Changes garner general approval

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This article was published 20/05/2011 (5443 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEGGERS could soon put a bottle of wine in their grocery shopping carts along with a loaf of bread, a bottle of milk or a carton of eggs.

The prospect had patrons of the Liquor Mart on Keewatin Street almost unanimous in singing the praises of the province’s proposed changes to the province’s Liquor Control Act, unveiled Thursday.

One of the changes would allow the sale of wine, spirits and craft beers in some grocery stores.

Nadia Labay said it’s similar to what she experiences when she visits friends in the United States.

“We drink wine, and when we go there, we just go to the grocery store,” Labay said outside a Liquor Mart on Keewatin Street.

“It’s one-stop shopping. It’s one less place you have to run to.”

Labay said she also likes the idea of allowing wineries to offer free samples at their sites.

“That would be neat, because when I was in California, we’ve gone way out of the way to go to a winery,” she said.

Joy Ducharme said “every other place is doing it. I’m glad that we’re getting with the times.”

But Ducharme said she doesn’t know why the province would only put the boutiques in major grocery stores.

“Why wouldn’t it also go into your corner store?”

Brian Coyle, visiting Winnipeg from Poplar Point, said he supports the changes because the grocery-store boutiques would be similar to what’s inside the rural grocery stores he frequents.

“I think it’s progressive,” Coyle said.

“They should have been doing it years ago. I used to go to the grocery stores in Quebec to buy a bottle in 1988 to 1991, so we’re only 20 years behind.”

Darlene Braschuk, territory manager of Alberta-based Big Rock Brewery, said she’s hoping their craft beer would be in the grocery-store boutiques, as they are in Alberta.

Braschuk said it could be one step closer to allowing her brewery to do what it does in Alberta — brew beers for grocery chains.

“We make Co-op beer — it’s their own brand. We make Safeway Select beer,” she said.

“For us, the importance is the convenience. In winter, people don’t want to go outside to another place.”

Orest Horechko, president and CEO of Fort Garry Brewing, said he didn’t know until Thursday that breweries, wineries and distilleries would soon be able to open visitors’ centres, complete with free product tasting.

“We’d be very interested in this,” Horechko said, noting his brewery on Kenaston Boulevard is only a short distance from the soon-to-be-built Ikea store.

“It sounds great. This is out of the blue for us, but we have a meeting with them next week and we’ll be talking to them.”

Ken Hildahl, the MLCC’s chief executive officer, said they want to allow offering free samples and sales of their products on site.

“Every drop of Crown Royal is made in Gimli and that is something unique to Manitoba,” Hildahl said.

But Mo Razik, of Fenton’s Wine Merchants and chairman of the Independent Specialty Wine Stores of Manitoba, said the province should have let them run the grocery boutiques instead of the MLCC.

“The truth is, this takes people several steps behind,” Razik said. “By having the Liquor Marts here, they are weakening the growth of the private sector.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca