not normally connoisseurs of obscure beers and usually prefer the increased convenience that limited or full privatization has been responsible for in other provinces. They also contend that as the purchaser of all imported beer in Ontario, the LCBO has the facilities, contacts and resources to satisfy the needs of those consumers who want the less common brands (most of which are imported and thus handled by the LCBO in any event). Brewers Retail has become politically controversial especially following the Molson - Coors Merger , which placed the majority of its ownership in the hands of foreigners. In 2005, Ontario's alcohol laws were reviewed and proposals to allow the sale of beer in grocery and convenience stores were put forth. However, the Liberal government rejected the proposals and refused to change the laws. The government has received considerable criticism for perpetuating a virtual monopoly on Ontario beer distribution by a foreign-owned Cartel . Brewers Retail also received negative publicity in 2002 when it used monopolistic tactics to force the Brick Brewing Company of Waterloo to stop offering beer in " Stubbies " by withholding supplies of industry standard " Long-necked " bottles. In response to the growing unpopularity of the Brewers Retail monopoly, both main opposition parties in Ontario now oppose the status quo with regards to Brewers Retail, although they propose radically different alternatives:
With Sapporo Breweries purchasing Sleeman Breweries Ltd. for approximately $400 million, no portion of Brewers Retail is now held by any majority Canadian-owned entity, which has increased pressure on the government to force an end to the Brewers Retail near-monopoly, or at least to return it to Canadian ownership. {Link without Title} Map Publisher In the 1980's Brewers Retail published a directory of its retail locations in a booklet with a small map to each location. It had a picture of an animal, (a penguin, for example) on the covers. The booklet when closed was approximately 4 inches by 3 inches. The 1972 version issued by Brewers Retail had cartography by Rand McNally . {Link without Title} TRIVIA The Beer Store has been featured in a few aspects of pop culture. In the film '' Strange Brew '' the McKenzie Brothers visit The Beer Store demanding a refund after they attempt to return a bottle of beer that contained a mouse (the mouse was however placed in the bottle by the brothers). The Beer Store was also showcased in episodes of '' Late Night With Conan O'Brien '' during O'Brien's week-long tenure in Toronto during the week of February 10 , 2004 . RELATED COMPANIES Brewers' Distributor Ltd. operates in Western Canada and is owned by InBev and Molson-Coors (Sleeman has its own distribution operation in the West). Unlike BRI, BDL only warehouses and distributes beer and is not in the retail business. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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